Okay…so I’ve been going a little nuts lately with my busy schedule and so much stuff on my mind, but I wanted to drop a quick Monday update.

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1.  Measure Your Movement

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It is pretty well known that people under report what they’re eating and over report their exercise.  On the exercise front, often I’ll use an Omron Pedometer to get an objective measure of physical activity for people.  While they aren’t perfect (and the BodyMedia FIT is probably better) they are relatively accurate and less expensive.  More importantly though, it will give you something to go on when you think you are moving a lot…and you really aren’t.  With the colder months coming I think people will be shocked at how little they actually move. 

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I usually recommend that people record track their daily steps for a week (good models of the Omron brand will store 7 days worth of data) and then calculate a daily average.  Each week thereafter I have them attempt to add 500 steps per day.  And just so we don’t get confused here, I’m not saying that increasing your steps will necessarily result in more fat loss.

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What I am saying is:

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- Greater physical activity improves health markers (you don’t look very good if you’re dead).

- Increased activity decreases waist circumference even if you don’t lose fat (yep…smaller waist…not even dieting).

- 5 hours of physical activity per week doesn’t necessarily mean more fat loss, but better long term weight maintenance (i.e., you’ll keep off what you’ve lost).

-You probably think you move more than you do.

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2.  Arm Ergometers Are Awesome!

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In terms of cardiovascular activity, most people are used to the standard stuff like treadmill, bikes, and ellipticals.  Sleds and other circuit stuff have also become trendy as of late as well.  However, I’ve recently stumbled upon another really cool method for upper body cardiovascular training that is exceptionally badass.  If you’ve never tried and arm ergometer (basically an upper body bicycle), I’d highly suggest you give it a try.

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Although most people would associate this primarily with a rehab setting, these are great for warming up the upper body prior to a workout, finishing up an upper body workout (your delts, biceps and triceps will be on fire), or for people who have knee or lower back issues the limit regular cardiovascular training.  More to the point, they are frigging HARD!

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While commercial models (Monark being the most popular) can cost over $1500, you can often pick one of these up from a ”home health” type of store for anywhere between $50 and $150 depending on the gadgets attached.  I think these are awesome and would make a great addition to any home gym or studio where people are dealing with clients with knee and back issues.  Simply turn up the tension and crank it like a mofo!

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3.  This Psoas IS Fillet Mignon

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Just in case you missed it, someone commented on my previous psoas post stating that the psoas is actually the cut of meat we adore called fillet mignon.  I very scientifically checked this out (okay…I acutally looked it up on Wikipedia) and this appears to be true.  Go figure.  If you ever get into a plane crash and have to eat the flesh of another human at least you know where to start.

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4.  FREE Core Interviews

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A while back I had the opportunity to interview a whole bunch of really smart industry experts about everything to do with creating a strong and sexy core.  Check out this list:

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Mike Robertson

Nick Tumminello

Jim “Smitty” Smith

Leigh Peele

Lyle McDonald

Martin Berkhan

Jimmy Smith

Scott Abel

John Paul Catanzaro

Brendan Fox

Thomas Myers

And last but not least…Dr. Stuart McGill!

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You want these interviews don’t you?  Yeah…thought so.  I figured that since I’m in such a giving mood lately I’d just throw these down for FREE too.  Go get ‘em!

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5.  Reminder – Get Your FREE Glute Training Ebook

Don’t forget to score yourself the most excellent glute training ebook in the world by my buddy Bret Contreras by leaving a comment on this page.  Comments are closed for the drawing at the end of day today.

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That’s it for me today.  Go get your free stuff!

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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?

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.

As many of you may know, I believe that reading for an hour per day is paramount if you hope to become a leader in any field.  Fitness and nutrition are no different.  Here are a few things to get you started for today.

Fasting for Fat Loss?

If you’ve ever heard that going without food for a long time results in some sort of “starvation response” or “severe muscle loss” you’re going to want to check out these pics on Martin Berkhan’s blog.  Definitely not what you’d expect to see of someone who fasts for up to 16 hours per day.

Martin is a huge source of knowledge when it comes to intermittent fasting and will be part of the free audio interview series coming soon.  Spend a little time on his blog and soak up some knowledge.

Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?

In this New York Times article, Dr Stuart McGill discusses the transversus abdominis and core training in general.  Also included is a short video where recommended exercises are show.  Worth a quick read.  Oh yeah, Dr McGill is also part of the audio interview series.  Keep your eyes peeled.

Enjoy the reading and have a great week!

If you’re like me you want to know every single thing there is to know about training.  Unfortunately, as an up and coming trainer I was constantly referring to the resource lists on the sites of other coaches and trying to choose which of the many books and products to purchase.  With a list of over 50 books it was sometimes hard to decide where to spend my hard earned money.

So, I decided to create a list of my top three books to get you started.  If someone asked me to give up every book I’ve ever read and keep only three, the books below would be the ones I would choose.  While none of the ones I’m about to list aren’t specifically about training, they are the three that I can say without a doubt had the biggest influence on how I think about the body and human movement.

Here they are in no particular order:

Muscles: Testing and Function, with Posture and Pain

This book provided my first real taste of postural assessment.  The detail provided and the numerous pictures were an incredible resource.  More than that, the information on testing for muscle length and strength was awesome!  With charts provided for assessment this is easily one of the best resources I own.

Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation

Without this book my programming would not be the same.  While a large part of this book was geared towards mechanisms of lower back injury, the power of understanding these mechanisms for exercise selection has been incredibly valuable to me.  I concretely believe that this is the single most important starting place for understanding core training and why to chose and why to avoid certain exercises.  Well worth every penny.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes

Frankly, this book was probably the biggest eye opener for me in understanding normal human movement and the causes of dysfunction.  Dr Shirley Sahrmann is a legend and her ideas changed the way I think about training.  While I genuinely appreciate the ability to assess static posture, assessing and correcting movement itself is possibly the most valuable skill a trainer can have.  Personally, I found this a tough read because I was pouring over each page again and again to make sure I soaked up every ounce of information, but in the end I woud put this book at the top of my list.

If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket and you need a great book to read I’d highly suggest starting with one of the above.

Got a book that you think is better?  Drop me a comment below.