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Yesterday morning when I opened my feed reader I noticed that my colleague Nate Green was giving away something awesome. 

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Nate, if you don’t know him, previously wrote for T-Nation and is now working with John Berardi over at Precision Nutrition.  He’s been featured in the LA Times and Men’s Health and is the author of Built for Show.

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Oh…and he’s only like 15 years old.  Okay…not 15, but he’s young and he’s accomplished more than many do in their entire professional careers and he’s living life on his own terms.

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The sweet deal for you is that today Nate is giving away his 136 page Hero Handbook for free.  Whether you want to gain muscle, lose fat, get out of debt, or just create the life of your dreams and live on your own terms this book has it all.

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Frankly, I downloaded it yesterday morning and read it in one sitting.  The conversational style made it easy to digest, but most importantly Nate breaks down some action steps at the end of each chapter for you to go out and directly apply.

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You can get it HERE for free.  There is no need to purchase anything, no submitting your email, or anything of that sort.  I am also NOT and affiliate for this so I’m not making a cent for recommeding it to you.  I just think it is really worth sharing and you should really check it out.

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So here’s the link again.

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The Hero Handbook <— Go get it!

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1.  Did the pendulum swing too far?

This is actually a bigger notion than I can possibly cover in a single bullet point, but looking at all the stuff that has come to the forefront of the industry I’m starting to think we’ve just become way to focused on dysfunction.

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2.  Doing it Backwards (not what you think you pervs)

Imagine if you went to the gym, walked on the treadmill to warm up, did some static stretching, rocked out a crazy intense workout including exercises on guided motion machines and isolation exercises like kickbacks and curls in conjuction with your squats and deadlifts.  Imagine you used a body part spilt training program.  And instead of intervals you did steady state cardio for 30 minutes afterward.

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The would be no screening, assessments,  breathing pattern drills, rolling patterns, foam rolling, or mobiliy drills.  But you were consistent, trained hard, and did so 3-4 days per week.

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Then imagine that you didn’t take any supplements and only hit 0.8 grams per pound of protein daily.  You also didn’t eat every 2-3 hours, didn’t fast for a day at a time, or even a portion of every day, but you did maintain a moderate calorie deficit every day.  You didn’t eat everything organic or free range, but you did try to eat mostly whole food and limit obvious junk.

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Would we not get stronger from the program above?  What about leaner?  Would we end up injured?  My guess is yes, yes, and probably not.  Sometimes I’m tempted to do everything “wrong” just to make a point that perhaps we need to focus on the fundamentals before we start stressing about the details.  If you’ aren’t training hard, eating well, and being consistent you can pretty much scrap the rest because you’re wasting your time.

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3.  If your parents are alive…go hug them.

I miss my dad every day.  You never know when they’ll be gone.

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4.  Wake and Shake

Here is a link to a great blog post by Nate Green talking about his morning protein shake.  In it he asks for a few protein shake recipe ideas from his readers and they come through…big time.  My advice, check out the post and comments section.  Print and stick on the fridge and you’ll have a great list of ideas for the coming few months.

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5.  Don’t Sleep on Your Stomach

Lying in this postion can put your lumbar spine in an excessively extended position for a long time.  If you have back pain that is exaggerated by leaning backwards and improved by bending forwards this point is especially true.  Sleeping on your back with a pillow under your knees or on your side with a pillow between your knees will help to maintain a neutral spine.

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6.  How to Train for Power

Bret Contreras just posted this article on his blog last week and I think it provides a lot of really good insight on how we should (or should not) train for power.

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7.  I finally hit the newsstand mags!

I just received word last night from my friend David Barr that I’ve been featured in this month’s issue of Muscle and Fitness.  I’m totally stoked!

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8.  I have a weird fascination with making it into Men’s Health Magazine. 

I don’t know why, but when I started reading that magazine years ago I said to myself “I’m going to get published in here”.  By the end of 2011 I intend to be in that magazine even if I have to drive around the country and stick leaflets into every copy.  Just kidding.  Sorta.

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9.  New Sahrmann Text

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Just in case you didn’t know, Shirley Sahrmann has a new book out on October first!  Movement System Impairment Syndromes of the Extremities, Cervical and Thoracic Spines.  Should be interesting as her first text largely shaped my understanding of training.

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10.  Show & Go Sale is Ending

Today is the last day to get my friend Eric Cressey’s new product Show & Go at an introductory rate.  Don’t miss out as the price jumps at midnight.  And remember that there is a money back guarantee so if you’re on the fence you might as well get it.

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Bonus Randomness:  Little Known Fact

When Moses climbed Mount Sinai the Lord actually handed him THREE stone tablets.  The first two contained the ten commandments.  The third contained the 7 exercises of the Functional Movement Sreen.  Moses went on to live for centuries, moved to the United States, shaved off his beard, and changed his name to Gray Cook.

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In fact, Jesus wasn’t crucified because he was the son of God, but because he openly denounced the FMS.

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True Story.

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By the way, I think I’m going to hell for that one.  And FMS folks, I’m just kidding.  Don’t bomb my house.

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I have to be honest and say that I was once swept up onto the interval training bandwagon.  But when it comes to fat loss, the research isn’t actually as strong in favor of intervals as you might think.  Check out my review on TMuscle HERE and let me know what you think.

Special thanks to Nate Green for editing my piece and making it look like I know how to write.

No thanks to the haters in the discussion after the article for the unsubstantiated personal attacks.  Damn interwebz.

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A few weeks back Nate Green told me he was writing an article and sent me the following email:

“Hey Mark, give me something cool that I can try at the gym tonight that will improve my workouts and leave me with a big, fat smile on my face.”

No problem…except that Nate told me that I only had 140 words to do it.  Check out my cool trick along with those of many other brilliant coaches in the new article HERE.

Got a trick of your own?  Leave it in the comments below.

Recently I recieved a series of questions and I thought the answers  may be of interest to some so I’ve decided to post them for your reading pleasure.  Enjoy!

Q:  I read your section of the TMuscle article “Mythbusters 7” by Nate Green and thought that your section was quite informative. However, it brings up a lot of questions for me.

How do you know if a muscle is weak? You bring up the example of one shoulder being weaker than the other. Usually the non-dominant side will be weaker than the dominant side, but at which point do we consider it “weak”? 
 

A:  I personally use manual muscle testing to assess all of my clients at our first meeting and I try to determine as many imbalances as possible prior to even touching a weight.  If a muscle fails my manual test (such as the one in the article) then I make a note of it and try to address it before we get started or at least work around it until we can sort it out.
 

If there is just a good old fashioned strength imbalance, such as the one you described, I would then just do more work on that group to bring it up to speed.  However, I’d rule out other causes of weakness first.

Q:  You say “weakness isn’t always weakness”. How do you know when weakness is weakness, and when it is NOT weakness?

A:  I’m probably really oversimplifying here, but here goes.  When I’m testing a weak muscle the process essentially goes like this:
 

Test -> Try Treatment -> Retest 
 

If there is improvement we’re done and we’ve figured out the cause.  If not, we repeat the process by trying a progression of treatments until we do.
 

For example, I might do a muscle test on the suspected weak muscle.  If it fails my test I do an exercise for that muscle first.  Then I wait about one minute and retest.
 

Since a brief bout of exercise can increase the strength of a properly functioning muscle to perform better on subsequent sets (called post activation potentiation) this provides a lot of information.
 

If the muscle passes the test or seems stronger after this treatment I know it is most likely due to plain old weakness and the muscle just needs to be strengthened.  If the muscle still fails, I’ll proceed to identify other possible causes.
 

Often the improvement is immediate and sometimes dramatic so this provides a perfect negative feedback loop to tell you if the treatment has worked.

Q:  You say that weakness can be caused by tightness of the opposing muscle, trapped nerve, or unstable joint. So how do you identify the weakness? After you’ve identified the weakness, how do you identify the cause of the weakness?
 

A:  As I mentioned above, I do my test and then proceed through a series of different exercises, stretches, and drills to see which one causes an improvement in the strength of the muscle.  Sometimes one thing causes a moderate improvement and it turns out that two factors are causing the weakness.
 

For example, when a glute tests weak I often find that the piriformis on that side is tight (compression the gluteal nerves) AND that there is lumbar spine compression on that side (compressing nerves higher up).

Usually the lumbar spine compression is improved with moderate spinal traction, but sometimes the lat on that side is tight and is causing the compression so no amount of traction will work by itself.  In that case the person has to stretch the piriformis and lat on the weak side and do some daily traction drills afterwards.

Q:   How do you rule out other weaknesses?

That’s a big question as weakness can come from so many sources (many of which I’m still learning to this day).  Generally speaking, I just try to account for any source of weakness that I can when doing testing.  For example, dehydration, having the head flexed downwards, opposing muscle tightness, nerve entrapment (by a muscle or at the spine), joint instability, muscle strain, or just plain old weakness can cause a failed test.   I’m sure there are more that I am forgetting.

For the most part, I know what the common causes of failure are at each joint and I test those first.  That solves the problem 90% of the time.  Otherwise I just use logic to help me figure it out.
 

I always do a postural assessment first and often I can tell just from that what is going to test weak.  For example, a high hip on one side likely means that adductor is tight.  When the adductor is tight, it is probable that the abductors (i.e., the glute medius) will test weak.

Q:  You say you usually do manual muscle testing. How long does this usually take?
 

My whole testing protocol can take minutes to hours depending on the person.  Sometimes I test someone and almost everything passes so the process is short.  On the other hand, some people have several issues that present during testing and we have to attempt different treatments and retests until we get it all done for the whole body.  The more injuries and imbalances the more time it takes.  Mind you, the results are almost instant in a lot of cases so it is worth it to take the time.
 

It is important to keep in mind that my testing protocol can also include body composition testing, body measurements, postural assessments, flexibility/mobility assessments, and so on.  Everything is dependent on the client.

However, if I’m just doing a test on the fly (i.e., the client has a problem during a workout) it’ll take less than a minute or two to sort it out.

Q:  Where can I start learning more about this stuff?  Are there any good resources out there?

A:  Unfortunately, there isn’t much else out there on how to use muscle testing for fitness.  There is a lot of stuff on the Applied Kinesiology uses for muscle testing, but some of them can get pretty “out there” and are not based on physiological or biomechanical principles.

My colleague Brendan Fox and I are aiming to put out a muscle testing product in late 2009 that will be exclusively geared towards muscle testing for fitness so I’m anxious for that to come out. 

In the meantime, I’d suggest starting with Kendall’s book called Muscles: Testing and Function with Posture and Pain so you can learn how to test various muscles.

Otherwise, products can be pretty limited and it can take a long time to learn this stuff because you’ll always be tracking people down to learn it.  We hope to change all that with out product and make testing and treatment for fitness more widespread.

More importantly, once you know this stuff you can individualize routines beyond belief to bring about results and prevent injuries along the way!