Women, the “Gym,” and Other Overheard Topics

Yesterday I had a meeting at Starbucks. I got there about an hour early to relax, think, and knock out a bit of work. I quickly was aware of two young women sitting at a table near mine who were home from college and spending time catching up with one another. Being “quickly aware” is my nice way of saying they were talking pretty loud and somehow interjecting “…like…” into every sentence. I tried my best to focus and ignore the chatter, but soon some things outside of the ordinary started popping through the filter:

1. “…we broke up because he was psychologically abusive…”
2. “…it’s [the gym] is like my refuge. Everyone knows that’s MY time…”
3. “…I’ve lost like 20lbs since freshmen year… I was so obsessed with everything I ate…”
4. “I have an app that’s like my best friend – it lets you put EVERYTHING in it… food, cardio…”

It was such a bizarre set of things to hear from two complete strangers. From the outside these girls looked like they had everything together. The typical trendy clothes, out of place (for December) tan, attractive, enjoying college, etc.… you get the idea. But, I found it pretty disturbing that they were dealing with non-typical issues like abuse, eating disorders, and generally struggling to figure out who they are as adults.

Eventually my meeting started and I forgot about the girls. Although they were still there talking after my 90-min meeting ended. I’m not sure what I feel about this, or even why I’m writing about this, but I guess I just always think it’s such a shame that so many women go through these types of struggles. I’m glad the pair enjoys training so much and have identified it as critical time for themselves. Time and time again addressing your health and fitness via strength and cardiovascular training gives amazing amounts of confidence to men and women of all ages.

Well, the whole issue of confidence reminded me of the “The Top 10 Reasons Heavy Weights Don’t Bulk Up the Female Athlete” that I helped out with when I was down at VCU:

1. Women do not have nearly as much testosterone as men. In fact, according to Bill Kreamer in Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, women have about 15 to 20 times less testosterone than men. Testosterone is the reason men are men and women are women. After men hit puberty, they grow facial hair, their voice deepens, and they develop muscle mass. Because men have more testosterone, they are much more equipped to gain muscle. Because women do not have very much testosterone in their bodies, they will never be able to get as big as men.

2. The perception that women will bulk up when they begin a strength training program comes from the chemically-altered women on the covers of bodybuilding magazines. These “grocery stand models” are most likely pumped full of some extra juice. This is why they look like men. If you take the missing link that separates men from women and add it back in, what do you have? A man!

3. For women, toning is what happens when the muscle is developed through training.  This is essentially bodybuilding without testosterone. Since the testosterone is not present in sufficient amounts, the muscle will develop, but it won’t gain a large amount of mass.  The “toned” appearance comes from removing the fat that is covering a well-developed muscle.

4. Muscle bulk comes from a high volume of work. The repetition range that most women would prefer to do (8–20 reps) promotes hypertrophy (muscle growth). For example, a bodybuilding program will have three exercises per body part. For the chest, they will do flat bench for three sets of 12, incline for three sets of 12, and decline bench for three sets of 12. This adds up to 108 total repetitions. A program geared towards strength will have one exercise for the chest—flat bench for six sets of three with progressively heavier weight. This equals 18 total repetitions. High volume (108 reps) causes considerable muscle damage, which in turn, results in hypertrophy. The considerably lower volume (18 reps) will build more strength and cause minimal bulking.

5. Heavy weights will promote strength not size. This has been proven time and time again. When lifting weights over 85 percent, the primary stress imposed upon the body is placed on the nervous system, not on the muscles. Therefore, strength will improve by a neurological effect while not increasing the size of the muscles. And, according to Zatsiorsky and Kreamer in Science and Practice of Strength Training, women need to train with heavy weights not only to strengthen the muscles but also to cause positive adaptations in the bones and connective tissues.

6. Bulking up is not an overnight process. Many women think they will start lifting   weights, wake up one morning, and say “Holy sh__! I’m huge!” This doesn’t happen.   The men that you see who have more muscle than the average person have worked hard for a long time (years) to get that way. If you bulk up overnight, contact us because we want to do what you’re doing.

7. What the personal trainer is prescribing is not working. Many female athletes come into a new program and say they want to do body weight step-ups, body weight lunges,   and leg extensions because it’s what their personal trainer back home had them do. However, many of these girls need to look in a mirror and have a reality check because   their trainer’s so-called magical toning exercises are not working. Trainers will hand out easy workouts and tell people they work because they know that if they make the program too hard the client will complain. And, if the client is complaining, there’s a   good chance the trainer might lose that client (a client to a trainer equals money).

8. Bulking up is calorie dependant. This means if you eat more than you are burning, you will gain weight. If you eat less than you are burning, you will lose weight. Unfortunately, most female athletes perceive any weight gain as “bulking up” and do not give attention to the fact that they are simply getting fatter. As Todd Hamer, a strength and conditioning coach at George Mason University said, “Squats don’t bulk you up. It’s the ten beers a night that bulk you up.” This cannot be emphasized enough.

If you’re a female athlete and training with heavy weights (or not), you need to watch   what you eat. Let’s be real—the main concern that female athletes have when coming to   their coach about gaining weight is not their performance but aesthetics. If you choose to ignore this fact as a coach, you will lose your athletes!

9. The freshman 15 is not caused by strength training. It is physiologically impossible to gain 15 lbs of muscle in only a few weeks unless you are on performance enhancing   drugs. Yes the freshman 15 can come on in only a few weeks. This becomes more   complex when an athlete comes to a new school, starts a new training program, and also   has a considerable change in her diet (i.e. only eating one or two times per day in addition   to adding 6–8 beers per evening for 2–4 evenings per week). They gain fat weight, get   slower, and then blame the strength program. Of course, strength training being the   underlying cause is the only reasonable answer for weight gain. The fact that two meals per day has slowed the athlete’s metabolism down to almost zero and then the multiple beers added on top of that couldn’t have anything to do with weight gain...it must be the   lifting.

10.  Most of the so-called experts are only experts on how to sound like they know what they are talking about. The people who “educate” female athletes on training and   nutrition have no idea what they’re talking about. Let’s face it—how many people do you know who claim to “know a thing or two about lifting and nutrition?” Now, how many   people do you know who actually know what they’re talking about, have lived the life,   dieted down to make a weight class requirement, or got on stage at single digit body fat?   Invariably, these so-called experts are also the people who blame their gut on poor genetics.

Okay, okay... I know I've posted and re-posted this thing more than once in the past... but, it's important to keep passing this type of information along.

What tha... it's Monday already?!?

It literally just registered on my drive in this morning that Steve is officially out-of-town and I am officially in charge of all but the Thursday post. Yikes! Okay, here's what I've got for today and I promise I'll get myself together for the rest of the week: 1. We were out finishing our Christmas shopping yesterday and ventured into the American Girl store in Tysons. Our neices are into these dolls. Ummmm, so I'd heard about the long lines, the in-house cafe, the crazy expensive outfits, etc. What I had NOT heard about is this:

I feel like this could potentially be the picture that accompanies the definition of opulence. Well, I will not be surprised when Arabella requests an American Girl doll in the future, but I'll be damned if I pay a grown woman to style that doll's hair. I wasn't into dolls growing up (I know, shocker), but isn't learning how to dress and style your doll supposed to be part of the whole idea?

2. Teens, Sugary Drinks, and Exercise: Scare Tactic Works - This is an interesting post from Fooducate citing the behavorial changes that occur in teenagers while they considered which beverage to purchase.

3. An Ode to Training Partners - from Ryan Wood

I began powerlifting about a year ago and have been completely addicted ever since.  People enjoy many things as hobbies; some knit, some read novels, some collect stamps, and some play in adult sports leagues.  Me on the other hand; what do I do for fun?  I pick up heavy things off the floor, I press heavy things off my chest, and I put heavy things on my back and squat them; all on a platform in front of people.  Am I crazy? Most certainly.  Luckily I have found people equally as crazy (maybe more so).  These insane young men are my training partners and I wouldn’t have made near the gains that I have without them.

As far as I’m concerned training partners are almost a necessity unless you have a coach.  I don’t care if you’re just training for the sake of training, training to be a strongman, for athletics, or for powerlifting; training partners and coaches should be with you.  There’s no way you will make the same gains solo as you would with people training right alongside you.  They will provide you with an array of ways to make improvements that you otherwise wouldn’t know.  They will give you feedback and cues at every step of the way, they will be there as a support system on your good days and bad, and lastly they will be there to motivate you; inspiring and encouraging feats you didn’t think were possible.

If any of you have trained, and I mean seriously trained you know that you will have good days, bad days, and downright depressing days; it’s just the way it is.  I’ll tell you one thing though, if I didn’t have my training partners as a support system my good days wouldn’t be nearly as good, my bad days would be worse, and my depressing days would probably have made me quit powerlifting by now.  Finally, my training partners are my motivators.  I have tried things because of them that have led me to succeed where I thought I would have failed; and I am very grateful and a lot stronger for that.  On the other side of the coin, I have tried things because of them that have led me to fail BUT at least they encouraged me to do something I wouldn’t normally have had the guts to do and I am grateful for that as well.

To end this sappy rant about how awesome training partners are (hopefully my training partner’s heads’ aren’t too swelled after this), I’ll end with my boy Sean’s epic 500lbs rack pull that he wouldn’t even have tried by that point in his training without myself and John.  NICE PULL HEALY!!!

Emphasize Individual Pathways to Sport Expertise

Research on expertise, talent identification and development has tended to be mono-disciplinary, typically adopting genocentric or environmentalist positions, with an overriding focus on operational issues. In this paper, the validity of dualist positions on sport expertise is evaluated. It is argued that, to advance understanding of expertise and talent development, a shift towards a multidisciplinary and integrative science focus is necessary, along with the development of a comprehensive multidisciplinary theoretical rationale. Here we elucidate dynamical systems theory as a multidisciplinary theoretical rationale for capturing how multiple interacting constraints can shape the development of expert performers. This approach suggests that talent development programmes should eschew the notion of common optimal performance models, emphasize the individual nature of pathways to expertise, and identify the range of interacting constraints that impinge on performance potential of individual athletes, rather than evaluating current performance on physical tests referenced to group norms.

Did you grab the essence of that abstract? I'll wait while you read it once more and let everything sink in...

Fascinating. Often in team sport the coaches and, thus, the athletes become focused on everyone on the team achieving the same physical performance norms. For example: everyone on a soccer team must achieve or exceed 11-minutes on the Beep Test, every front row player on a women's volleyball team must touch at least 10'0", or every 100m sprinter must perform at least 75 continuous push-ups.

But what if EVERY athlete simply can not achieve these norms? As a coach, what is the message you send? Is it one of insistence upon achieving the norm at the detriment to development of more important skill sets? Or to the detriment of continuing to develop a well-rounded athlete that in the long-run may, in fact, exceed these norms?

The message in this abstract ("Expert performance in sport and the dynamics of talent development."

Sports Medicine

2010.) is the same message we send to parents, athletes, and coaches alike at SAPT. We constantly emphasize individual successes and performance over and above any comparative norms. And this is the ROOT of why we provide unique and individual programming for every single one of our clients. Why would you train exactly like someone else? You're unique, right? I know I am. My strengths are different than yours. And my weaknesses will be just as unique to me.

Do yourself or your kid a favor when looking for performance training options (be it physical preparation, technical skill development, or mental performance) and seek out the sources that provide an individually focused approach. Yes, it will cost a few dollars more than, say, an enormous "speed camp" cattle call, but in the end it will be well worth it to foster true performance development in your athlete.

30 Things I Want to Share

I started this post back in September when I noticed that I was exactly 30 years and 30 weeks old, thus, the 30 points I want to share. I hope you enjoy this one... going back and rereading what I had written, I realized this post was better than I originally gave it credit for. Lots of things I've learned about training, coaching, and life throughout!

• I’ve discovered that with every moment older I get, the less and less interested in material objects I become. I guess this is how real adults are able to buy things like vacation homes and afford retirement.
• Weight training does not make women gain weight, unless they are eating like they want to gain weight.

• Considering the cost of gas consumption when purchasing a car is one of the greatest financial lessons my parents ever taught me. It is also the reason why we own a Prius.
• Imposing a strict tempo is probably the most important change I’ve made in my programming over the last 4 years. Prior to that I really had very little appreciation for how powerful training the eccentric and isometric portions of every movement can be.
• Knowing you can provide well for you children is hugely satisfying.

• I frequently feel that only a handful of trainers/coaches in the world actually know how to teach a squat correctly.
• A professor I had in undergrad once told me "a Bachelor’s degree simply shows you have the ability to commit to something and finish it over a long period of time. The people at your first job will still have to teach you what you really need to know." It’s all about experience.
• Certifications mean very little. It’s, again, all about experience.
• Everyone who lives in and around DC should check out the National Arboretum. It’s a beautiful and relaxing place to unwind.
• I recently read a running book that did a much greater job explaining the importance of working at your current pacing level (i.e. % of 1RM for weights) than any weight-training book I’ve ever read. The book is Daniel’s Running Formula.
• Every trained female should be able to perform at least 3 pull-ups. I used to make excuses for myself about why I would never be able to do them… then I smartened up and figured out a great pull-up progression (see #9). After a bit of time, I found myself doing sets of 10 dead-hang pull-ups.
• Mel Siff’s Supertraining is still the most comprehensive book about anything ever written. My mind is blown every time I crack that book open. How someone produces a work like that is beyond my understanding.
• You can tell a great deal about how parents raise their children by how their kids act in the face of a challenge.
• “If you want to be fast, you have to move fast.” This is referring to bar speed in the weight room.
• “You will pass out before you die.” Another great weight room quote from a mentor of mine.
• If you’re unsure about set/rep schemes as they relate to percentage of 1RM. You MUST read Tim Kontos’ article on Prilepin’s Chart. I continue to reference this when I need solid guidance on final decisions in volume and intensity.
• Working to become less egocentric is an important endeavor to improve overall satisfaction with your life. For example, women who avoid the free weight area of a gym because “all the guys stare at me.” No they don’t. Get over yourself.
• Coaches (strength or sport) who become frustrated at athletes easily are not well equipped to be teaching in the first place. We’re teaching more than how to set a screen or do a pushup, we’re teaching life skills.

• Not having spent any time around babies before having one, I never really knew what the big-deal was… I get it now!
• Everyone should consider wearing shoes that have a zero drop or a very low drop. I don’t like the term “barefoot” shoes because you’re not barefoot. You still have shoes on they just don’t have any elevation change from heel to toe.
• You will be better off if you make an effort to go to sleep and wake up at around the same time every day (yes, weekend days are still days, so they count towards this).
• You don’t have to yell at athletes and put on a big show to get them motivated to perform. Just treat them calmly and with respect. Get excited when appropriate.

• Television is such a massive waste of time.
• Work on soft-tissue quality regularly.

• I fully believe in the idea and pursuit of the American Dream.

What is Your Secret?

Many of you may be familiar with Ross, who, I personally believe, is the only human being alive who seems to possess outstanding development of all three of his energy systems. I mean, how many people do you know that can - on any given day of the week, mind you - perform a true 1-arm pullup, deadlift over 550lbs, do 1-arm standing rollouts (with a weight vest), jump rope like he's in fast forward, and slay dragons? Below are two awesome clips that many of you have probably already seen, but I post them for those that haven't (or for those that can't get enough of this stuff):

'Nuff said.

He has accomplished what many people strive for in multiple sectors (strength, endurance, body composition, etc.). And he has done this primarily by training with minimal equipment either in his home garage or outside.

One of the things I like most about Ross is he has a great way of boiling complex topics down and communicating them in a way that makes it easy for his followers to understand. Not too long ago, I was reading some of the forums on his site, and someone asked him,

"Ross, what did you do to accomplish what you did?"

They were, of course, referring to some particular piece of equipment, or maybe a secret training methodology they hadn't heard of/tried before. The point is, they wanted to know what his "secret" was.

Ross responded with a simple yet profound piece of training advice:

Years and years of hard work.

That was it. That was all he said. I chuckled to myself at my desk, as I knew the person asking the question may have been slightly miffed and probably felt like Ross was short-changing him by not giving him a complete answer. The reality was that couldn't have been further from the truth; Ross was giving the young person probably the best thing he/she could have heard.

This got me thinking about how important the virtue of patience really is. There are countless athletes that will never see their full potential come to fruition because of impatience. Or someone whose goals lie strictly in the aesthetic realm may never succeed because it's always an "I want it now" approach.

Leo Tolstoy, the famous author of War and Peace, wrote in that very novel:

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."

So true. And, carrying that quote over to the exercise science realm: a program written by an expert coach who perfectly manipulates intensity, frequency, exercise selection, and volume, will do nothing for someone who lacks patience. Impatience will dissolve any potential positive outcome that could be attained by intelligent program design.

Athletes and non-athletes alike will never get to where they want to be unless they're willing to fight tooth and nail, every single day, for years and years on end. If a client/athlete approaches me and is too impatient to be willing to progress through one step at a time, then I honestly can't really help them. I can't be the coach they need to take them from Point A to Point B unless they can actually understand that there is no magic pill.

I receive countless questions on a monthly basis through email, Facebook, and in-person meetings on "how can I lose this weight" or "how can I increase my vertical ten inches over the next month" or, my favorite, the good ol' "what is the best exercise I can do to make my pecs bigger?"

I've honestly boiled down my answer to:

"Eat whole, unprocessed foods. Pick up heavy things. Repeat this for years on end."

Sometimes this irritates people, but it's the truth. In fact, it makes training all the more enjoyable when you're expectations are realistic.

That's all for now...I don't think I really have a closing point, but I hope Ross's lesson to the young padawan in the beginning hits home for some of you. Years and years of hard work....well, let's all keep goin' then.

I'm Ready to Admit a Few Things

I wanted to give an update to my plant-based dietary efforts this week and also thought there were a couple other things on my mind worth acknowledging/admitting to. Thank goodness people tend to become wiser as they get older…

1. Plant-based diets do not make you stronger, that’s for sure. BUT, they do keep you healthy and help you maintain a healthy body-weight. I’ve been eating a plant-based diet for about 18 or 19 months now. I won’t call myself a vegan or a vegetarian as that’s not completely accurate, but I will tell you that I consume animal products (dairy, meat, poultry, pork, etc.) only about 2% of the time. Here is what I’ve learned:
   • Plant-based diets always get big criticism for their cost, well, let me tell you we spend about 35% less at the grocery store each week than we used to. When you’re not buying family packs of chicken breasts each week, plus all the other animal protein products, your grocery bill takes a nose-dive. We used to spend around $100/week on groceries and now we average between $50-70/week.
   • I eat copious amounts of carbohydrates and maintain a lower body weight than I have in about 10 years. Read into the details there however you want, but I have zero cravings as compared to the way I used to eat (high protein, moderate fat, low/moderate carbohydrate).
   • I’m reducing my risk of a variety of diseases – cancer being the most notable. Cancer risk has been (via credible research) linked to the consumption of animal products, especially dairy. The cancer reason is 100% why I started this endeavor in the first place as cancer has left its mark on my family.
   • You can also reduce your risk of a variety of diseases by eating lots of plants and lean meats.
   • Here’s the biggie: MY STRENGTH LEVELS ARE NOTABLY LOWER than they were before I embraced this dietary lifestyle. Initially, I thought this was a pregnancy by-product issue, but Arabella is now 16-months old, so clearly, that’s no longer the problem. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t morphed into a weakling, I am usually the strongest female in any room (unless Kelsey is around…), just not by such a large margin anymore! Honestly, I’m not surprised I haven’t been able to gain strength, but I am shocked I haven't been able to come close to achieving pre-pregnancy strength levels.

     

2. Speed squats and/or speed deadlifts triumph over Olympic lifts each and every day of the week in terms of the MOST efficient way to improve explosiveness and strength (I feel like I preach this at least once a week). But, if you consider yourself a strength coach, you better have an excellent knowledge base about how to implement all aspects of strength-speed training – and this includes the Olympic lifts.
3. In the past (thankfully, this is years in the past) I may have been overheard saying something to the effect of “I don’t get it why parents always use their kids as an excuse for not getting to workout. Just commit the time.” And I guarantee whatever variation of this statement I actually used would have been laced with some pretty heavy cynicism. But, I will now admit – as a parent myself – that fitting training into the details of every day is quite a challenge. But, I often remind myself that while I'm training for a lot of personal goals, I'm also training to set an example for my daughter. I want her to see that training is an essential and healthy part of being a responsible adult and something I want her to learn to embrace over time. So, if you’re a parent who fits training into their daily or weekly routine, give yourself a pat on the back!