Lessons the Shirt Taught Me
Things got real weird on Friday night training with Ryan. What was scheduled to be a regular heavy bench session turned into my first time putting on a bench shirt. I have helped Ryan with his powerlifting gear many times before, but I've never really experienced first-hand how it feels to be in a squat suit or a bench shirt. Lesson #1: It's Not Comfortable
I learned very quickly that it doesn't feel too awesome being in the shirt. Getting it on was a pain, but I knew that was coming. I was used to being the guy on the other side of the shirt trying to force the shirt onto another human being, so I expected some discomfort. Luckily however, it was Ryan's old single-ply shirt and his enormous gunzzz stretched out the sleeves pretty nicely, making it a relatively smooth process to put it on. By the time we got the shirt on and got the sleeves and seams exactly where we wanted them I already wanted to take it off. It's super tight and forces you into a weird mummy-like position with your arms dangling out in front of you. You can't really do much about this situation until the shirt comes off.
I found myself rushing the rest periods between sets because I was more focused on getting the final set over with so I could take the evil thing off.
Lesson #2 I Couldn't Keep My Arch
The arched back seen in bench pressing is often demonized as being a flaw in technique or disadvantageous when trying to target the pecs. Whatever. I use an arch when benching because it helps to keep me tight on the bench, allows for better leg drive and provides better leverage overall to perform the lift. When benching "raw", I feel pretty confident about my arch, and I can keep it tight during the entirety of the lift. When benching in the shirt, however, I found myself losing my arch midway through the descending portion of the lift. This leads me to lesson #3...
Lesson #3 My Upper Back Is WEAK!
The shirt exposed my deep dark secret that my upper back is not up to par. When bench pressing in gear, the bar will not come down to your chest without a fight. You literally have to PULL the bar down while forcing yourself to maintain a proper arch. This takes some serious upper and mid back strength that I just didn't have. I could feel my arch collapsing and my once tightly packed shoulders becoming... not so tightly packed. Even when benching raw I always remember the cues to "row the bar down with the lats" and "keep the upper back tight," and I felt that I understood. The shirt let me know that what I originally thought was "tight enough" was an epic fail waiting to happen.
Although the shirt made me feel like a total n00b I walked away from the session with a lot to think about and a lot learned about my bench technique. I probably got some pretty good "overload" stimulation from the heavier weights that the shirt enabled me to use as well. Until next time, I'll just keep hammering away at heavy rows and pull-ups.
For your entertainment, here are a couple videos from the Friday night bench party.
SAPT College Baseball Training Testimonials: Red Dowdell, Ryan Dickt, & Kent Blackstone
A number of our athletes are headed off to compete in collegiate sports this year, and three of our baseball guys were kind enough to take a couple moments in order to provide some insight into how training at SAPT has helped them to prepare for the high level of competition they'll be facing this upcoming season. I should also note that what they didn't say on camera is that they are some of the hardest working athletes I know, giving it their 100% each and every single time they walked in the door. A good training program is nothing without the athlete following it through no matter what "life" throws at them outside the gym walls, so I tip my hat to these guys for consistently training with conviction and purpose, and setting a shining example to everyone who's fortunate enough to work alongside them.
Take it away fellas!
Red Dowdell - Virginia Military Institute
Position: Catcher High School (Senior) Honors: First-Team All-Met 2012, National District Player of the Year 2012
(Note: Below is Red hitting a big deadlift PR at the end of in-season training this past Spring)
Ryan Dickt - Patrick Henry Junior College
Position: Catcher High School (Senior) Honors: National District Player of the Year 2012, 2nd Team All-Region
(Note: Below is Ryan performing a ground-to-standing transitional movement drill in preparation for the upcoming baseball season.)
Kent Blackstone - New Mexico State University
Position: Shortstop High School (Senior) Honors: First-Team All Met 2012
Best of luck to all you gentlemen this next year!
Are Your Getting the Most Out of Your Squat?
I recently bought the 3rd edition of Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. As I read through it I had a light bulb go on when reading the squat section more specifically when he refers to body positioning based on your chosen bar placement, high bar or low bar. Rip is a huge proponent of the low bar squat (I am as well) however a lot of people find this position extremely uncomfortable so they utilize a high bar, which is perfectly fine. In order to make your squat efficient as possible however, you need to make sure you are utilizing the proper leverages. Rip does a great job explaining just how to do this and what your body position should look like based on your bar placement. I decided to take a very little snippet from the book about this subject and talk about it a little more in hopes of helping your squat out. Please keep in mind this is all referring to a normal free squat with a straight bar, not variations there of (cambered bar, safety squat bar, etc.).
To kind of reiterate the point you can observe the pictures below to get a better feel for body position based on bar placement. For more in depth information I strongly recommend purchasing Starting Strength.
Random Thoughts: Facing Challenges and Gallagher
I have two random thoughts for the day. The first is just about the positive changes going on with SAPT and its crew and the lesson you can take away from it. The second is a training update from… MY GIRLFRIEND!
SAPT and its employees have been going through quite the change as of late, and it’s been all for the better. Sarah had a handsome little boy Duke while simultaneously working as a full time strength coach at a D1 university AND running a full time business. Kelsey has become fully adjusted to her job(s) at SAPT in terms of coaching and also dealing with current clients, potential clients, new contracts, old contracts, answering a million emails a day, defeating Voldemort, etc. all while swinging a kettle bell. Most people wouldn’t be able to handle ONE of Sarah or Kelsey’s jobs; they manage to do it all. Stevo’s still taking over the world one book, one cue, one article, one program at a time, in his quest to become the best strength coach in the industry and trust me, he’s closer than you think. And just when you think he can’t do his job any better he somehow proves you wrong. In the immortal words of Sir Ludacris, he’s coming for that number one spot!
Then there’s me. The past couple of months have been eye opening for me to say the least and it’s a great feeling to know that SAPT has become my home with a family I love dearly. I’m in the midst of coming into my own with my own discernible differences from my peers in my personal life, coaching style, and even business. It’s truly calming when you realize what is truly important in your life. These are all huge, awesome changes and we’ve done all this while moving facilities. These are the times when you find out what you and your team are made of. Do you see a challenge, look at it in the eye and run away? Or do you stand toe-to-toe and GO GALLAGHER ON IT AND SMASH IT WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER! That’s really my point of telling you all this. You, your friends, your family, your business, your schooling, YOUR TRAINING; it will all be presented with change and challenges. It is how you confront and tackle those changes and challenges that will define you as a person. I always talk about being average and this goes hand in hand with that; the average person will become consumed and beaten down by changes and challenges. The above average person will get up, dust themselves off and go Gallagher on it….
My last random thought is in the form of a training update, not from I, but from my girlfriend Shannon. Since we started dating she has been incredibly supportive and has now shown interest in moving weight (either that or she just wants me to stop bugging her). Nonetheless, I am extremely proud of her quick improvements in confidence and strength. I recently had her start Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength as I believe novice, intermediate, and even advanced lifters can stand to benefit from its simplicity and concepts (I recently started this program as well). Shannon has already seen great strength gains as well as a huge refinement of technique as Starting Strength exposes her to the same barbell movements multiple times per week. Plus, I told her if she lifted consistently for 3 weeks I would take her to see Magic Mike in 3-D. As I said before I am extremely proud of all of her improvements and hard work as well as her commitment and consistency. The video below is a clip from one of her recent squat sessions. Look at that technique! She must have a good coach.
Some Get Jacked Recipes
I get questions all the time about what I eat and how I train (mostly from friends and the high schoolers we work with) which I’ve answered before on my blog posts. However, I don’t do it very often so I figured I’d make it more of a reoccurring thing so here are two recipes I’ve been hooked on lately. Recipes
My nutrition is something that I’m really on top of or something that falls to my last priority; I’m never in the middle. I get really busy during the week which is what I hear from the high schoolers as well. With that in mind I need to take time on Sunday to cook my food for the week. I am always looking for something new that is going to taste good, be healthy for me and will last all week. Just ask Stevo and Kelsey, anytime they cook something new or are on a new kick I usually jack their style and will bring it in the next day to work. Lately,they have been utilizing a slower cooker/crock pot to do a lot of their cooking (who am I kidding; KELSEY has been utilizing a crock pot lately for their cooking… just joking Stevo, but seriously…). So I jumped on the bandwagon and let me tell you, it’s awesome the stuff you can do with it. I’ve been experimenting with different recipes and here is my favorite one so far.
Spicy BBQ Chicken
- 3-4 pounds of boneless chicken breast into the slow cooker
- Mix up the following ingredients in a separate bowl
- 1 (12-14 ounce) bottle of spicy or regular BBQ sauce (try and find BBQ sauce with natural ingredients)
- ½ cup Italian salad dressing (again try to find one with natural ingredients, if you don’t pay attention you’re going to buy one with a lot of artificial sweeteners and flavors)
- ¼ cup of natural brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
- Once this is all mixed pour it over the chicken in the slow cooker
- Depending on how big the chicken breasts are you’re going to want to cook it for 6-8 hours on low
The great thing about this is that yeah it takes a long time but the prep takes about 10 min. Once you throw it in the slow cooker you don’t have to go back to it until it’s done. By the time it’s done the chicken should be really soft and look shredded like the picture below. I usually eat this with 4% milk fat cottage cheese and some stir fried vegetables.
Homemade Protein Bars
I have been struggling as of late to get in enough calories so I have been looking for ways to help remedy the situation. I used to eat store bought protein bars back in the day between meals. However, they are usually really processed and have a great deal of artificial ingredients. I decided to go find a recipe online that suited my goals. I found a great one and just made my own modifications to it. So here is the recipe for a better alternative to a store bought protein bar.
- Mix up the following ingredients in a bowl…
- 8 whole eggs
- 6 heaping scoops of whey protein (I used Optimum Nutrition’s Vanilla Ice Cream whey)
- 4 cups of oatmeal
- 300ml of almond milk
- 4 tbsp. of brown sugar
- 3 tbsp. of NATURAL peanut butter (if you look at the ingredients it should just say peanuts, that’s it)
- And my favorite part…. A LOT OF CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!!
Once you have everything mixed up then lightly grease a one inch deep cookie sheet with olive oil or coconut oil and pour on the mixture. The mixture should look pretty gooey like the picture below; it won’t look as dry as cookie dough does.
Cook in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. It might not look cooked because it does not brown like cookies do so just do the fork/toothpick trick to check if it’s done (picture also below).
In hindsight I should have made two batches because I have been devouring them this week. This is a great way to get in some extra nutrient dense calories that you can keep in the fridge all week. So for all the high school kids who tell me they don’t have time to eat, you have no excuse anymore.
You Might Have a Bad Strength Coach or Trainer If....
I’ve had many conversations with family, friends, and random people about general fitness and what they should be doing. For the most part people tend to be know-it-alls and really aren’t seeking my professional opinion. All they really want is affirmation that what they are currently doing is correct. When I go on to tell them that standing on a BOSU ball doing dumbbell curls actually does nothing for their physical fitness level they get very defensive with me. Maybe they’re actually angry about the fact they spent a bunch of money on a useless piece of equipment, who knows? The other people who are actually interested in my advice tend to tell me they want to get a personal trainer or a strength coach to oversee their training. This realization they come to is a mixed bag for me. On one hand I’m excited for them that they are willing to invest their time and hard earned money in their personal health. On the other hand I’m weary of their decision. The reason being is that there are so many terrible trainers out there that these honest hardworking people are going to end up flushing their money away. I refuse to sugarcoat things for anyone which is why I tell them exactly this if they tell me they want a trainer/coach. They respond with “well, how do I figure out if the trainer/coach is good or not?” Great question! My answer USED TO BE to make sure they have a bachelor’s degree in something exercise related and to make sure they have their CSCS or CPT through the NSCA. As I’ve gone on in my career I have come to understand how WRONG I was. Since I’ve been a strength coach I’ve found that neither of these things mean you are a good trainer (it doesn’t mean you’re a bad one either, I myself have both). This lesson has been learned through life’s greatest teaching tool, experience. Some of the best fitness professionals I know have neither of these. So, what do I tell people now? Honestly, I try and keep it short but the following are some things you should find out before enlisting the aid of a trainer or coach. Without further ado; You Might Have a Bad Strength Coach or Trainer If….
- You don’t see any pull up, row, squat, deadlift, or pushup variations (because these aren’t functional movements right?)
- They use the word “functional” or “core” more than 5 times within the first 5 minutes of meeting them (“What we’re going to do for your first session is get you up on this wobbly lookin’ platform and have you squat for 2 sets of 15 reps to really help your “functional” balance and to really get you to engage your “core”. Don’t worry about that pain in your knee, that’s perfectly normal.”)
- There is any type of bicep curl at the beginning of your program (just trying to sculpt the guns BRO!)
- They have you do a cable row while squatting on a BOSU ball (two birds with one stone right?)
- They have you perform a snatch without teaching you how to goblet squat correctly (DUDE! It’s all about being explosive. Forget about the back pain, correct form is for SISSYS’!!!)
- They have never heard of a goblet squat (I feel like it has something to do with Harry Potter, am I close?)
- They have no idea who the following people are (comic book villains?)
-Mel Siff -Tudor Bompa -Leo Matveyev -Yuri Verkhoshansky
- They ever put you on a BOSU ball or wobble board and try to get you to pistol squat holding a med ball over your head (Hey guy! I thought I told you, we are trying to functionally engage your core)
- They look like this guy…
- Honestly, it’ll just save us some time if I just say… They have you do anything on an unstable surface (I know I know, we get it… It’s all about being functional and engaging your core)
- Their idea of a good deadlift looks like this… (We want to take your hamstrings and glutes completely out of it. It’s all about using your lower back and lifting the bar with a jerking twisting motion.)
[vsw id="YyhHDQ7X0dA" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]
- Your workout consists mostly of ladder drills and cone drills (It doesn’t matter that you can’t squat 15lbs correctly; it’s all about working on your AGILITY!)
- You get thrown on a bench press yet still can’t do a bodyweight pushup correctly (If you can’t bench press 315lbs you will never be a good athlete…. HAHAHA! Sorry, I couldn’t keep a straight face with that one)
- They coach you on how to turn your pinky up at the top of a bicep curl (FOR THE LAST TIME! We are trying to sculpt the guns!!!)
- They tell you that the only way to get fit is to get on the treadmill everyday (Strength? What do you need strength for? Lifting weights is just going to get you bulky and then that muscle will turn to fat when you’re older. I see you have an awesome valgus collapse going on in your knees and your feet have no arch whatsoever… Sweet! Let’s go run for 30 minutes on the treadmill!)
I’m running short on time, that’s all I can think of for right now. RELAX internet warriors; I’m only 99% serious, HA!
If anyone has any other ones they want to share then feel free to post it to the comments section.
