It could be that the process of getting on the docket with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a long one, and a minefield of politics and considerations.

Let’s be honest, CrossFit and MMA are more popular than sport climbing and boxing these days. So, why are we looking at the latter at the Olympics in Tokyo and not the former?

It could be that the process of getting on the docket with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a long one, and a minefield of politics and considerations.

Both CrossFit and MMA are now legitimately owned by the big financial players who are looking for broad market appeal and profits, and what better endorsement than a place at the Olympics.

Both CrossFit and MMA are within reach of most populations but come on, they have surfing at this year’s games, too. Granted, the bloat that is the Olympics these days makes for a lack of focus and drama which may have fragmented the audiences for the events and reduced viewing dramatically.

I mean, why do we want to try and find our way through hundreds of hours of event programming when we are barely connected to the participants or their disciplines (Olympic viewing figures are down).

Track and field is still the main draw, and everything else is kind of meh. Obviously not to people who like sculling or surfing or show jumping.

The post CrossFit and MMA Should Be Olympic Events appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Billionaires in space is a thing. But, let’s be frank, they didn’t do anything when they go up there other than just look out the window and take selfies. Which seems like a wasted opportunity.

So, we’d like to throw this out there in the hopes that the next one going up, probably Elon Musk, takes up the challenge and makes a significant contribution to world hamstring development.

If you are going to go into space, now that the record of being first up there is done and dusted, how about breaking the world deadlift record which, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, stands at 501 kg (1,104.5 lb), and was achieved by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (Iceland) at Thor’s Power Gym, Kópavogur, Iceland, on 2 May 2020.

A post shared by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (@thorbjornsson)

Before you go all nerd on me and claim that it’s zero g up there and it would be easy to pull a heavy deadlift, let’s do the math, the NASA way. The gravitational constant, g, is different the further you go away from the earth.

On the earth’s surface it is dependent on the mass and radius of the planet. If you go up to about the height the Space Shuttle would be, 200 miles above the earth’s surface, an object would weigh 0.907 times what it weighs on the surface of the earth.

If Musk can make it about 10,000 miles off the surface of the earth, g would be about 0.08 which would make a 1,300 lbs deadlift feel like 106 lbs, and Musk has got to be able to do that. And here’s the kicker, there are no standards or rules for a strict g value when going after the deadlift record.

Otherwise, all deadlifts would have to be performed at the exact same point on the surface of the earth to be created equal or at the same elevation above sea level or something like that. So much math!

In space everyone can lift over 1,000 lbs and that is probably the only reason to get excited about space tourism. Don’t get us started on kipping pull ups versus strict pull ups in the absence of strong gravitational forces. CrossFitter would probably ruin the space craft dropping stuff anyhow.

The post Billionaires in Space: World Deadlift Record at Stake appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Hasewaga et al (2020) assert that 1 in 10 people will develop plantar fasciitis in their review of minimally invasive treatment of plantar fasciitis. The term itself is applied to inflammation and micro-tearing of the plantar fascia. Your plantar fascia is a thick band of tissue running along the arch of your foot, from your toes to your heel.

The plantar fascia becomes a source of pain in trainees who over-pronate or wear flexible, minimalist shoes without the appropriate amount of strength in their foot muscles. The symptoms are pain and tenderness along the arch and heel.

Different from plantar fasciitis, athletes can also strain the plantar fascia. This strain usually occurs in the early stages of training and is associated with running, jumping, and other repetitive stresses. Athletes who are overweight, have tightness in the muscles of the calf, and weakness in the supporting muscles in the foot are at highest risk.

If untreated, a strain will develop into a nasty case of plantar fasciitis, taking upwards of eight months to resolve. Age, 40-60 year olds, weight (people with high BMI), poor body mechanics, such as poor ankle flexion, all show a higher prevalence of plantar fasciitis².

Stand Firm on Foot Training

So, it’s important to consider training the intrinsic musculature of the foot and the lower extremity but also improving the metatarsal phalangeal joint (MPJ) range of motion.

The MPJ is the largest is the largest joint of the foot and has the greatest range of motion in the sagittal plane, and though it is smaller than the ankle, knee, or hip, it is the connection to the ground for the body and is subject to great forces during running and jumping movements³.

Essentially, whether you are jumping, running, or doing a big Olympic lift, you are pushing off the ground on your toes and flexing your foot.

Weightlifting coach Robert Takano likes to say, ” Athleticism starts from the bottom of your feet, the way you move them eventually determine how good of an athlete you can be”. Well, he couldn’t be any more right about that in relation to the plantar fascia.

So, it’s safe to assume that exercises that create a powerful triple extension of ankle, knees, and hips – such as the weight lifting exercises like the snatch, the clean and the jerk – are effective in training the intrinsic musculature of the foot as long as the heel is raised maximally pushing off the ground, and that the fascia is also being stretched to beneficial effect.

The problem arises when there are weaknesses in the kinetic chain, meaning the work done by the feet is accented to compensate. Add greatest bodyweight and then you have even more stress and greater stress leads to trauma of the fascia and pain.

Which is why you cannot spot check your plantar fascia and see it as a problem area in isolation. It’s a part of a greater whole and the totality of your movement ability plays a role in what happens to it. And while it may be obvious, it should be noted that the heavier you are the greater burden on your body and the first place to take a hit is your feet.

Athletes are not immune to plantar fasciitis; most famously, Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and his brother, Eli Manning, both suffered from plantar fascia tears during their careers as reported in ESPN.

Treating Plantar Fasciitis

Rest – take the pressure of your feet. No standing around or running or jumping. In some cases, you can substitute with swimming or cycling, all having been shown to reduce pressure on the fascia¹.

Stretch – don’t just stretch your feet, but work on your ankles and calves. Stretching reduces the pain that comes with plantar fasciitis as long as it is specific to the area.

Wrap Up Well – if you have a particular bad case of plantar fasciitis and see a podiatrist, you will probably get taped up. There is an art to it because you have to position the foot properly but taping provides a tremendous amount of relief.

Ice Up – 10-20 minutes a time, 2-4 times a day. It’s good early on in your recovery but may have diminishing returns further down the line.

Foot Supports – arch supports or wearing shoes with extra support in the arch provide relief. Do you need custom inserts? Probably not, but you need support because that’s what the plantar fascia would be doing by itself if it were healthy: providing arch support.

Night Splints – wear a special boot at night to keep your foot flexed and prevent overnight tightening. It can be up to 3 months before you stop using one but they are effective

Strength Training – you may want to think about loaded carries when you are recovered or doing more of them as a preventative measure. They are a good combination of static and dynamic support in the feet.

The objective of these recovery suggestions are non-invasive. You can, if it gets serious, look at everything from corticosteroid injections and stem cell therapy to surgery, but for most sufferers it’s going to come down to the basics.

We often take for granted basic movements like running and jumping, particularly as we age, not realizing that even the simplest movements require complex interactions.

We definitely don’t show our feet enough love in the gym because we don’t think of them as a source of power but our connection to the ground or a platform is the single point of focus for major forces whether you are pushing off or doing a squat. Like Bob Takano said, it starts at the bottom of your feet.

Reference:

1. Hasegawa, M., Urits, I., Orhurhu, V., Orhurhu, M. S., Brinkman, J., Giacomazzi, S., Foster, L., Manchikanti, L., Kaye, A. D., Kaye, R. J., & Viswanath, O. (2020). Current concepts of minimally invasive treatment options for plantar fasciitis: A comprehensive review. Current Pain and Headache Reports, 24(9), 55.

2. Riddle, D. L., & Schappert, S. M. (2004). Volume of ambulatory care visits and patterns of care for patients diagnosed with plantar fasciitis: A national study of medical doctors. Foot & Ankle International, 25(5), 303–310.

3. Goldmann, J.-P., Sanno, M., Willwacher, S., Heinrich, K., & Brüggemann, G.-P. (2013). The potential of toe flexor muscles to enhance performance. Journal of Sports Sciences, 31(4), 424–433.

The post Why Plantar Fasciitis is More Common Than You Think appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Ultimate Isometrics Manual is a nerd’s paradise, at least for this nerd. From the mind of Convict Conditioning author Paul Wade, and published by Dragon Door, this hefty 462 page book that is about as complete an overview of isometric training as you can get.

Isometrics is about easily accessible and yet outside of a dedicated group of practitioners, not something that gets much press. It’s a shame because isometrics has broad applicability for all populations of strength trainees including novices and seniors.

That’s because isometric exercises force you to stay in your lane. By that I mean that they are not like lifting a barbell or dumbbell in so far as you can’t overload, or under load, an isometric set and the risk of injury is, overall, much lower than more traditional exercises.

Isometric exercise is only as effective as the effort and the effort can only be felt if you are properly positioned to create the tension demanded. That doesn’t mean you can’t screw up an isometric exercise but you have to be pretty motivated to get it wrong.

What is Isometric Exercise?

Isometric exercise relies solely on the creation of tension with concentric contraction of the muscle against an immovable object. That object may be a device like the isochain, it may be a door jamb, and it may be your own body.

Invariably, any discussion of isometrics will refer to the seminal study done by Hettinger and Muller in 1953 (Muscle capacity and muscle training). The German researchers found that a single daily effort of two-thirds a person’s maximum effort for six seconds at a time for ten weeks increased strength by about five percent a week.

Melody Schoenfeld wrote on these pages that isometrics is working at standstill or the the act of using force against resistance without changing your muscle length. For example, holding a bicep curl at a 90-degree angle for 30 seconds.

Logan Christopher wrote about legendary strongman Alexander Zass who was a big proponent of isometric exercise who believed the secret of isometric training was that it stored energy instead of dissipating it, and that it allowed him to work against very strong resistance helping to build up his stamina.

Zass had little to no access to weightlifting equipment in his life. He was a strongman who bent bars and broke chains. Bruce Lee was also known for his isometric work, as noted in Bruce Lee’s 3-Minute Workout by Shane Trotter.

Unpacking The Mysteries of Static Training

Let’s get the biggest criticism of this book out the way: it’s a little overwrought in promoting the Isochain, an expensive isometric training device that isn’t being reveiwed here and isn’t needed to enjoy this book or take advatange of it.

You’d think that Paul Wade, the guy behind no equipment workouts would be less inclined to push a piece of equipment, but to be honest, his publishers should have done a better job of addressing this one minor flaw of the book.

To put it in perspective, this ebook is just under ten dollars and has plenty of great information and exercises that don’t need the Isochain. I’ll be generous and give the Isochain infomercial about 50 pages of overexposure, which leaves about 400 pages of other stuff.

Otherwise, I stand by my nerding out statement. I have a reference for isometric training. I have enough information to make an intelligent decision about its efficacy, and I have plenty of examples of how to apply isometric exercises.

More importantly, there is enough information here to justify exploring how isometric training can help increase weight and reduce the chance of injury.

I asked an older friend of mine, someone who is quite sedentary, to try 10 minutes a day of a set of isometric exercises that I had improvised for him during the lockdown, while he was working from home. Based on my sample of one, the impact of phenomenal.

Whether it was the 10 minutes a day only part of the routine or the actual palpable increases in strength that he experienced, my friend was sold and actually go the book himself.

Like everything else in the fitness industry, there are cycles, fads, and fashions. Isometric exercise isn’t fashionable or faddish, but it may need to have a refresh cycle and demands some modern-day appreciation. Paul Wade’s book may be all you need to freshen up your isometrics.

The post The Ultimate Isometric Exercise Guide appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Push-ups are the gold standard in bodyweight and at-home workouts. In fact, they probably deserve to be the go-to exercise from toddler to senior. They don’t require any special skills or genetic predisposition to be done at any level, they are adaptable to almost any situation, and they never let you down, get any easier or stop being beneficial.

My grandfather, a veteran, would, until his death at the age of 94, get up every morning and knock out 20 push-ups before we did anything else. No excuses. Do push-ups.

Raising Your Push-Up Game

The spiderman push-up is a variation that not only gets you out of a rut if a push-ups are boring you or not giving you that sense of achievement that you crave, but it also provides a total body workout that hits a trifecta of strength, stamina, and mobility in one movement that you will find very difficult to master.

There are a few things that you have to keep in mind before you get into this movement:

1. You are, effectively, holding a perfect plank position, upper and lower holds, throughout the position. That means whether you are in the top position of the push-up or the bottom, you maintain a straight line from head to butt, you don’t drop your pelvis so that it looks like you want to hump the ground, and you feel tension through the length of your body. Keep that in mind so that you don’t stress your lower back
2. Your elbows don’t try to escape and stay in place throughout the movement, by your side, which is exactly what they will try to do when you start feeling tired or you lack the mobility to get your knees to the right position. You want to feel the strength surge through your arms and upper body then conquer those elbows
3. You are going to be opening up your hips at one point which means that you have an antagonistic interaction that will take place between the tension in your body and the looser movement of your leg opening up when your knees moves to your elbow. You want your lower body involved and not left out so focus on form and strength of movement in the legs as you raise your knees
4. You’ll need to think of this exercise as being both unilateral and bilateral because it kind of goes both ways so try and feel the shifts in movement and tension through your body, reacting to the forces at play. You want to create variations that change the demands of this exercise then you want to have an awareness of the flow of the movements

Bearing all that in mind, the instructions in this video are straightfoward. Like I said, this isn’t a complicated exercise but if you think about the technique and form requirements, there are many challenges to overcome if you are to master it.

If you’re up for it you can make a pretty strong case for building a complete high-intensity workout around the spiderman push-up. Change the tempo to controlled, slower movements and you’ll create constant tension in your muscles for more emphasis on strength.

Raise the tempo while keeping strict form and you should be able to create a taxing full-body HIIT workout. Do it casually, even as a warm-up and you might get all your joints moving and feel yourself open up a little.

Just maintain that strong line running through your torso so that you are not twisting or collapsing at any point, otherwise adjust the rep scheme, your rest time between sets or whatever it is so that you are not flailing away uselessly.

The key to bodyweight exercises (especially something like the push-up) is how you’re in the driver’s seat and can make them be whatever you want them to be.

The spiderman push-up is pretty good at giving you feedback on your total body and it can probably teach you a little more about yourself and where your weaknesses and strengths are.

The post Spiderman Push-Ups: One Bodyweight Exercise to Rule Them All appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Let’s call bullsh*t on the newfound belief in social justice sweeping through CrossFit affiliates. CrossFit’s high school musical of dysfunction stopped being interesting years ago.

Many of the original enthuasiast have moved on or been cowed into slience or indifference. And what’s left is people who either got into the affiliate business based on the myth of the brand, you know, our warm-ups are like your workouts yadda yadda yadda, and we are the fittest on earth, community, blah, blah, blah.

And, some are just wounded warriors that managed to outlast all the affiliates that came before them, the ones that soared and crashed, and they’re basically the last ones standing, just happy to be alive and doing what they, no doubt, truly love.

You can believe in the sincerity of these affiliates when they say they are disgusted by Glassman’s comments, but you can’t give them a pass for trying to separate CrossFit from the comments of its eminence grise and the culture that he is ultimately responsible for and has repeatedly defended.

The Affiliate Diet: Having and Eating Your Cake

De-affiliation is something that isn’t over. How can it be when, ultimately, money from affiliates is still going into the pockets of the very man who has started the movement away from CrossFit?

When I read things about how CrossFit is a great community and it was built despite what CFHQ did, it sounds great to the people who are trying to make sense of all of this inside CrossFit, but it makes absolutely no sense to those of us on the outside, in the real world.

Again, I don’t fault affiliates and CrossFit fanboys from trying to justify everything and try and place it within the context of some reactionary political movement or peak in the zeitgeist, but that tends to forget that what happened recently is only one point in an arc that bends towards dickishness.

To be fair, the following video by Andy Stumpf needs to be seen as a counterpoint to what I am saying, but if you only listen to minute 16 onwards, you kind of go, Dude, why end it with a meaningless kumbaya session with the powers that are now at CFHQ when it’s nothing more than a polishing the turd moment? I was about to pick up a pitchfork and join a crowd heading for CFHQ after minute 16.

(16:18)
The biggest, not the biggest, the best response that I can give you is that I’m actually surprised that it has taken this long. And I asked myself a couple years ago when it was in the middle of the me too movement.

And I was watching some of these reports come out and I asked myself, how in the fuck does this happen? How does behavior like this occur and how is it allowed to continue to occur? And then I had the crashing realization that I know exactly how it happens because I was complicit in allowing this to happen.

At least in the interactions that I observed or heard in my time working for CrossFit headquarters, I cannot count the number of times that derogatory and specifically sexual comments were made about female staff members directly in my presence. Sometimes the staff members were not there and oftentimes they were in mixed company.

(17:20)
And very often the overtures were far more overt. It was an open secret as to who was potentially in the sexual crosshairs for Greg. And whether that manifested in uncomfortable travel arrangements as for female staff members, traveling with Greg and a trip is coming up, but only one hotel room is booked or female employees sitting alone in a vehicle with the CEO being what Greg prefers from his women.

Or even to me directly being told from Greg that he suffers from the same thing that Tiger Woods does, and the list goes on and on and own. And the closer that you got to Greg, the more that you saw and the closer that you got to Greg, and the more that you saw and the less that you did or what essentially, it seems like all of us did, which was nothing.

The more we enabled this behavior, the things that I talked about, abroad examples, and I’m intentionally being broad because I don’t want to drag anybody else into this other than those that need to be, but there are so many of these stories to tell.

Not enough for you? How about:

(18:35)
And the bottom line is they’re not mine to tell, but these people deserve a platform. And the reason that they’re not talking now is because of fear.

(18:45)
I’m going to give one more example in the hopes that it provides some clarity, color and context into the environment that some of these women had to tolerate. Imagine a female employee that had spent already plenty of time in Greg’s crosshairs. And I say that based off of what I saw, what I heard and comments made directly to me from Greg. This female employee is in a vehicle, mixed company.

(19:20)
She happens to be in a relationship with a deployed service member and Greg inquires about that service member and finds out that he is currently four deployed overseas. His response to that information directly to this employee was let’s hope that we get to name a Hero WOD after him soon.

And for people who don’t know what a HERO WOD is, that’s a workout that is named after somebody who was killed in service of their country over overseas or law enforcement first responder here in the United States.

And there is no more precise window into the environment with which some of these people had to operate. Then that statement from the CEO and that individual owns 100% of CrossFit inc.

It’s not enough for CrossFit affiliates to act like deer caught in the headlines when they know exactly who they were dealing with and were well aware of what was going on. You can’t have your cake and eat it – that’s why cliches exist.

Go Rogue

I know that on Facebook or somewhere, someone from Breaking Muscle said that we are done with CrossFit and we’ll just call them box gyms. I am not sure if that will work, but I do know one thing, you can call them all Rogue gyms and you’d probably do just as well.

Everything in this affiliates is from Rogue, they hang the banners, the company has a good brand and even if they have skeletons in their closets they’re not filming them and put them on social media so, there’s that.

In the early 70s, Nautilus equipment created a big shift in the bodybuilding equipment world and the brand actually drove a segment of the gym business. Rogue can do pretty much the same thing, and they have, if you want to get into it, done more than CFHQ by venturing into maces, strongman, powerlifting, and all kinds of different product lines that, interestingly enough, equate to certain workout methodologies.

So, drop CrossFit, become a Rogue gym, and let Rogue market the crap out of bars, bells, assault bikes, rowers and all the other stuff that reformed CrossFitters will need to keep doing what used to be called a workout.

The post The Bleeding Hearts of CrossFit Affiliates appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

And of all the people who you see lifting in gyms around the world, most are self-taught. The vast majority of people lifting are not learning to lift but are self-taught or are tagging along in group classes where there is limited supervision or support.

Most people don’t know how to pick up a heavy box off the ground without straining their back so, why do we think that most people understand the nuances of barbell, kettlebell and, even, dumbbell movements?

And of all the people who you see lifting in gyms around the world, most are self-taught. The vast majority of people lifting are not learning to lift but are self-taught or are tagging along in group classes where there is limited supervision or support.

Sound alarmist? Do the math. There are nearly 40,000 gyms in the US, and nearly 65 million members. Take into consideration that a place like Planet Fitness can have 1,400 outlets and 10 million members, and you could have 5,000 CrossFit type gyms with less than a million members in total.

The point is that in the greater scheme things, of the 65 million gym goers maybe 1.5 million are getting the best instruction in barbells and kettlebells, and some level of personal attention. Out of every 100 people you see in a gym, maybe 3 of them really know what they are doing.

The YouTube and Instagram Fitness Revolution

You kind of know all this yourself. You can see it on social media. All those videos and posts about the right way and wrong way to do stuff. ?or ?, You can’t miss them. Some can be woeful and, no one needs to get another lecture on knees over toes in squats.

Unfortunately, that’s what we are stuck with for two reasons: getting qualified coaching and training is costly and not within the reach of the vast majority of trainees and anyone can become a trainer which means that there is no quality control in the fitness industry. Another wrinkle is that celebrity is a currency and celebrity trainers on YouTube and Instagram hold sway over very large audiences.

On the positive side, the explosion in fitness content on social media has opened people up to Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, fitness sports, strongman and many other strength practices that would normally be seen as very specialized. You wouldn’t see anyone doing a deadlift in a Crunch gym a few years ago.

On the negative side, Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, fitness sports, strongman and many other strength practices are all very, very technical.

They require a serious amount of time to be devoted to learning and understanding correct form and safe practices. They’re not for everyone either. You can’t be a casual strongman or Olympic lifter.

Lifting Heavy Stuff Needs Brains

If you want to learn how to clean and jerk properly, increase your deadlift without increasing your medical insurance, swing a kettlebell, or just figure out the reason why your arms don’t go above your shoulders in a dumbbell lateral raise, you need some intellectual curiosity or mindful movement.

A lack of curiosity or interest in learning the mechanics of a lift is a failure, as is a lack of understanding about how your body actually responds and works in any given movement.

For untrained individuals, feelings of mobility restrictions and tightness in the body may be simply because the body isn’t adequately braced, tension isn’t distributed properly, or the body feels imbalanced as the center of mass descends into a squat.

The Secret To Your First Squat Is Feeling Great Doing It

If you truly have ambitions in Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting or strongman then find the people who do it properly. These are hard, esoteric sports that are great to look at, and can make you feel very strong quickly, but they are not for everyone.

They are sports. Most of the best coaches don’t know what to do with casual practitioners when the main goal of each discipline is to win at competitions.

It’s not like you pick a partner and play a game of tennis. Sure, you can judge your own performance over time by looking at how far you push your own records, but that’s not the culture.

They are also highly technical sports where, without proper instruction or coaching support, you will probably end up hurting yourself. If you are the one person who learned how to snatch off of YouTube and can hit 100kg, you’re the exception and I’d need to see the proof of your progress without external support.

• The best lifters in the country have coaches.
• The wealthiest CEOs in the country have coaches.
• The best coaches in the country have coaches.

7 Steps To Find The Best Coach For You

Fitness sports, like CrossFit, are an incredibly mixed bag of disciplines done at speed. They don’t make for easy viewing for traditionalists but they have a following. If that’s what you want to do then you better have a coach who is proven in each discipline or a few of them that have expertise in individual aspects.

You think indoor rowing is easy? Maybe it is on the surface, but it is highly technical. Granted, you can do it casually, but if you want to get the most out of it, you need to understand the mechanics of the form and be able to deliver on that knowledge.

I taught myself how to type when I was at college. I placed my fingers one key over than recommended on my left hand but that didn’t matter because I practiced enough that I could type out my work really quickly. So, I decided I wanted to see how fast I could type and I tried to relearn touch-typing to improve my speed.

Turned out to be the hardest thing I could do because of what one offset that I adopted by myself. That’s typing. You know what that would mean if it was 20 years of squatting with your left foot at an angle that wasn’t optimal.

You wake up at 40 and realize that squatting hurts and someone smarter than yourself points out one simple adjustment that could have saved you half a lifetime’s pain. We are not always the best judge of ourselves.

This is a post from Coach Daniel Bell. He should make it into a maxim – Drive a hundred miles, 2-4 times a month, if you have to, but make it to that coaching session.

You don’t have to hammer away alone in your garage—at least not all the time. And you’ll get to talk to your coach face to face. If you are ready to level up, email rubbercityweightlifting@gmail.com

A post shared by Daniel Bell (@rubbercityweightlifting) on Mar 4, 2020 at 2:01pm PST

All lifts are technical.

The post All Lifts Are Technical So Learn to Do Them Right appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

No better a source than Sandi Duncan, managing editor of the Farmers’ Almanac, has said that the new decade begins on January 1, 2021. Most people think it’s January 1, 2020. I’m not going to weigh in here with a decision.

I will just say that my suggestions, below, for the new decade, can either start in 2020 or they can be prepped in 2020 for full-blown implementation in 2021.

Everyone is happy. Everyone wins. The more important thing is the need to address the last ten years of fitness hype and drama, move on the next ten years, and create a better world for everyone.

Say Goodbye to Research Bros

The clinical trial is vitally important, but it has never been, and never will be, the full extent of “The Science Game.”

– Jonathan Rauch, The Kindly Inquisitors pic.twitter.com/labVIhBfnU

— CJ Gotcher (@CJGotcher) October 22, 2019

Research and science are good. Sports research and science are okay and serve a purpose. Normal people, sports science and research, and reactions to every paper that comes out should be put in its place. Too many experts, so-called experts, and commentaries about research papers have diluted the impact of the research.

There are six billion permutations of humanity, and growing, on this earth right now. Each one has a unique chemical and biological profile, sharing a lot of similarities in the core design, but differing in almost imperceptible ways that result in wide swings in ability and adaptability.

Even without statistical issues, sports science faces a reliability problem. A 2017 paper published in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance pointed to inadequate validation that surrogate outcomes really reflect what they’re meant to measure, a dearth of longitudinal and replication studies, the limited reporting of null or trivial results, and insufficient scientific transparency as other problems threatening the field’s reliability and validity.

– How Shoddy Statistics Found A Home In Sports Research

Genetics plays a role in your physical well-being. Environment does, too. Your own natural inclinations, prejudices, and devotion will also come into play. The number of ways in which you are different from the person next to you is infinite.

Sports science and research aren’t that well-funded, it often struggles to find bodies for its analysis, and there is valid debate as to whether the statistical methodology is, as a result, even valid.

It serves a purpose, but it isn’t meant to change your training programs and fundamentals every second week of the month.

However, having said all of that, if you really want to go all research bro, stick with Greg Nuckols and subscribe to his newsletter or podcasts, depending on how deep you want to go on this stuff.

Nuckols is a good educator and other coaches gravitate to his in-depth analysis because he gives them a lot of material they can use.

He’s not necessarily someone that I would follow for coaching advice because there’s a swathe of coaches in bodybuilding, powerlifting, and weightlifting who are better suited as specialists, but you can ditch all the other research bros and not miss a beat.

Stop Dieting

Diets are business. They are neither science nor plans nor silver bullet solutions. Dieting is a multi-multi-billion industry. While there are valid reasons for people to diet, particularly in cases of chronic disease, diabetes, obesity, and such, there is very little reason to buy into an industry that is unregulated, untenable, and driven by the desire to sell false hope.

You will diet. You will because you’re human. You buy lottery tickets thinking you may that 1 in 234,000,000 who will strike the Jackpot. You don’t walk under ladders in case bad luck befalls you. You think WWE is real.

What if the answer to our health and wellness challenges is to eat more beef?

This would be amazing news for both the consumer and beef producers like you and me.

– The totally unbiased Beef Magazine

The dieting con is a stain on the fitness industry. The sooner people started to eat better, in moderation, with some thought put into quality over quantity, the better it will be for everyone. If you can’t enjoy eating then you have a real problem and a diet is just compounding the misery.

The study in the well-respected Annals of Internal Medicine rocked the nutrition world by suggesting the negative health effects of red and processed meat had been overstated. The international group of researchers, headed by Bradley C. Johnston, an epidemiologist at Dalhousie University in Canada, concluded that warnings linking meat consumption to heart disease and cancer are not backed by good scientific evidence. The group, which calls itself NutriRECS, recommended meat eaters continue their current levels of consumption.

But undisclosed in the study was that NutriRECS, a consortium of about 20 researchers, has also formed a partnership with an arm of Texas A&M University partially funded by the beef industry. The omission is the latest twist in an ongoing debate about how much researchers ought to disclose to the public about potential conflicts of interest.

– Washington Post

Learn to Lift

Get a coach. Kettlebells, barbells, powerlifting, weightlifting, yoga, running, anything that you can think of requires some expert guidance and technique building.

You may be lucky to be one of a small group, a one-percenter, who can learn any physical movement on your own. That’s great. Most everyone needs help.

Learning to lift properly is a lifetime investment. Learning to lift properly for your body type, your mechanics, well, that’s just gold. A professional trainer or coach, someone who has trained many, many people, will know how to help you identify the cues you need to lift properly.

An interesting article on factors that cause injuries in the warehouse is a good place to start because lifting that should come naturally is problematic enough, now add the complexity of the highly technical lifts you do in typical weightlifting or powerlifting sessions.

What I want to emphasize is how important it is to develop a no-brainer, no cues needed approach to lifting to avoid injury and failure. Learning to lift is a lifetime commitment.

There are generalities that you pick up on social media, and there are a lot of stupid ones at that, but in the main, you are unique and could be so much more efficient if you had awareness of what that means in the physical plane.

It’s the only investment you need to make in yourself.

Drop Your Friends

Not real friends. The fake ones, the ones on social media. The only opinion that matters is yours. You need to feel good in your own skin. You need to have a handle on your health. A comment or an opinion from someone who isn’t you is irrelevant.

There are provisos though: if you are competing and you have a coach, they may tell you that you are not prepared and push you to make adjustments. A qualified professional gives a medical opinion on your health is another area where opinion matters. Other than that, it’s all on you.

A systematic review of 20 papers published in 2016 found that photo-based activities, like scrolling through Instagram or posting pictures of yourself, were a particular problem when it came to negative thoughts about your body.

– The Complicated Truth About Social Media and Body Image

Whether people tell you you’re great or you suck, it’s all the same. Your perception of how others see you is always wrong and their need to comment on you is their problem, a reflection of their own issues.

But, most importantly, you may then feel compelled to reduce your reliance on social media for inspiration, validation, and community. None of it is real because the depth of thought and engagement just isn’t there. You don’t overindulge in your nutrition so, why overindulge your psyche?

Don’t Lead, Don’t Follow

Straight off the last hack, it’s become really easy for people to find succor online among like-minded folk, gurus, and shamans. Everyone gravitates towards that one coach, or trainer, who confirms their own biases and beliefs. It is, as they say, the echo chamber.

The best way forward is to remain fluid, to avoid the black and white of the echo chamber and to accept that there are no absolutes in fitness. Every individual responds to and needs different stimuli to adapt, to grow, to better themselves. While fundamentals are great, we believe that wholeheartedly, how you react on any given day or program is entirely unique.

So, you focus on learning about you more than figuring out how someone else got to where they got. Arnold Schwarzenegger would talk about how he tried different exercises and routines then judged how he felt afterward, whether they felt like they were taxing him, and this method of trial and error guided him in the beginning.

Bodybuilding is a pretty good place to understand the need to be your own experiment, your own leader, and your own follower.

It may also make you less of a troll online, too. Who doesn’t want that?

Buy a New Gym Membership

Unless your life depends on a certain training modality it’s always good for you to treat gyms the same way as you treat restaurants. You may have a favorite place that you default to, but ultimately, we all like to try new cuisines, new places, and often find the experience very satisfying or educational.

You might figure out what you like or need or, you may become certain about what doesn’t work for you. If you try different group classes, you will, undoubtedly, become better at appreciating good versus meh coaching.

Different disciplines humble you because they force you to get out of your comfort zone. It may be as simple as ditching weights one day and doing yoga, which seems way harder than it should be for some people to get over mentally.

You might try having a sports day to break up your activity, a pick-up game of basketball, a tennis match, something that requires you to play with others as opposed to just workout on your thing. All these things build awareness of your physical self and expose your adaptability and athleticism, or lack thereof.

The post 7 Fitness Hacks for 2020 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

What if you have a few minutes only, a little time before you get back to work, pick up the kids, go to your next appointment? Do you get in a quick workout in or scroll through the posts on your phone?

The exercises that follow can be done in a quarter of an hour. They are simple and you can do them anywhere. And, at the end of the article, I have shown you how you can adapt them with a friend or training partner to create the Deck of Cards workout and challenge yourself more deeply at the gym. So the following exercises in sequence, no rest in-between, like a circuit, and see how far you get in 15 minutes.

Inchworm

Standing up tall with your legs straight (can have slight bend), bring your fingertips down to the ground and slowly walk your hands forward until you are in a pushup position, complete two pushups (that’s one more than what’s in this demo video), then walk your feet up back to the original position. That’s one rep. Do – 5 Reps.

Squat With Pause

With your feet shoulder-width apart, core engaged, bring your butt back and down until your hips are aligned with your knees. Pause for a three-count and then bring yourself back up to the original position. If this is too easy, then grab a weighted object to hold close to your chest. Do – 15 Reps.

T-Push Up

Start with your hands and feet shoulder-width apart and the crease of your elbow facing forward. Keep your core engaged as you lower yourself until your nose is an inch off of the ground. Push up to the starting position as you rotate your body to one side and extend that hand overhead, forming a T with your torso and arms. Do – 6 Reps (each side).

Squat Jump

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and lower yourself until you are in a quarter squat position, then explosively jump straight in the air. Land with soft feet by lowering right into the quarter-squat position with minimal force. Do – 15 Reps.

Elbow Plank-to-Push Up

Start in a plank position with both elbows/forearms on the ground, then place one hand flat on the ground and push yourself up into the top of a push-up position, pause for a second, then bring yourself back down to the original plank. Repeat this process, alternating the hand you place down on the ground first. Do – 6 Reps (each side).

Side Plank

Start out on your side with your elbow directly under your shoulder and your legs straight. Keep your core engaged as you drive your hip into the air, pause for a three-second count, then return to the starting position. Repeat these steps on your other side. Do – 10 Reps (each side).

Diamond Push Up

Start out at the top of a push-up position with your hands forming a diamond. Lower yourself until your nose is about an inch off the ground, then push yourself back up to the starting position. Do – 15 Reps.

Lunge Jump

Start in a standing position. Take a step forward lowering yourself until your back knee is a couple of inches off the ground. Explosively jump up, landing back in the original position. That’s one. Complete all prescribed reps on one leg before switching to the other. Do – 10 Reps (each side).

The Deck of Cards Workout

You need a training partner, a deck of cards, and you’re ready to challenge yourself more dynamically. It’s really simple to push yourself, get results and have some fun so, you can keep this routine in your back pocket for any time you are stuck for a workout:

1. Pick a bodyweight exercise: you could start with either push-ups or squats.
2. Pick a card.
3. Perform the number of reps that you see on the card with the exercise you choose. Either: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack (11), Queen (12), King (13), or Ace (15).
4. Have your training partner pick a card and do the reps on the card.
5. Go through all the cards in the deck.
6. You can do combos of exercises, too, mixing two or three different exercises.

The post The No Excuse Deck of Cards Bodyweight Workout appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

1. Kettlebell Swing

If your body could use only one exercise, it would be the kettlebell swing. It fixes your sagging posture as you recover from the endless hours you spent poring over your receipts looking for deductions. It will strengthen that posterior chain to overcome all the negative effects of sitting in front of your screen trying to figure out if you got you filled out your tax form right and why does it feel like you are poor.

2. Squat Snatch Press

If you feel overconfident about your accounting skills, you can always revert to the squat snatch press. Some people may think of it as remedial or even a warm up exercise, but the truth is that it’s challenging for almost everyone, and maybe today isn’t a bad day to get humbled at the gym. If nothing else, the amount of focus and tension that goes into getting this exercise right will take your mind off everything else that has happened today.

3. Crawls

If doing your taxes has=ve totally floored you, draining you of all your strength then you might want to consider this set of movements. You can regain and build your original strength through crawling. It takes you back to some sort of primal child-like point in the universe, resets your neuromuscular connections and, yeah, you really do want to crawl before you walk before you run.

In bro science terms, crawling integrates your vestibular system (your balance system), your proprioceptive system (your sense of self in space, or your self-awareness system), and your visual system (your visual system). It can even improve your hand-eye coordination. Bet you didn’t think about a single line of your tax return just reading that last sentence.

4. Crossover Squats

Gymnastic strength has had its fair share of trendy love in the last decade. But, truth be known, be flexible and strong is about as simply great as you need to be to experience well-being in movement.

The crossover squat is deceptively simple, but it hits the mark on both counts. It’s a great test of flexibility and strength. If you can do them relatively easily, they’re soothing, and if you can’t, they might just inspire you to push forward on new directions in your training and to heck with the IRS! You’ve got better things to do.

5. Jumping Back Squat

You may not have that deep commitment or sense of focus to do heavy squats today, but jumping back squats can be a nice alternative. Don’t go heavy. Maintain good form. It feels pretty good to make even the smallest jumps with weight on your back. It really does. And when you’re out of the tax day funk, you can attack a heavy squat session like your smashing through an audit.

6. Chain Drag

You could drag anything, but a chain is cool. It seems kind of apt considering how you’ve been dragging the whole country’s economy with your taxes. In your gym, you’re probably better off doing sled drags and pulls. It’s great general conditioning and, yeah, it’s fun. You could use some fun right about now.

7. Sit-Up to Straddle

From the pelvis to the hamstring you can always use all the help you can get. Again, we want you to have some fun today so, sit-ups to straddle seem like the perfect exercise. Yeah, it is kind of a warm-up, but it’s also nice finisher for workouts, too. Wherever you put this exercise in your workout today, it will open you up and maybe help release that tightness that you feel. From all that tension. That knotted anger.

8. Typewriter Push-Up

If you’re stuck on your taxes all day and are not going to make it to a gym or a full workout, and it happens, then the typewriter push-up could be your savior. Opens up that chest and torso, gives you a fresh feeling of power, and you can just drop and do a few in between looking for that W2 that you could have sworn you put in that stack of papers somewhere. If only you knew where.

9. Burpee Pull-Up

Pull-ups are always good. Never a bad thing about pull-ups. Burpee pull-ups just take it up a notch because maybe, just maybe, today is the day to knock it out of the park, leave it all at the gym, and get home free of all stress. Nothing like a challenging exercise that wears you out in all the good ways.

10. Barbell Lunge Deadlift

Really, you’re not in a good place for a deadlift. You need to be energized and you’re probably not because your mind is a little frazzled. So, do a deadlift, concentrate the mind, but try this variation that keeps your posture alignment intact. If you maintain form.

Finally, remember this is only once a year. It’s over in a few hours. And no matter how much you promise yourself to be better organized next year, you won’t be. So, make sure you mark this page because you’ll need it again.

The post 10 Exercises to Ride Out Tax Day appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic¹, a non-profit academic medical center in Cleveland, Ohio, retrospectively studied 122,007 patients who underwent exercise treadmill testing at the clinic between Jan. 1, 1991, and Dec. 31, 2014, to measure all-cause mortality relating to the benefits of exercise and fitness.

The study found that increased cardiorespiratory fitness was directly associated with reduced long-term mortality, with no limit on the positive effects of aerobic fitness. Extreme aerobic fitness was associated with the greatest benefit, particularly in older patients (70 and older) and in those with hypertension.

“Aerobic fitness is something that most patients can control. And we found in our study there is no limit to how much exercise is too much,” said Wael Jaber, M.D., Cleveland Clinic cardiologist and senior author of the study. “Everyone should be encouraged to achieve and maintain high fitness levels.”

Several recent studies have suggested associations between extreme exercise and certain adverse cardiovascular findings, such as atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease. However, the researchers in this study found that extreme fitness provided additional survival benefit over more modest levels of fitness, and that extremely fit patients lived the longest.

“We were particularly interested in the relationship between extremely high fitness and mortality,” said Kyle Mandsager, M.D., an electrophysiology fellow at Cleveland Clinic and the lead author of the study. “This relationship has never been looked at using objectively measured fitness, and on such a large scale.”

All patients had previously undergone stress tests at Cleveland Clinic and were broken up into five performance groups – elite, high, above average, below average and low. Elite performers were defined as having aerobic fitness in the top two and a half percent by age and gender and demonstrated fitness levels comparable to endurance athletes.Long-term survival was adjusted for a patient’s age, sex, height, weight, BMI, medications, and comorbidities (the simultaneous presence of two choice diseases or conditions).

When the subgroups were analyzed by age, the survival benefit of elite versus high performance was most notable in older patients. In those over the age of 70, elite performers had a nearly 30 percent reduced risk of mortality compared to high performers. In younger age groups there was no statistical difference in outcomes between elite and high performers.

When the subgroups were analyzed by comorbidities, all-cause mortality inversely related to cardiorespiratory fitness and were lowest in the elite performers. For those patients with hypertension, the elite performers again showed a nearly 30 percent reduction in all-cause mortality compared to high performers. For all other comorbidity subgroups, there was no statistical difference in survival rates between the elite and high performers.

Do Not Over-Science, Bro

It is important to note that the study analyzed findings over a large population and provides a statistical analysis of the relationship between aerobic fitness and mortality meaning it doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone.

It’s always worth noting that cohort studies, like this, give researchers some shape to data and provide models that determine parameters for future studies, but they don’t apply to everyone. You might be extremely fit, have some chronic disease and be subject to none of the benefits, unfortunately. Or, you may be very unfit by the measures of this study, and it has no impact on your longevity.

There are also other factors associated with extreme fitness that this study does not address such as the impact on one’s joints, for example. It might be best left said that aerobic fitness is a good thing, and a very good thing as you age so, keep pushing within reason – that’s what matters most.

There is a point beyond which, you could argue, the more aerobic fitness you have, the less impactful the result may be even though there is some impact, meaning a sort of diminishing return. Again, it’s a statistical model that uses a large data set to arrive at some helpful conclusions, but shouldn’t be read as black and white gospel on where your mortality is headed.

Reference:

1. Kyle Mandsager, Serge Harb, Paul Cremer, Dermot Phelan, Steven E. Nissen, Wael Jaber. Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Long-term Mortality Among Adults Undergoing Exercise Treadmill Testing. JAMA Network Open, 2018; 1 (6): e183605

The post Extreme Fitness is a Life Saver, So is Normal Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Image courtesy of CrossFit Inc

Full disclosure: I really believe, deep in my heart, that CrossFit changed the gym business for the better over the last decade. I also believe, equally, CrossFit screwed up the gym business this last decade, too. I don’t think there is anything wrong about CrossFit as an exercise philosophy, but as a business model for coaches and trainers, it has proven to be, at best, uneven, compromised and badly managed. I think that’s what has helped create so much animosity towards it. That and the childish behavior of CrossFit staff towards anything that they perceive as not completely pro-CrossFit.

Probably most of the blame for what CrossFit is or isn’t lie at the feet of its management, CFHQ, and it has oscillated between being smart about some stuff and an obnoxious frat boy in other parts. AIf you catch any CrossFit affiliate owner in a quiet moment of reflection you will rarely if ever, get much praise for the organization out of them, and you’ll get a lot of the Kool Aid drunk passion for CrossFit, too.

CrossFit has proven itself. Greg Glassman, CrossFit’s co-founder, is probably the most successful strength and conditioning coach of all time, and today CrossFit can attribute its relevance and operational success to its marquee product, the CrossFit Games. This is the event that is supposed to pick “the fittest on earth.” At this point, the CrossFit hater may be turning red.

To be fair, this is CrossFit’s definition of fitness, clearly laid out in a CrossFit Journal article, What is Fitness, where Greg Glassman says:

The implication here is that fitness requires an ability to perform well at all tasks, even unfamiliar tasks and tasks combined in infinitely varying combinations. In practice this encourages the athlete to disinvest in any set notions of sets, rest periods, reps, exercises, order of exercises, routines, periodization, etc. Nature frequently provides largely unforeseeable challenges; train for that by striving to keep the training stimulus broad and constantly varied.

Do the CrossFit Games actually live up to the definitions of fitness that CrossFit itself set in this article? That’s a good point of argument if you ask me.

CrossFit Isn’t a Sport

Well, the first thing we need to do is to say is CrossFit actually a sport that deserves a competition? I’d say no, it’s a philosophy, and the article referenced above is pretty much all you need to read to understand that about CrossFit. On the practical side of things, CrossFit is whatever each affiliate coach decides it is or interprets it to be.

Some coaches do a great job of it, and a lot don’t. It’s hard to be a generalist who also has to be a multi-faceted specialist, too so, frankly, it is really hard to be a great CrossFit coach. The good ones tend to be pretty good coaches with or without the CrossFit part. They make or break an affiliate.

What has proven very effective has been that the CrossFit Games and the Open and Regionals that lead up to it are all very useful in giving CrossFit affiliates, enthusiasts and athletes a purpose, a focus that takes all this inconsistency and drives it to an objective endpoint for all – the winner’s podium.

This is where I think of the competition part as a great marketing vehicle for a brand but can’t say that I would ever see it as a sport. That’s just me. I am sure that it will continue to be seen as a sport for many enthusiastic CrossFit adherents for years to come. But, watching people row for a few hours, sit on exercise bikes or just look like they’re auditioning for a part in the next Saw movie, well, that doesn’t make it much of a spectator sport.

Games Programming Gimmickry

CrossFit hasn’t changed the format or the approach to its events since the first one over a decade ago. They’re pretty much boilerplate and the result has been a steady ratcheting up of the torturous elements of a workout and a reluctance to stay consistent. CrossFit may argue that’s the whole point, not knowing what is coming, but obstacle course racing, even American Ninja, seem to do a pretty good job of making events entertaining and unexpected.

I am surprised that CrossFit didn’t learn from those other events, as much as they have from CrossFit. If you take Glassman’s original definition of fitness making people do handstand walks, sit on cardio equipment, or even weightlift for a one rep max score doesn’t really fit the holistic generalistic approach that CrossFit espoused initially.

You’re kind of just testing their capacity to do a workout as opposed to test their fitness. They train to do this stuff every day and their workouts are designed like this every day and the guy who designs the Games’ programming designs workouts.

Wouldn’t it have been better if a CrossFit athlete in a competition had to actually do something like an obstacle course or an American Ninja-like panel? Or, maybe CrossFit asked the Navy Seals to come up with a set of challenges or Cirque du Soleil because, dammit, handstands.

Surely that would be unexpected and would test all their fitness and capacity of the unknown. Right now, CrossFit athletes train to be CrossFit competitors. They don’t really train to complete a functional fitness test.

Praise the Game, Not the Player

This is all semantic quibbling. I am neither a fan nor am I a hater, of CrossFit. Everyone has their own taste in entertainment, and yes, I count watching sporting events as entertainment. I don’t discount the value of CrossFit.

It’s not everyone’s thing but CrossFit bodies have their own physicality, CrossFit athletes have their own strengths and weaknesses like any other athlete, and CrossFit competitions have their own adoring audience. The CrossFit haters should probably pack up and let things be.

So, don’t laugh the Games off because torture, or not, it’s still damn hard. And don’t yawn at the CrossFit games. Well, you can yawn a little. It may not be entertaining to you but they’ve managed to get people to Madison, Wisconsin for something other than dairy products so, each to his or her own taste.

You should, however, make sure you applaud the marketing magnificence of the CrossFit Games. If you don’t want to see exercise as a sport, just appreciate that exercise as spectacle has worked out pretty good for CrossFit Inc. And for that, give them credit.

The post Don’t Laugh, Hate, or Yawn Watching the CrossFit Games appeared first on Breaking Muscle.