Great Strength and Fitness Must Reads this Week!

A lot of great articles written by the top professionals in the industry this week.

Avoid Holiday Food Cravings Charles Poliquin offers great tips to keep the Holiday weight off from the tempting food cravings.

Shoulder Awareness Eric Cressey teaches some coaching cues to protect your athletes shoulders during important movements.

Strength 101 Lastly, this is an amazing in depth article, by Brandon Patterson, covering strength training periodization blocks and gives an analysis of the different methods (Conventional, Block...). Lengthy, but well worth your time if you are a strength coach, trainer or athlete looking to understand periodization and your programs.

12-12-12 WORKOUT!

I never realized how excited people were about 12-12-12, but with all the excitement here is a workout challenge to try today!

This Challenge is going to be 12 Rounds total, but the Challenge is to see how many rounds you can go while maintaining solid form in each of the 3 exercises! If that takes you all the way to Round 12, then awesome job.

Here are the 3 exercises

Kettlebell Swings: use your lats to lock in your back, drive your hips through @hip extension

Push Ups: butt tight, core tight to keep that invisible straight line from your head to feet.

Inverted Rows (from Barbell, TRX, or Jungle Gym straps): straight legs will be more difficult then bent legs. Don't reach with your back, rather pull yourself to the bar.

You will start with 12 reps of each exercise in Round 1, then 11 reps of each in Round 2, 10 reps in Round 3 and so on... The rest time will be what you need, but keep it short.

KB=kettlebell, PU=push up, IR=inverted row

Round 1: KB-12; PU-12, IR-12

Round 2: KB-11; PU-11, IR-11

Round 3: KB-10; PU-10, IR-10

Round 4: KB-9; PU-9, IR-9

Round 5: KB-8; PU-8, IR-8

Round 6: KB-7; PU-7, IR-7

Round 7: KB-6; PU-6, IR-6

Round 8: KB-5; PU-5, IR-5

Round 9: KB-4; PU-4, IR-4

Round 10: KB-3; PU-3, IR-3

Round 11: KB-2; PU-2, IR-2

Round 12: KB-1; PU-1, IR-1

Once again, always make sure you can maintain good technique throughout all the movements. It will be more beneficial for you to stop when you cannot maintain good posture and body mechanics, rather than work through it. Be smart and enjoy.

Accept the Challenge and leave comments below about what you thought! Happy 12-12-12!

Great Blogs you should be reading!

There is so much information out there today that I get overwhelmed and wonder what is truth and what is not? Thankfully, I have begun to weed out the good from the bad and have found several trustworthy people who write important strength and fitness information backed by science.

Eric Cressey's Blog is a great resource that is kept up to date and is relevant to both athletes and the general population looking to get better. He mostly trains baseball athletes, but is always offering information in all aspects of training (mobility, nutrition, strength lifts, power lifts, marketing tips) that is useful for all types of athletes. He recently put up a great piece about the mechanics of the Front Squat.

Bret Contreras is another guy I trust who simply puts in the work. He is a genius when it comes to Glute training and has a passion for research and is good at it! Our entire industry is a science and Bret's training and knowledge definitely shows this. He also does strength and conditioning research reviews.

Charles Poliquin is also a leader in the strength and health industry and his blog is constantly feeding new information each week. This month alone he has wrote about lower body strength training, muscle gain, fat loss, the effects of coffee on the body and many more.

Of course there are many more great strength coaches out there who are writing about science-based nutrition and training, but these are just a few. It is important to remember that you cannot simply mimic what all these guys do to train. You have to do what is best with your situation and your coaching abilities. However, do not pass up the opportunity to learn from the top professionals in the industry when they are offering free information.

I'll leave you with this: I also subscribe to Mike Boyle's strength coach emails and enjoy reading through his stuff. A few months ago, he was talking about always seeking to get better and not being stuck with your own opinions. He asked, "Are you a know-it-all or a learn-it-all?" A know-it-all is set in the mindset that they have the end all answer and don't even think about getting better. But a learn-it- all is always seeking to get better each day, ask questions from peers and mentors, and not be afraid to fail from time to time. Which are you?

Muscles and Misconceptions

Recently I have had some of my female clients bring up another big misconception in the fitness industry. "If I do strength training, I will get huge muscles. I do not want to look like a female bodybuilder." Sadly, this perception of strength training keeps so many women out of the gym and stuck on the treadmill! However, the truth may surprise you and hopefully change your perspective.

HORMONES
In the case of testosterone, men are more hormonal than women. This is why we were fearfully and wonderfully designed differently. Even with heavy weight lifting, adequate protein requirements, proper recovery, etc; women will not bulk like a female bodybuilder. It simply will not occur and usually will be aided by some sort of steroid supplement. (This is not to take anything away from bodybuilders who are incredibly disciplined and reach amazing levels of strength).

Secondly, some women will not lift heavy weights in fear of bulking up, so they lift really tiny weights for a lot of reps. FACT: Muscle hypertrophy has a physiological response to high volume and when your repetitions are high (6-12), then your volume is high. (Volume-load = sets x repetitons x load lifted). For example, if you bench press 100 lbs, 5 times, for 3 sets, your volume-load = 1500. So even if the female human body could bulk up rapidly (which it cannot), you wouldn't want to isolate your muscles and lift in a high rep range anyways. The thought process behind this is to raise your heart rate and increase your metabolic rate.

Learning to safely and properly lift heavy weight can be very beneficial. There is a myogenic response our muscles experience in which the body recruits (or builds) more contractile proteins from heavy weight lifting. This will increase your metabolic burn and decrease your body fat, which will get you to that "toned" body composition. Of course with all heavy weight lifting, you should only perform a movement that you can maintain proper technique and form throughout the entire lift.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
According to the Nutrition Business Journal, in 2011 dietary supplement sales reached $30 billion. Why do men spend thousands of dollars a year on supplements? Because they have a hard enough time trying to get bigger muscles and achieve a "bulkier" physique themselves! If changing your muscular appearance was that easy, then more people would do it. Men have an advantage to be able to support larger muscle frames and yet they still have trouble reaching their goals.

DO NOT THINK THAT MEANS WOMEN CANNOT BE STRONG!

Women can achieve a firmer, more toned, and overall stronger body from weight lifting. Plus, strength training will increase a female's resistance to injury. Women will not lose flexibility or mobility because strength training can increase the two (which is a topic for another time). The NSCA's Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, by Baechle and Earle,  have shown that women can increase strength at the same rate as men if not faster. Wow!

CONCLUSION
Strength training will not bulk up or rapidly grow a woman's muscles in a natural setting. With educated programming backed by science women can successfully get stronger and reach their body composition goals in a safe manner. Even more, when women do lift weights, it is beneficial to lift heavy weights and not only for the compositional changes they will experience, but also to increase one's resistance to injuries. Deadlifts and barbell squats are appropriate lifts, with good coaching and justified reasoning for the client. It all comes back to specific training for each client. Simply put, Lift heavy for strong muscles.