A couple weeks ago I posted a link to a survey about the content you’d most like to see on the site and I sincerely want to thank all of those who filled it out.  The information was most helpful and I’ll continue to work hard to provide you with stuff you want to see/read.  Of course, you should always feel free to let me know if there is something I might be able to comment on that you’re interested in and I’ll do my best to cover it.

Below are the survey results with thoughts and comments:

What type of blog content would you like me to produce? (Click all that apply)

71.7% – Research Review
71.7% – Corrective Exercise
68.3% – Strength 
55.0% – Assessment
51.7% – Athletic Peformance 
48.3% – Fat Loss
38.3% – Explanations of how studies are actually done
38.3% – Product Reviews 
31.7% – Video Blogs  
30.0% – Hypertrophy 
28.3% – Angry Rants 
26.7% – Obesity 
15.0% – Audio Interviews (Podcasts)

So it seems we have a couple clear winners.  Research reviews and corrective exercise seem to be what the vast majority of people are interested in while strength, assessments, and athletic performance weren’t that far behind.  I was actually surprised to see fat loss and hypertrophy so far down on the list.

 
If you could only pick one of the above, which would you MOST like me to do? (one answer)

16.9% – Corrective Exercise 
15.3% – Athletic Peformance 
13.6% – Fat Loss 
11.9% – Assessment 
10.2% – Strength 
8.5% – Research Review
5.1% – Explanations of how studies are actually done
5.1% – Audio Interviews (Podcasts)
5.1% – Video Blogs
3.4% – Hypertrophy
3.4% – Obesity
1.7% – Product Reviews

Interestingly, these answers told a different story.  While corrective exercise remained high on the list, research reviews fell several spots.  Fat loss also seems higher in this group which is more in line with what I had expected.

3. I’m considering producing a monthly research review dedicated specifically to hypertrophy, fat loss, strength, rehab/prehab, and performance. Would you be interested in such a review if it cost $9.99 per month?

Yes – 25.9%
No – 74.1%

As far as percentages go, the vast majority apparently aren’t that interested in the monthly research review.  However, that still leaves a heck of a lot of people in that 26% that are interested so I’ll be giving this more thought. 

4.  If there is anything I’ve neglected, please let me know here what you’d like to see on my site.

This was my favorite part of the whole survey and I really loved learning more about many of you in this section.  I also appreciated that positive feedback from many others.  For the purposes of this post I’ve left in only those posts that are relevent to blog content.

- I think you need a better looking website

This is possibly true.  I honestly haven’t made great attempts in this regard as I’ve been focused primarily on content.  I’m a minimalist at heart and I always try to get by without getting to flashy or fancy.  For now I don’t see any major moves to update the site, but I’ll definitely take this into consideration as I know appearance does influence how long people stick around when they arrive on a page.

- A general review of what are the best foods to accelerate fat loss and build muscle for ALL ages, including senior bodies.

Generally speaking, I’m not sure that there really are any magical foods that will make fat loss go any faster.  But there are certainly some fundamental principles to ensure that fat loss goes smoothly.  Perhaps I can blog about this in the near future.

- You are an honest guy, I like that.   Sell stuff that you recommend.

I ONLY sell stuff I recommend.  Anything less is sickening to me.  If you’d like more product recomendations I can certainly do that.  Mind you, product reviews didn’t fair very well in the survey.

- I think case studies are cool because it lets us get in your head and see how you take all the info and put it into play.

I think this is a great idea!  I’ve actually done this previously where I documented the whole process I went through with a specific client over the course of a year.  If this is of interest I can certainly do this.
 

- Assesment video blogs, specifically table assesments! If you do not have 5 of those produced soon I will never ever talk to you again!  Just kidding.

Truthfully, I don’t really do table assessments in the strictest sense.  I like my assessments to be portable so I can do them anywhere without any specific equipment.  However, I can do some assessment videos for those who care to see some of the process.

- Since I am 52, I would like to see info on what guys my age can do since we are no longer 25. America is greying and I still want to be active and fit.

This is the coolest thing about this survey.  Had I not done it I never would have known the age range of this audience.  I’ll definitely cover this in the future.

- Applications to steroid-free strength and CNS function.

People get strong without steroids?  Just kidding.  But it would be helpful to know which type of strength we’re talking about here.  Powerlifting, strongman, relative strength?  The more info I have, the more directed the blog post can be.

WHERE AM I GOING FROM HERE?

Ultimately, I’m going to try to cover more of the topics that most please the masses as well as the topics mentioned in the comments section.  I’ll still post other stuff as I see fit because it is my blog and I can pretty much do whatever I want.  I forsee doing some research reviews in the near future as there are a couple topics I really need to clear up.

 Beyond that, I encourage you to remain vocal in the comments section as this stuff gives me the fuel for future posts and lets me be more connected with my readership.  Thank you all again for reading my stuff.  Every day it still amazes me that people want to hear what I have to say.

Have an excellent week!

A couple days ago I posted some great videos by Joe Sansalone on how to properly perform the prone Y exercise.  If you missed them you should definitely check them out HERE.  Recently I had a brief discussion with Joe via email and asked him if I could share it here because I think the information was incredible.

ME:  After watching your videos on StrengthCoach.com it got me rethinking the whole notion of doing the old YTWL combo (although I currently use Nick Tuminello’s ordering of the exercises found HERE).

Given most people’s inability to properly do the Y pattern, I was thinking that doing the whole thing as a combo might not be the best idea until they can program each exercise properly by themselves. Would you generally agree with this? Moreover, would you ever program them all together?

Joe:  I agree that doing the whole series may not be the best idea, especially with beginners or people with major scapulo-thoracic issues. I often and most of the time program them separately and in various places in the program depending on several factors.

I agree that until a person has mastery of each movement and some base level of strength to perform each one correctly into some level of fatigue, that it is counterproductive to do them as a series. Often it seems we do exercises just to be able to say we did todays program instead of seeing if the client is actually getting the intended benefit of the program. I think this can easily happen with the YTWL as a series. We simply perform them because we know it has benefit and because it is on the paper.

I do sometimes perform them together as a means for developing scapulo-thoracic and shoulder stabilization endurance. Often times in movements the scap muscles will act as stabilizers as much as prime movers and certainly the rotator cuff is being asked to control and contribute to the humeral part of the YTWL series and because of these facts I think, if mastery and proper motor programming is present within each movement prior, than the whole series done together and properly progressed to external load can be good to develop strength-endurance in the shoulder girdle.

I do think that it is more likely to need to separate the movements then link them together for the points you mentioned.

Me:  I recently read a study that demonstrated that a wallslide performed facing a wall primarily activates the serratus anterior and not the lower traps. Do you think this has any implication for why doing a Y against a wall helps as a progression to the Y on the floor since they both upwardly rotate the scapula?

Joe:  I am not a big fan of studies that say this exercise activated that because it seems to me what gets activated greatly depends on where the electrodes were placed and even more on the individual muscle recruitment patterns and execution/proficiency of the person being tested based on their functional capacity, mechanics, restrictions and dysfunctions.

If you take a person who sucks at using their glutes to extend their hip in a bridge due to inhibition because of a tight anterior hip capsule, they will be forced to reduce the neural drive to their glute and increase greatly the neural drive to their hamstrings and lumbar extensors. This would make a glute bridge appear like it activated more hamstring and low back than glute. if in three weeks they were taught to do it right and went back and got tested again the results would show the opposite. This is my problem with studies on exercises and muscle activation. Often times the way the exercise is being executed isn’t taken into account. Look at the plank. People who do it poorly feel the low back due to an inability to control spinal extension and excessive anterior pelvic tilt and those who do it right feel the abs because they are able to properly resist sagital plane force to the spine and pelvis. Muscle activation and recruitment patterns all depends on how the exercise is performed, therefore I do not put much value into these studies because they do not seem to account for movement efficiency or the motor programming of the subjects. I would need to be there to see how each subject was moving to decide if the outcome of the facing the wall wall slide was accurate and then I would need to see a huge sampling.

I think there is an engineered and architecturally designed correct way to move and I think how well we move determines what muscles fire and the sequencing.

Me:  I love your thoughts on breaking apart the series. Your videos really got me thinking along this track. The idea of reintegrating them for strength endurance had not dawned on me though. This is definitely an important step.

Do you teach all movements in the YTWL series in the same way?  (i.e., reach, then set the scap, then perform the movment?)

Joe:  I always teach beginners to purposefully lengthen the muscles first we are trying to activate and contract with each movement. I feel it helps to facilitate a better concentric contraction and recruitment of the target muscles.

With more advanced people I move to elevating them so they can move through a bigger range of motion. With this there is more natural lengthening due to the increased ROM, so i do not find the need to purposefully emphasize the reach or eccentric lengthening here since it is already going to happen for the most part.

Me:  Awesome Joe!  Thanks.

Joe:  My pleasure.

In my next post I’ll include a few more of my own thoughts on this series, but in the meantime you can find Joe on his business page on Facebook and get on his case for not having a blog of his own to share all of his amazing knowledge.

Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion in the fitness industry about barefoot running due to the popular book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  To be honest, I never did read the book because it had so much hype and I find that hype often amounts to disappointment on my end.  Besides, I’m not personally very interested in distance running.

However, the discussion in the industry lead me to wonder more about whether we should limit the use of shoes and whether things like Vibrams and other deconstructed shoes like Nike Frees had any merit.  Around this time I mentioned to my friend Carson Boddicker that he should do a blog comparing barefoot and shod running and he certainly didn’t disappoint. 

In the end Carson put together the most comprehensive series of blog posts I’ve ever seen on this subject.  But before you dive in, be forewarned that Carson is crazy smart and he doesn’t hold back on his biomechanical understanding for the sake of the lay reader.

If you’re looking for a cake walk and someone to say “shoes are bad, feet are good” you’re not going to find it here.  But if you’re looking for an in depth, research based series on shod versus unshod running then you need to read each and every piece below.

(Despite looking like a ton of reading, each blog in itself is relatively short and certainly worth the effort)

Barefoot Running: Anatomy

Barefoot vs Shod Running

Running Economy and Barefoot vs Shod Footstrike

Normal Gait Mechanics

The Big Toe and Windlass Mechanism

Mobilizing the Big Toe

Afferent Control and Running

Irradiation, Concurrent Activation Potentiation, and the Feet

Shoelessness and Injuries

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

So my buddy Mike Scott sent me the following and asked me to fill in the blanks:

“Prevention of injuries can be done by (at most 10 words). The most important thing to do prior to beginning any sport/physical activity/exercise routine is (name one thing). Preventing most (adjective) injuries is (possible or impossible, chose one) because (provide your reasoning).”

Check out my answer and those of many other industry pros HERE.

When you’re done, feel free to play along and leave your answer in the comments section below.