As many of you know, I’m a huge advocate of reading (or learning) for at least an hour per day.  Since my beautiful daughter was born almost 8 weeks ago she and I have been putting in our time reading and watching some great stuff.

Outliers - By Malcolm Gladwell

This book provides a very insightful look at what makes people successful in their respective fields.  Despite what you might think about working hard, Gladwell suggests that this is only part of the equation.  Although I’m not 100% sold on every single assertion that was made, it certainly was enough to open my eyes to the possibility that there are other factors at play.

More importantly, Gladwell’s writing style is interesting and easy to read which is refreshing if you’re looking for something thought provoking, but not overly intense.  If this isn’t enough to convince you, consider that I’m now reading another Gladwell book called The Tipping Point and have his other books Blink and What the Dog Saw on my bookshelf already.

Fast Food Nation - By Eric Schlosser

Honestly, I could probably tell you all about this book and how it explains the production, flavoring, and marketing of your food, but it really wouldn’t do justice to the vast amount of information that is covered about the effects of corporate power on our food supply.

Consider that companies like Nestle make baby formula (Gerber), food (Cheerios, Lean Cuisine, Stouffer’s), coffee (Nescafe), chocolate (Kit Kat, Smarties), and then when you get good and overweight they can sell you food replacements like Boost, Powerbar, Jenny Craig, and even the medically managed weight loss product called Optifast.  Need some water for that shake?  No worries, they sell that too.  Pure Life, Perrier, Vittel, and S.Pelligrino are all Nestle products.  And by the way, they are also feeding your pets.  Nestle makes Alpo, Friskies, and Fancy Feast.   Once they start making caskets they’ll have us covered from cradle to grave.

Imagine what would happen if the goverment tried to mandate changes to the foods we eat to make them healthier.  Imagine the power of corporations to resist.  Although the observations about Nestle are my own, I’m sure you get the idea.  Fast Food Nation is well worth the read.

Note that this book led me to investigate further the treatment of animals during the commercial production of the food we eat.  Check out the galleries on THIS SITE if you’re interested.  Consider this fair warning that the images there are graphic and disturbing.  They also are not intended to convey that I think all industry operates like this…but it certainly opens your eyes.

StrengthCoach.com

Recently I’ve spent a fair bit of time on Strength Coach.com and I really enjoy the content.  The weekly articles are great, but I have to admit that the forum is really where it is at.  

Unlike many other web forums that are chock-full of nonsense by written by any idiot with a keyboard, here you can often read and participate in discussions bright folks like Mike Boyle, Bret Contreras, Mike Robertson, Alwyn Cosgrove,  Nick Tumminello, Charlie Weingroff, and many others that I’m probably forgetting to name.

Personally, I’ve read some people’s responses in the advanced forum and had to look stuff up or ask questions just so I could understand what they’re talking about.  As a result I’ve learned a ton of new stuff in a short period of time.

I think this is an incredible resource and totally worth checking out.  It’ll cost you a buck to try it for 14 days and if you don’t like it you can bail.

Oh yeah…while I’m on the Mike Boyle front I should also mention that I just watched Functional Strength Coach Volume 3 and think this is a great resource for any up and coming coach.

Fat Is Not Your Fault

After interviewing Dr. Bryan Walsh a few weeks back I decided to check out his Fat is not Your Fault Program.  Frankly, I’ve grown a little tired of the overhyped rapid fat loss programs that are basically just some variation of a low carb diet which is why I think this program is so interesting.  Dr. Walsh not only emphasizes the importance of diet, exercise, and mindset, but he also identifies several other possible roadblocks to fat loss success that you’re not going to see in your typical fat loss program.

I’ve already read the manual and am currently about half way through watching the videos and am loving the information so far.  Never have I really given as much thought to adrenal health and gastrointestinal function as I have since seeing this product.  If you’re successfully navigating the fat loss world, I’m not sure you’re absolutely in need of this program, but if you or a client have ever had difficulty losing fat despite being totally on plan, this would be a worthwhile investment.  Personally, I’m thinking of making Dr. Walsh’s screening questionaire (which is included) as part of my battery of forms for my clients.

Z-Health R Phase Manual

At the persistent enouragement of Mike T Nelson I’m checking out the Z-Health system.  To be honest, I have yet to start reading/watching this, but it is next on my list so hopefully I’ll steal a few pearls of wisdom from this as well.

What great stuff are you reading right now?  What’s next on your reading list?  Drop me a comment and let me know.

A couple weeks back I interviewed Bret Contreras regarding his recent explosion onto the fitness scene. 

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.

A little while back strength coach Bret Contreras busted onto the scene with his article Dispelling the Glute Myth on Tmuscle.com.  Some were inspired by his ideas and others just thought he was downright arrogant for talking smack about some of the other coaches in the industry.

As it turns out, I was one of the latter, but after I got over myself I decided to contact him only to find out that he’s a pretty smart and humble guy just trying to make a splash with his first foray into the fitness world.  I asked him to do a quick interview for my blog and he was all over it like a frat boy on a keg.

Hey Bret!  Thanks for taking the time to do this interview.  Since you’ve been dubbed The Glute Guy you’ve obviously got a serious fixation with the glutes.  Are you just an obsessive butt man or what?
 

Thank you very much Mark for taking the time to interview me. Yes and no. As a typical testosterone-producing male, of course I appreciate a nice butt. In fact, if there’s a hot little minx running around with a perfect butt, I find it nearly impossible to focus on anything else. My eyes hone in on a perfect [female] booty like a hawk on his prey. The problem is, nice booties are very rare. I remember being at the mall once and counting how many nice butts I saw (male or female) out of 100 pedestrians. There were around five decent ones and none that I would consider “great.” A girl with a perfect butt can get a grown man to do almost anything and can pretty much rule the world.
 

But I digress. I am interested in the glutes from a performance standpoint as well. The glutes are the primary hip extensors, hip abductors, and hip rotators, which make them critical muscles involved in running, jumping, cutting, and twisting…pretty much every major motion in sports. Strong, powerful glutes often separate the men from the boys so to speak in terms of athleticism. So if one was to become fixated on a single muscle group, the glutes make the most sense to me as the area upon which to become fixated. But I wouldn’t consider myself a “glute-only” guy. I’m also “obsessed” with all other major muscle groups. As I write more articles people will realize that I have a ton of knowledge to share regarding the entire spectrum of muscles, movements, and energy systems.

Okay cool.  So tell me what it is about training the glutes that you think everyone has been missing.  You’ve obviously got some different ideas.  Can you expand upon that a little bit?
 

If you’ve read my articles and/or my eBook, you’ll know that I’ve come up with plenty of exercise ideas for the glutes. However, I tend to focus on getting people strong at the hip thrust and pendulum quadruped hip extension while using great form. This is tricky because often beginners do not possess adequate glute strength and/or hip range of motion so they contort their spines rather than stabilize the core and use solely hip motion to perform the lifts. This is why it is important to address hip flexor quality and length, start out with just bodyweight, and progress wisely. At the end of a workout, I tend to throw in a set of standing band abductions or standing band external rotations as well.  For beginners, I would just throw in a set of side lying abductions or side lying clams as they aren’t yet strong enough for the bands. Of course, the glutes are also used when doing squat, deadlift, and lunge patterns as well as plyos, sprints, agility drills, explosive lifts, and sled work, but the targeted glute work helps out dramatically in terms of improved performance. 

Your views on load vectors are very thought-provoking.  Can you briefly explain this concept?
 

Gladly! It is often said that there is a gap between the weight room and the sports arena (track, field, court, ring, etc.). It doesn’t need to be this way. Jumping is axial, so are squats, deadlifts, jump squats, and Olympic lifts. For optimal sports performance, do them all! You’ll hit all ends of the force curve. But force is directional-specific. Running is anteroposterior, so are hip thrusts, back extensions, reverse hypers, and sled pushing. Do them all! Cutting is lateromedial, backpedaling is posteroanterior, and twisting is torsional. This is why it’s important to add in slideboard and agility drills, multi-directional lunge and sled dragging, and rotational work with bands, cables, a tornado ball, and/or a landmine unit. The trick is to learn how to blend all of this training together without overtraining. If you do it right, your athletes will get stronger and more explosive from every direction. The days of just squatting and power cleaning for leg power are long gone.

Very interesting.  What’s been on your mind recently in terms of strength training and fitness?
 

Recently I’ve been paying attention to the different types of trainers and strength coaches. Bad trainers suck at everything. Decent trainers seem to fall into one of two “camps.” The “functional, overly-cautious” types or the “hard core, balls-to-the-wall” types. The functional types need to be better at getting their athletes strong. Many of these types truly have “paralysis by analysis” and are incapable of producing strong athletes. The hard core types need to be better at producing clean movement. An athlete will never maximize his or her power and agility if he or she isn’t moving efficiently. Strength is good, but not at the expense of altering good movement patterns and using sound exercise technique. Great trainers can produce clean movement and get their athletes very strong while exhibiting great form.
 

Great trainers are also good at improving all qualities while providing a fun, challenging workout. People like gaining strength, power, and conditioning. They also like to feel certain muscles working and they appreciate variety. Finally, they like moving better and more efficiently. That’s why you need to address the whole gamut of fitness; foam rolling, stretching, prehab, power work, strength work, energy system development, etc. One dimensional trainers can’t hold a candle to trainers who have a sound understanding of the various training principles. In my opinion, to excel as a trainer you need to have a good understanding of bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, strongman, track & field, mixed martial arts, sport-specific training, and physical therapy. If a trainer doesn’t work out then how in the hell are they going to learn new techniques? You have to give certain movements and methods time and be in good condition in order to reap the benefits. The trainer or coach who doesn’t work out cannot progress as fast as a trainer or coach who does work out.
 

People in this field often say that nothing is ever new. I see their point, since most exercises or methods have been performed somewhere, sometime in the past. However, I completely disagree that nothing is ever new. My training evolves considerably over time. I get much better as a trainer each year. This time next year, I’ll know much more and the way I train will improve. Scientific advancements, trends, and new equipment dramatically alter the strength and conditioning industry. Sure, your big rocks may not change much, but your small rocks certainly will. Ten years ago I never heard of foam rolling or glute activation. Ten years from now, there will be new principles that I’ll need to know in order to be an awesome trainer.
 

Last, the best trainers are positive, high-energy, motivating, caring individuals who can dramatically influence what their clients do during the 22-23 hours of the day that they’re not around their clients. Eating right, sleeping well, thinking positively, and paying attention to posture are things that great trainers can get their clients to do which will greatly speed up results. 
 

Wow Bret, good stuff. Where can my readers learn more about you and find more of your stuff?
 

I’ve just recently got a blog up and running so check you can that out HERE. I also have a Twitter account, I’m on Facebook, I have a Youtube account, I’ve written articles for www.StrengthCoach.Com and www.TMuscle.Com, and you can buy my eBook at www.TheGluteGuy.Com.
 

Thanks Bret, I appreciate the interview!
 

Thanks Mark, keep on truckin’!