What's Different About Your Training?
Do you remember the good ol’ days when you used to wake up and be excited to train? The times when setting a new PR was as satisfying as waking up on Christmas morning. I certainly do, sadly there will come a time when life gets in the way and your training sessions won’t be as awesome as they once were. Sometime last week after yet another lack luster training session of mine I sat down for about 30 minutes and thought about my training since my last meet. My training frequency has stayed the same (four days a week) yet each session seems progressively lazier, as if my head just isn’t in it. So I’m sitting there thinking what’s different, what is different now compared to a few months ago? So I made a list of the things that are different in my everyday routine that could potentially be causing my sessions to be as awful as watching a Keeping Up with the Kardashian’s marathon.
- No Training Partner: All 3 of my previous training partners are off doing internships with their respected teams University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, and the New York Jets. My training partners kept me on track and pushed me which made training fun. We were able to give each other feedback and make fun of each other which always led to good sessions. But I haven’t always had training partners and my training was still productive so what was different then? Music
- Music: It’s clear that if I don’t have a training partner I need to bring back the old days and put the ear-buds in and zone out. I need to be focused on the task at hand and I clearly can’t be trusted to do that when people who are not my training partners are around. They just become an unneeded distraction, not intentionally, just happens. Listening to music on my iPod will block out all the distraction, get me jacked up, and allow me to focus on the task.
- AM Training: For as long as I can remember I trained in the morning before I did anything else. It wasn’t until recently that I started training in the afternoon. And looking back on the situation I am much better suited to train in the morning. It sets the pace for my day. It clears my head and it allows me to take my time rather than rush to get in a workout. I also work better if I get my training out of the way early, I can just focus on work after instead of worrying about getting my training in.
- Food: Recently my nutrition has taken a back seat, out of pure laziness than anything else. My mentality used to be eat to train. I would eat 5 meals a day and I would feel awesome during training sessions. Lately I have been skipping breakfast, A- because I have been lazy and B- because of dumb people in the fitness industry, but more on that in my next point. It’s definitely time to get back to my old eating habits. I AM THE PEANUT BUTTER KING!
- Fitness Professionals: Even a professional strength coach like me can still fall victim to fitness propaganda. You’re probably asking what do other fitness professionals have to do with your training. That’s a good question, and the answer is a lot more than I should have allowed. There is so much crap written by people just trying to sell you stuff that it’s almost impossible not to succumb to it at least once. And sadly it almost made me doubt my own knowledge base. Then I woke up and realized what a bunch of BS it all is. I know this point kind of got off track but it’s something that I realized I didn’t used to let impact my training/nutrition so it’s important that it not impact it now.*
You may be asking what the point was to writing all of this. The goal of all my posts is to get YOU to train better or to help you reach YOUR goals. The best way to do that is to learn from others mistakes so you can in turn avoid the same pitfalls. Hopefully this post has allowed you to evaluate your own training, figure out what the problem is and helped you to get it back on track. The points I listed above are all excuses to not have a good training session. An excuse is a problem that can be rectified, I chose to do so. Will you?
*People I'm currently reading to block out internet BS Mark Rippetoe, Jim Wendler, Dan John, Dave Tate, and Louie Simmons.
We All Need A Little Inspiration
It’s the times that you don’t want to train that will show your true desire and will to win… How often do you wake up and just do not want to go to the weight room, batting cage, football field, volleyball court? What do you do in those situations; do you roll over and go back to bed? Do you make compromises because you just aren’t feeling it today? Do you say “alright starting Monday I’ll get back after it?” We have all been in these situations but as I said these are the situations that define us. I’ve talked a lot about being average in past posts and how I refuse to be it and this is one of the ways I “beat” the average out of myself. I have to train no matter what and no matter how I feel because I know the average person just rolls over and goes back to bed, the average person makes compromises. I’m not trying to be high and mighty, there have been times when I’ve succumb to the state of averageness, and I absolutely hate it. So when I feel the average part of me trying to take over I have put things in place to make my better half overcome. This is usually in the form of watching a video or reading an article that really makes me want to get after it. I’m not really sure why doing these things work for me. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m seeing someone rise above their own feelings of being average and it makes me realize I need to do the same. For you it might be something different but it’s up to you to find something to make you conquer those bad days, to rise above your negative thoughts and feelings of inadequacy. We all have the ability to be great but it is only you that can unlock the potential. Am I being corny? Maybe, but corny is what we need sometimes to get through those rough days; and I’d rather be corny than average. This was a short and to the point rant, but a rant that was needed. If you’re like me and get jacked up watching inspirational videos and reading inspirational articles then take a look below at the things I currently look to when I’m having those lazy days.
ARTICLES
A Letter To My Younger Self by Jim Wendler
VIDEOS
[vsw id="V6xLYt265ZM" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]
By far my favorite video to get me jacked up to go train
Former SAPT coach Chris Romanow is one of the people who got me interested in powerlifting so seeing him smash heavy weight makes me want to do the same
SAPT client and friend Ron Reed inspires me to achieve goals, his work ethic is second to none
I have no idea who this guy is but he is dedicated
What to Know About Competing in Powerlifting
“…Would be interested in hearing more about what it takes to enter a powerlifting competition: requirements, mentality, gear/no-gear, training, scoring/judging, what it takes to win, etc.”
This was a comment left on my meet write-up blog post from last week. As soon as I saw it I thought what better way to talk about this than through a post for everyone!
Scoring and Judging/What it Takes to Win
Powerlifting consists of three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift (they are performed in this order). At a meet you get three attempts at each of these lifts. At the end of the competition your highest successful attempt from each of the three lifts will be added up for your “total”. Your total is what determines your placing within your division/weight class. In my opinion your placing should not be a focus for you especially if this is your first meet. Your goal should be to show up and to perform because most people won’t even do that.
The scoring is based on a lighting system. Each of the three judges has a light and if they deem the lift to be successful you will be rewarded with a shiny white light. If they feel the lift to be unsuccessful they will ruin your life with a red light. Have no fear because all you need is two white lights for the lift to count!
I’m not going to go into great detail about what the judges are looking for. To learn more about this here is the link to the IPF rule book…. http://www.powerlifting-ipf.com/fileadmin/data/Technical_Rules/IPF_rulebook_01_2011.pdf
Gear or No Gear
This is the only place where I feel things get tricky. People get WAAAYYYYY too bent out of shape about this to the point of ridiculousness. You have three ways to compete in powerlifting; Raw, Single-ply, and Multi-ply. This is entirely up to YOU and your GOALS and don’t let anyone sway you one way or the other. As far as I’m concerned it really doesn’t matter what you choose because at the end of the day we all have the same goal… to get stronger. Nevertheless you will come across the close-minded people who will tell you gear is “cheating” (not sure how it’s cheating because geared lifters compete only against other geared lifters) or “not true strength”. These elitists’ get under my skin because they have probably never been in gear and have no idea what it’s like to train in it, so therefor, in my mind they have NO room to give an opinion on the subject. More importantly why do they care what YOU do? The people who care about what others do have their own personal issues to figure out. I have competed raw and single-ply and I love both. They both offer their own challenges and are both fun to train for. It’s weird and ridiculous to me that people get so up and arms about the whole thing, it’s like 5 year olds fighting about whose toy is better. If you want to lift raw, lift raw. If you want to throw on a bunch of gear then do that.
My only caveat to this is that unless you have two solid years of strength training under you than you shouldn’t wear gear. It takes A LOT of strength to even handle single-ply equipment so unless you're going two years strong, just start out with a few raw competitions.
Training
This is the easy part. Just get better at squatting, benching and deadlifting. The best way to do that is to perform the lifts several times a week. It can’t get much simpler than that. If you want a good set in stone program just do Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 and I promise you’ll get stronger. Don’t want to do that? Then use the Westside Barbell template. People want to treat this like its rocket science. They paralyze themselves with fear about what programs best fits their body, there strength level, etc. If these are the questions you’re asking yourself then all you really need to do is get in the weight room and press something, squat something, and pick something up off the ground and work on doing it correctly and everything will fall into place.
Mentality
This encompasses a great deal of things which is why when talking about it I like to refer to Mike Robertson’s T-Nation articletitled, “7 Reasons Everyone Should do a Powerlifting Meet” (http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/7_reasons_everyone_should_do_a_powerlifting_meet ). This is an awesome article and spells out everything in a very simple way. In order to do a powerlifting meet you have to be able to do one thing… to truly say that you care nothing about what other people think of you. Most of the time when people tell me why they don’t want to do a meet it’s because they are scared of other people. They tell me they don’t want to embarrass themselves or they say there not as strong as everybody else. No one cares that you’re not as strong as them and no one’s waiting to laugh at you for failing a lift or bombing out of a meet. It is perfectly understandable to be afraid of putting yourself out there for people to see you fail. However, it is unacceptable to allow that fear to control your actions. It is your ability to face and overcome your fears that will define you as a person. So what if you fail? Failure is a marker of two things; that you actually tried and that you learned.
I don’t care who you are or how long you’ve been training; I implore you to go sign up for a meet. It doesn’t matter what federation or where it is just sign up for it. Find one that is 10-14 weeks away and go train for it. Can’t squat, bench, or deadlift correctly? Go turn in an entry form and your hard-earned money and I BET you will learn how to do all of those things pretty quick. Don’t wait around saying “well, I’ll just wait a little bit until I get stronger” or “I’ll wait a little bit until I feel a little more comfortable”. If your training for something you’re going to get stronger than if you aren’t, FACT! Chances are if your excuse is that you’re waiting to feel a little more comfortable then you probably rarely step out of your comfort zone when it comes to other aspects of your life as well. If you choose to test your limits then go to http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/and find a meet.
That first meet changed more than just how I approach lifting – because the lessons you learn from training and competition can be carried over to nearly every aspect of your life. -Mike Robertson
[vsw id="V6xLYt265ZM&feature=related" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]
2012 USAPL Richmond Open: Meet Results
I competed in the 2012 USAPL Richmond Open this past weekend and it was a huge success for me. I hit a PR in the squat and deadlift as well as my meet total! I competed at 181 and weighed in Saturday morning at 180.9 after cutting about 10lbs (first time I’ve had to cut weight). For anyone who read my post last week you know that I was very unsure going into the meet so for me to come out with PRs and meeting my goal of an 1100lbs total (finished with 1136lbs)is a huge deal for me. So without wasting any more time here is the video compilation of my attempts...
[vsw id="Mz3Dw8rR52k" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]
The only thing that even remotely ruffled my feathers as far as judging went was on my squat. On my first attempt I got red lighted for my depth even though I felt I was below parallel. Then on my second I got a white light but the judge still told me I was almost high. So for good measure on my third attempt I decided to hang out in the bottom so there wouldn’t be any question.
Bench press went alright. I was hoping to get around 325 but after my second attempt I only took a little jump. After all the trouble I’d been having with my shirt I was just glad to get on the board. After watching the videos I noticed a bunch of problems. My arch wasn’t as big as it could have been, I tucked my elbows too much then I didn’t flare them on the way up (this causes a loss in leverage), and for the position I started in I hit to low on my chest which threw off my whole stroke.
My deadlift went a lot better than expected. I actually feel like I could have gone much heavier on my last one but whatever I got the weight and the total. I still need to sit back into my heels more and pull back more as opposed to standing straight up which is very evident on my last attempt.
Right now my upcoming goals are to get stronger and continue to refine my technique on my lifts. I don’t like saying that I have to work on my weak points because as far as I’m concerned everything is weak and it all needs to be worked on. Is this the wrong attitude to have? Absolutely not, as I’ve stated before I don’t like feeling content. The moment I feel content and that I’m strong is the moment that I stop working hard and I don’t ever want to stop working hard.
I want to congratulate Carson on his first meet, he did a great job and we are all very proud of him. I also want to thank everyone who came out to support me and who helped me out with my training and everything else. Thanks to Gabe Naspinski who did my programming and also congratulations to him as well for totaling 2100 pounds at his meet in Tampa! Sean was a great training partner and it was a shame he couldn’t attend but he had some very important things to do in New York but thanks again man! My friend and current SAPT intern Tadashi was my handler for the whole thing and did an awesome job taking the stress off me, wrapping my knees, picking weights, etc. so thanks a lot man I couldn’t have done it without you. Steve was there to handle Carson but helped me out as well, he is a great friend and I’m glad he came down.
Tim Henriques was in attendance with his powerlifting team as well. Tim is someone that I look up to in this industry and for him to help out and lend his support like he did was a huge deal for me so thanks Tim!
SAPT’s longtime client and friend Ron came down, which was awesome that he would take a whole Saturday to support Carson and I, thanks Ron! Two of my buddies who I’ve been friends with for as long as I can remember came out as well which was cool for me to share this experience with them, thanks guys. Part of my family made the trek to Richmond too. This meant the world to me so thanks to my sisters, Sissy and Stephanie and to my nephew Trevor who is one of my best friends so that was doubly awesome that he came out.
Last but certainly not least I really want to thank my girlfriend Shannon for everything she did, has done, and will do. She learned very quickly how important competing in powerlifting is for me and she jumped right on board. Without any hint of boredom or annoyance she listens to me day in and day out talk about my training successes and struggles which very few people can pull off. She watches my videos and reads my articles and doesn’t think twice about it. She made the trip with me to Philadelphia to spend two days watching a powerlifting meet that I wasn’t even in! She even drove Tadashi and me to this meet and spent 7 hours waiting to film me and support me for only the 3 total minutes that I was on the platform. I am truly lucky to have her in my life so thank you Shannon, I love you very much!
2012 USAPL Richmond Open: Opening Attempts
The 2012 USAPL Richmond Open is a couple days away and I’ve officially switched into competition mode. This has been a very up and down training cycle. I’m attributing this to trying to get used to my gear and my own impatience. This is my first geared competition (single-ply) and I spent FAR too much time trying to get a lot of weight out of my gear. I rushed into trying to get a lot of support out of my gear which in hindsight was the worst thing I could have done, why? People spend years trying to figure out and use their equipment correctly; I tried to figure it all out in about 11 weeks. This took all of my energy and focus off the NUMBER ONE thing…. Getting stronger! Instead of spending those 11 weeks trying to get the most weight out of my equipment I should have just been trying to get stronger. After all this time I’ve gotten VERY little help out of my equipment and didn’t get much stronger at all. It was extremely impatient and immature of me to do that and trust me when I say I have learned from my mistakes. I know now that learning the gear will come I just need to focus on getting strong. With all that said I’ve sat down and examined everything that has gone on and what I hope to accomplish out of the meet and it’s quite simple…. Perform to the best of my abilities and get at least an 1100 pound total. I put all of this behind me a couple days ago and am now completely focused on the positive. I can tell everyone one thing, no one will compete as hard as me and no one will leave it all on the platform like I will.
Opening Attempts...
[vsw id="l8i1aIImtx4&list=UUKSYQ75Buogznl62rdbks2Q&index=1&feature=plcp" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
-Theodore Roosevelt
3 Awesome Things I've Learned...
I’ve been in the strength and conditioning field for a very short time; luckily I have luck on my side and ended up surrounded by very smart people. Whether it’s coaching, watching my colleagues coach, reading, or training myself I consistently learn something new every day. With that said here are 3 awesome things I’ve learned both as a coach and as someone who trains.
- Keep things simple…
If you’re an inexperienced lifter or you’re dealing with an inexperienced athlete don’t try and get to crazy; you’re not and their not as advanced as you think. Squatting (bodyweight, goblet, barbell), deadlifting (kettlebells, trap bar, straight bar), and pressing (pushups, bench press, overhead press) are the best ways to gain strength, power, and body awareness. If you are just starting out or are coaching someone who is just starting out you will be much better off refining these motor patterns, using progressive overload, and coupling them with unilateral movements like split squats, stepback lunges, bowler squats, single leg balancing. I don’t care if someone is 8 years old or 50 years old these movements form the foundation for athletics and everyday life and should be learned proficiently. Things like powercleans or Turkish getups are awesome but they are advanced. I see absolutely no need to give them to someone who cannot squat, deadlift, or do a pushup correctly. Milk the simplicity of the other exercises for all their worth; you or your athlete will be better for it in the long run.
- Get Experience Under the Bar…
In one of the first conversations I ever had with Sarah was her telling me I need to compete in powerlifting. Her reasons were it would help me learn more about strength and conditioning and it would make me a better coach. I wasn’t quite sure how competing would do both those things but I started training for powerlifting anyway. Time has gone on since then and looking back I completely understand what she was talking about. You cannot be a coach or a trainer unless you get experience under the bar. I was re-watching the EliteFTS BIG seminar with Jim Wendler the other day (which everyone should watch) and he said two things that really stuck with me. Keep in mind I’m paraphrasing here but he said something along the lines of “I have authority on the subject (strength training) because I’ve had a bar on my back, not because of a certification I have or something I read” and later “everything you want to know about lifting can be learned through training”. These are bold statements but they are absolutely true.
If you’re a coach you need to try everything out, you need to get some scratches on you or no one will take your advice. It’s like a tennis player telling you how to improve your golf swing because they read an article about it once, doesn’t make any sense. And if you’re just trying to train stop reading internet articles all day long and go put a barbell on your back and squat it, go pull something heavy off the ground and then press something off your chest or over your head. You can listen all you want to this guy or this girl but the truth is you will NEVER know what works until you do it yourself. Get under the bar!
- Don’t Ever be Content and Always Have Fun…
This is where I feel people lose it. No one should be content whether it’s your knowledge base, your numbers, the money your business brings in, your teaching abilities, it doesn’t matter always strive to be better. If you’re a coach you shouldn’t ever come to a place where you say “I know everything I need to know” because you don’t. The greatest strength coaches in the world still educate themselves and then apply it. This is what’s going to make you and your athletes better. If you’re just a person trying to get stronger that’s great but once you hit a specific goal, don’t stop there, make a new one. I’m not saying don’t be happy about what you’ve done because that’s ridiculous. You should be happy about what you’ve accomplished and you should reflect on those achievements but strive for more.
This leads into my next point of having fun while you’re doing all of this. There hasn’t been one day where I haven’t had fun training or coaching. Are there days where I’m tired and don’t necessarily feel like going to train? Yeah, but by the end I had fun and am glad I did it. And as far as coaching or teaching for that matter, if you’re not enjoying helping people get better and realize their potential than you need a new career. That has been the best part of coaching and teaching for me is that I can truly have fun. I can joke around with the clients and athletes and I can help them reach their goals. People want to be so serious and mope around all the time, I don’t get it. We have all had some bad stuff happen in our lives but its our ability to overcome that makes life great. Life is truly short and we need to enjoy it and have some fun while we’re living it. With that said, I’ll leave you with this… because it’s funny!
