Okay…it has been a while since I posted one of these, but I figured I’d drop a couple things I think are worthy of reading.

1.  Optimal Rest Intervals for Strength and Hypertrophy

 So you’ve probably been told that long rest intervals during training are important for strength and shorter rest intervals are for hypertrophy.  Well, I just found this site this week and Bryan Chung (who writes the blog) takes a solid look at a study that is examining these very things.  He’s not a coach or trainer, but he is a medical science researcher and sits on the board for the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine so he knows his stuff.  Check out the excellent research review HERE.

2.  Movement

As my readers probably know, I can be a little bit of a doubting Thomas when it comes to training and nutrition related information.  At the same time, I can appreciate when someone has contribued a lot of great stuff to this industry and I’m interested to see what Gray Cook will present in his new book Movement.  Recently Laree Draper posted the following three posts by Gray Cook on her blog and I think they made for some great reading.  Check out parts 1, 2, and 3.

3.  Webinar Notice

My friend (and PhD Candidate) Mike T Nelson has just posted a sale on three webinars this week and time is ticking as this is a limited time offer.  Although I have yet to review them, I’m excited to hear what Mike is going to say so I thought I’d share this with my readers as well.  Apparently there is a sport supplement review, a discussion on metabolic flexibility, and another on the neurology of movement.  If you’re interested you can check out his site HERE.   (Note this is not an affiliate link)

That’s it for me.  What are you reading?

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Since today is July 2nd I want to wish a belated Happy Canada Day to my Canadian readers as well as a Happy 4th of July weekend to my American friends.  Since the holiday is upon us I thought I’d just share a couple quick things from this week.

1.  About a week ago Mike Reinold wrote an interesting post about using the cobra yoga pose to reverse the effects of common postural issues.

He even created this little chart to demonstrate the application and usefulness.

While the majority of the comments revolved around the effects of this pose on the lower back (which may be forced into hyperextension if the hip flexors are excessively tight), I was also thinking about the ankles.  Despite the fact that our ankles tend to be dorsiflexed to some degree while seated, I would argue that tight/short muscles on the front side of the lower limb aren’t really that common compared to the calves.  Since most people tend to sleep with their feet slightly plantar flexed and often our feet are pointed when sitting in other positions, perhaps extending the ankles to relieve the effects of posture at the ankle joint isn’t warranted.

2.  My friend Aaron Schwenzfeier posted the following video on his blog this week and I couldn’t help but hope that my daugther will be more inspired by women like Emily Azevedo (bobsledding athlete) than some of the anorexic media driven nonsense that exists today.  Only once strong, fit, and confident women become the norm in the media will young girls be able to grow up without the expectation to be unhealthy and wafer thin.

3.  And finally, if the above video didn’t leave you impressed, please view the following video posted by my friend Sam Leahey.  This is the newest and best way to develop your body into a fat burning machine.  Enjoy!

Earlier this week I posted a link to some excellent videos by Joe Sansalone in Part 1 of this series.  In Part 2 I posted a discussion I had with Joe himself covering some of the questions that these videos generated for me.  Today, my hope is to wrap up with some final thoughts on these videos and how I intend to incorporate this information into my programming.

Perhaps the single most important thing I took from this series is that in our attempt to be efficient and do the whole YTWL series, we glaze over the fact that most people hardly have the required motor control to do any one of these movements on their own.  In doing so, we reinforce the poor motor patterns and let the scapula migrate upwards during the prone Y due to the upper traps instead of maintaining focus on scapular depression and upward rotation created by the lower traps.  Moreover, we make things worse by sometimes adding weight as soon as a person can hit the prescribed number of reps.

Being a former biomechanics geek, I feel that Joe has a good point about electrode placement affecting readings of muscle activation in any movement.  I also agree that individual performance of any movement will result in some variation in which muscles are recruited.  However, EMG can be a tremendously useful tool and discounting muscle activation studies based on these points might be a little neglectful.  After all, EMG is a huge component of Dr. Stuart McGill’s spine model and few people question this element of his research.  Granted, if you’ve seen the mathematics involved in this model you’d have to be Einstein just to make your argument anyway.

I still believe that performing a wall slide facing the wall will activate the serratus to a greater degree than the lower traps based on EMG and the angle of pull of both muscles.  Raising the arms from the wall at the top of the movement would certainly involve the lower traps if performed properly.   To me, this might be a great way to integrate both movements together to promote upward scapular rotation (a function of both muscles) in a very early progression.

So how would I program the prone Y?  Given what I’ve learned from Joe, I think that I’ll likely begin by performing the Y alone or in a pairing it with another movement promoting upward scapular rotation such as scap push ups or something similar.  Otherwise, I might perform it as part of an overall warm up circuit involving various other activation exercises and mobility drills.  Although I do tend to do some mobility/activation work between sets of exercises, I think that I’ll refrain from this with the prone Y (at least in the beginning) since people might be inclined to just hammer their way through it when their adrenaline is pumping instead of paying attention to the motor control element.  I’d also keep the reps low (between 5-8) to emphasize the importance of taking it slow and getting the movement right.

As far as progressions go, I figure that I’ll probably work from the Y through the rest of the YTWL (actually Nick Tuminello’s LYTP) series one by one before adding range of motion.  Only once this has been achieved would I consider stringing the movements together for strength endurance and finally adding weights.  Of course, some will move quickly through this progression and others will be slower, but that’s what I’m thinking right now.

What are your thoughts?  Would you do it differently?  If so, why?

If I haven’t already said it enough, StrengthCoach.com is possibly the best discussion forum on the internet for fitness related information.  If you’re not a member you’re missing out.  Just sayin’.

In any case, a few weeks back there was a discussion on the forum about shoulder packing that resulted in one of the most interesting discussions I’ve seen in a long time.  My good friend Bret Contreras has summarized the discussion HERE.

As great as the discussion was, the best part for me was the videos produced by forum member Joe Sansalone.  Take a few minutes and check them out.  Next time I’ll reveal some of my own thoughts as well as a discussion I had with Joe himself.

Feel free to share your thoughts below!

In Part I of this series I dissected a pig spine to demonstrate the risks of rotational movements like Russian Twists.  In Part II I talked more about crunches and why I think they’re a terrible exercise.

In light of all the controversy lately over Mike Boyle’s no squatting comment I thought it would be a shame if I didn’t include something on that subject as well.  Please watch and enjoy.

I should note that some people have commented previously that pigs do not stand upright so this doesn’t necessarily apply.  Unfortunately, when I asked my friends to use their spines them seemed unusually resistant to the idea.  The good news is that pig spines are a pretty decent model for human spines which is why many spine researchers actually use them in their research.

 As usual, please share your thoughts, comments, and questions below.