This past week I had the chance to review Nick Tumminello’s Joint Friendly Strength Training DVDs and I wanted to drop a review to let you all know what I thought.  Before I say anything though, I also want to state that Nick Tumminello is a total class act in this industry and I wish more guys and gals were like him.

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He not only takes in the theoretical information, but then transforms it into great exercises and programs leaving me (and probably a lot of others) scratching our heads and saying “why didn’t I think of that”.  He is a true innovator and a model representative for what I think this profession should be.  That said, I would never endorse a product that I didn’t have faith in so you can rest assured that my opinion of this product is 100% legit.

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This first DVD starts off with Nick talking a little bit about why he created the joint friendly training philisophy which highlights the fact that the exercise variations presented in the 2 DVD set are not geared towards correcting joint pain, but to allowing you to continue gaining power, strength, and size while working around specific joint issues.  You can obviously still be working to improve joint issues (in fact, you probably should), but this product is aimed at those who still want a kick ass workout while dealing with nagging aches and pains.

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After the brief into I pretty much expected the DVD to go into a scripted narration of each exercise (which is fine by me), but instead Nick stays center frame and continues to demonstrate exercises one after one almost as though he’s having a conversation with you.  It truth, it reminds me very much of times when I’m training a client and I’m saying “That hurts?  Let’s try this.  That hurts too?  Let’s do this instead.”  In essence, Nick walks you through a serious of exercise options for each potential joint issue that you could possibly have as though he was actually training you around an injury.

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The exercises themselves are broken up into sections for knee pain, back pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain, and so on.  I especially liked that Nick broke down the exercises for dealing with back pain into sub categories for flexion, extension, and rotation intolerant people so you’ll pretty much know which ones are most apt to work in a given situation.  I also liked the stuff for dealing with wrists as this is a limitation that happens with athletes or those who work with their hands quite often (as well as those with carpal tunnell from being a desk jockey).  This breakdown by body part would also be cool if you’re only looking for exercises for an injury you have and don’t want to watch the whole 2 hours of video.

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All in all, I have to say that I really enjoyed the relatively unscripted (or at least seemingly relaxed) style of the DVDs.  This surprised me because I’m usually one for structure and letting someone just run through categories of exercises could result in a disasterous product for many.  In Nick’s case, I think it was actually one of the strengths.  I was watching and thinking “holy crap dude, slow down with the ideas” as I scribbled on my note pad.  It made it feel like Nick was in my livingroom bombarding me with exercies options and progressions.

My final analysis is that if you’re a trainee suffering from nagging joint injuries then Nick’s product is definitely worth having so you can continue getting bigger, stronger, and leaner (yep…there is a conditioning section too) while dealing with your injuries.  Moreover, if you’re a coach or trainer I think this product is equally as valuable as it will give you loads (I wrote two pages front and back) of exercises for working with clients with various issues so you can continue to bring the results.  Note that I’m not saying you shouldn’t address the issues themselves, but Nick’s product will definitely allow you to maintain the training stimulus while you do.

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In the end, I have to agree with Kanye.  Nick’s product is top notch and I definitely give it two hypertrophied thumbs up.  If you’re interested you can pick it up HERE. 

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(Note that the link above is not an affiliate link and I don’t make a dime off of this product)

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Last week’s Friday blog was kinda fun and since I think Fridays are pretty awesome, I figured I’d post more awesome stuff.

1.  First off, if you happened across the Consumer Reports article a while back about the toxic ingredients found in many protein powders it may have left you a little spooked about using these in your daily routine.  Fortunately, my good friend Nick Tumminello recruited nutrition guru Alan Aragon to share his two cents on the issue.  Check out Alan’s guest blog on Nick’s site HERE.

2.  My friend Bret Contreras wrote an excellent blog post recently on load vector training.  Absolute MUST read.  Check it out HERE.

3.  Last week I posted a video of Emily Azevedo doing an incredible feat of strength, but this week I also wanted to add an incredible video of my friend and colleague Neghar Fonooni (who also happens to be the long term girlfriend of Joe Sansalone whose Prone Y videos I posted a few weeks back).  Consider this more inspiration for young women wanting to train.  Simply badass!

3.  And since we’re talking about badass stuff here, watch Damien Walters kill it in this video.   I know he’s got a more recent one, but I still love this one the best.

Have a great weekend!

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.

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a couple of thoughts piling up in my head that I figured would make a quick little post.

1.  I am so blessed.

Having had my daughter only 17 weeks ago I can only say that this has been one of the most exciting times in my life.  Despite the 2am diaper blowouts and the sleep deprivation, every morning I get to wake up to this beautiful face.

2.  My wife is incredible

Lest you think I’m one of those guys who falls in love with his children only to forget the rest of his family, I really do have to give credit to my wife for becoming an outstanding mother.  As I said, I am blessed.

3.  The Body Saw is sick!

Last week Nick Tumminello posted this  exercise on his site which I think is an incredible anterior core progression.

4.  How do you determine success?

If you’re a trainer and you’re working with a person that came to you to lose weight and they weren’t losing weight would you consider them a success?  Your damn right you wouldn’t!  In fact, it isn’t all that common for busy trainers to consider “firing” that client in order to accomodate someone who was more “dedicated”.  To be honest, up until a while ago I might honestly have done the same thing.

Then recently I had the good fortune to attend a journal club meeting at which exercise researcher Dr. Bob Ross was presenting.  Throughout the course of his brilliant lecture, he presented study after study that demonstrated waist circumference and cardiorespiratory fitness are much bigger predictors of mortality than body weight.  In fact, a fit person who is obese has less of a mortality risk than an unfit person who is of normal body weight.  And both cardiorespiratory fitness and waist circumference can improve without ANY weight loss as long as they are physically active.

While the ideal situation would be to have our client lose weight, reduce waist circumference, AND increase their level of fitness, is it not still acceptable to help them become healthier an extend their life even if they aren’t as dedicated to their nutrition as they should be?  Or are we so vain that the only thing worth accepting money for is the change in physical appearance?

Personally, I’ve decided that I’d rather have them reframe their goals from weight goals to health goals so that they’re not expecting results that are never going to happen given their current level of dedication.  In this way, I’m not promising something for their money that I can’t deliver, but I’m not discouraging someone from physical activity (which is something I don’t think anyone should do given the state of affairs in North America).

Check out a 27 minute presentation by Dr. Ross HERE and let me know what you think.  He’s a great speaker and the time flies when you hear him talk.

5.  High Fructose Hype?

Last week a study released by researchers at Princeton University suggested that High Fructose Corn Syrup may contribute to obesity more than normal sugar.  But is the evidence convincing enough to suggest that we should entirely avoid HFCS?

A while back I read a blog by Alan Aragon suggesting differently and saying it generated a lot of discussion is an understatement.  It has 371 responses as I write this!  But if you want to go toe to toe with Alan you’d better come equipped with studies because he’ll take you to school (which he does with those who oppose his views in the comments).

If you’re deathly afraid of high fructose corn syrup check out the blog.  It is worth reading.

6.  Crush It…Should be Crushed

A while ago I heard a lot of hype about Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It so I picked it up and read it in a little under two hours.  If you know nothing at all about social networking and internet promotions this book might be valuable to you, but I found it a little bit more like a rah rah motivational speech than anything else.

Gary suggests working until three in the morning and really “crushing it”.  To me, the whole idea of working countless hours and leaving comments on every blog possible to drive traffic to your own blog is working hard, not working smart.  Granted, Gary is a millionaire and I am not so he’s obviously done something right.  I guess I just expected more information and less of a cheering squad.

Oh…he did mention something useful in the book.  If you distribute videos you may want to check out Tube Mogul so you can share them with various video sharing sites at the same time.  Mind you, it took Mike Boyle to point this out to me because I probably just glazed over this part when I was bored.

7.  Lottery tickets are God’s punishment for people who are bad at math.

Consequently, they are also my punishment because I always seem to get stuck behind people who are buying them.

8.  What if you won 50 million dollars?

A couple weeks ago while I was waiting behind a lottery ticket picker (do they really need to select their specific tickets?) I wondered exactly what most people in the fitness industry would do if they won the 50 million dollars that was offered that week.

I realized that I would definitely travel and I certainly wouldn’t work nearly as often, but I’d still train people because this is my passion.  If you wouldn’t, perhaps you’re in the wrong job.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Leave ‘em below.

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.