As a coach or personal trainer, you are limited by your knowledge and skillset. Therefore, certifications are suitable; however, one could become too heavy-handed and lose sight of their focus.

The purpose of this article is to give insight into why I chose to go into physical therapy in contrast to obtaining more certifications.

A Moment of Enlightenment

As a personal trainer at Retro Fitness Park Slope South, I worked with clients who:

1. Had sustained previous injuries

2. Wanted to function more athletically

3. Wanted to change their lifestyle and aesthetics

Fortunately, with a corrective exercise certification and serving as a New York State EMT-P for Richmond County Ambulance, I understood the physiological effects of exercise and its role in rehabilitation and injury prevention.

Most importantly, as I worked with my clients, they learned about their bodies and the impact that knowledge had on the quality of their life.

However, there were a few moments that illuminated the importance of learning more.

I had a client M, 49 years old, who had suffered a bicep tendon detachment and fractured tibia. He was cleared for personal training, and we worked together six days a week, and within three to six months, he was:

• Benching 300 lbs
• Squatting 315 lbs
• Curling 50s
• And having the time of his life

He felt like he was 20 again.

However, he had persistent leg pain after a life event, and I was at a crossroads. As a trainer, we refer out as it’s not in our scope to treat or diagnose. But, while in school as a kinesiology major, that inability to diagnose and treat was the spark that goaded me towards physical therapy.

Internships Versus Certifications

I volunteered at Evolve Physical Therapy under Dr.Eric Wolf and saw the level of care and knowledge. I conversed with a good colleague Omid Rahmat regarding obtaining more certifications, and bluntly, he said, “What purpose would it serve you?”

I sat down with my resume and a client who recently competed in USA weightlifting and took Omid’s words to heart.

Having a CPT, EMT-P, USAW, CES (I can recite the alphabet), but how did this help clients like M or another client N who had bilateral Total Knee Arthroscopy (TKA)?

I returned to the internship at Evolve Physical Therapy, and I learned far more volunteering there than I did working as a personal trainer.

I Chose Specific, Guided Education

Dr. Wolf goaded me to apply to physical therapy school, and once accepted into Tufts School of Medicine; I saw there was more value in specific guided education.

Some certifications are easier to obtain at their inception and thus don’t allow for in-depth knowledge and progression in skillset.

When choosing to return to school, the goal was to be more than a coach.

It was to become a practitioner who can evaluate, diagnose and treat using movement as medicine.

This isn’t to say one must go back to school to be an educated coach. However, certifications have their limits depending on the population you want to serve.

School, from my experience, provides that which a few dozen certifications could provide. It allows me to help more people regain their activity level, even to return to sports.

I urge a professional to understand that having a million certifications makes you a more qualified trainer. Certifications allow you to learn more about your clients and serve them more thoroughly.

However, an education in your passion is priceless.

The post From Coach to Student of Physical Therapy appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Considering EMG is not a popular choice, the following questions may come to mind:

Electromyography (EMG) is a scientific method of testing muscle activity. It is well regarded, some say, in the non-scientific community because of the simplicity of a stronger reading means stronger muscles. However, it is neither popular or as well-studied as it could be so, the question remains as to its effectiveness.

Considering EMG is not a popular choice, the following questions may come to mind:

• Where is the efficacy in applying it to training?
• Should there be a narrower focus on exercises with higher peak or mean EMG performance?
• What risks do we run by narrowing our views to said exercise groups?

The purpose of this article is to supply a brief overview of EMG, its application to exercise, and lastly, should everyone undergo EMG specific training, or will journals/articles suffice in exercise choice?

Neurological EMGs Versus Kinesiological EMGs

Electromyography (EMG) is an experimental technique concerned with the development, recording, and analysis of myoelectric signals. Myoelectric signals are formed by physiological variations in the state of muscle fiber membranes.

Peter Konrad¹

This can be further classified into neurological and kinesiological EMG.

This article will discuss kinesiological EMG only as its function most closely relates to training regimes, voluntary neuromuscular activation, and functional movements. Unlike neurological EMG tests, kinesiological EMGs are non-invasive.

In short, we are looking at how muscles fire during movement, and in the case of exercise, what movement innervates the intended muscle group more for the said individual.²

• The setup time for a kinesiological EMG study is minimal as the only objects involved are electrodes, which can be hardwired to a device or sent wirelessly to an accompanying receiver.
• Electrical current does not run through these electrodes. Instead, it measures the output of various muscles during a functional movement.
• However, for each EMG study, the cost associated could be in from the mid-hundred-dollar range to three hundred dollars. By comparison, neurological EMGs, can run into thousands of dollars and require insertion of needles into the muscle and close monitoring.³

The other inherent risk is who conducts the study.

Time can be wasted if the professional does not set up a movement properly or does not understand the output data.

It is best to hire someone trained, such as a physical therapist, sports medicine doctor, or specialist with certification in EMG or even NEUBIE devices. Benefits extend into the competitive sector for bodybuilders and active sports’ athletes.

Lastly, an unintended risk of EMG testing for exercise choice is narrowing one’s variation in exercises.

Take Olympic lifting, for example; the movements tested during competition are the clean and jerk and the snatch.

However, during training, front squats, back squats, overhead press, deadlifts, and pullups (to name a few) are executed during a program.

It will be to the practitioner’s detriment if an EMG result causes a psychological effect.

The foci of exercises orbits around these core exercise ad infinitum, avoiding the ones that improve mobility, plyometric work, and balance.

Integrating EMG into Your Training

The safest way to begin EMG training is to:

1. Hire a certified professional.
2. Set up days where there are maximal recovery options.

In recovering effectively between sessions, primary muscle groups can fire more effectively, thereby improving the study’s effectiveness.

In the said study, the professional learns to ascertain which movement pattern presents the greatest bang for one’s buck.

It accomplishes this by measuring the mean and peak activation during contraction of the intended muscle group while shifting positions.

For example, in the gluteus maximus muscle group recruitment, one can look at the sumo deadlift, which places the trainee in a static abducted stance versus the glute abduction machine, versus a resistant band fire hydrant movement.

The professional then walk through the data and identify these two values, and compares them per movement.

In discussing with the client, the professional would opt to perform one movement over another to have the maximal effect during a training session alone.

EMG sessions should not be treated as an intense workout session.

Instead, it should be akin to a laboratory test or doctor’s visit where you are liable to spend either a brief time due to the muscle areas in question or a significantly longer time due to optimizing larger muscle groups.

One might ponder if EMG training is right for them.

Follow the Science in Your Quest for Performance

It is understood that Instagram pages are littered with gurus and trainers who have all the answers and are obviously doctors of kinesiology, physical therapists, and orthopedic surgeons.

The authority I am referring to is legitimate coaches in the field with experience and degrees who contribute to science.

Within this body of science, articles generate pearls on EMG studies, illuminating why certain movements are performed in contrast to another.

Nevertheless, in practicality, no one has time to read all those studies, and unfortunately, unless you’re in that niche, no one cares. They want to be given the answers.

So, if you want the answers, pay for them.

Pay for it by a structured process, consistency in the gym, hiring a coach, and reading summarized literature from reputable resources (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

EMG studies are beautiful, and they take away the guesswork.

Lucy will perform heavy hip thrusts, RDL’s and sumo squats to make her booty pop.

Meanwhile, Andrea modifies her hyperextensions and resistance band glute work.

Is EMG a Luxury for Athletes Only?

Does EMG serve us well across the board, or is this a luxury only to be spent on competitors or athletes?

The questions I would like you to think about are as follows:

• How long have you been training?
• Do you train to stay fit or develop a certain aesthetic?
• How frequently do you train?
• Have you hired a coach and or professional before?
• Do you have disposable income?
• Do you foresee yourself competing?
• What data outside of exercise preference are you trying to collect? I.e., provides the best assistance in a sprint or passing a physical exam.
• Are you injured or returning from injury? I.e., relearning how to activate muscle groups.
• Do you enjoy and are you open to being observed or studied?
• Is maximal hypertrophy your end goal?
• Have you tried to bring up lagging body parts without success?

If you answer the previous questions accordingly, you may want to consider EMG.

References:

1. Konrad, P., “The ABC of EMG. A Practical Introduction to Kinesiological Electromyography,” Version 1.4, Mar 2006, 5-30.

2. Basmajian, J. V., DeLuca, C. J. “Muscles Alive: Their Function Revealed by Electromyography,” Pub, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1985. 2 – p1.

3. Dr. Arthur Kornblit, MD., “How Much Does an EMG Test Cost?” Spend On Health, accessed January 20, 2021.

The post Strength Training and the Efficacy of Electromyography (EMG) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Entry-level personal trainers initially rely on a training certificate and a high school diploma to successfully land a job.

However, coaching as a career path requires something more- Emotional Intelligence (EI). According to Melinda Abbott of Columbia University,¹ 49% or more of successful coaching is derived from a coach’s ability to monopolize emotional intelligence. Moreover, the ability to connect on a social level has been proven to drive motivation and teaching efficacy.

The bottom line is a coach should focus a substantial portion of their time on sports psychology.

The Benefits of Conscious Coaching

A well-known coach, Brett Bartholomew, brings up in his book, Conscious Coaching ² the importance of understanding the types of people you coach. As of late, there is a growing body of evidence surrounding understanding personality types for career success within the workplace and academic performance training.²

However, within the realm of sports, this too is becoming important. As Mark Rippetoe points out in his book Practical Programming for Strength Training,³ a strength coach will spend more time with an athlete during their career individually than any other coach. Therefore, knowing your athlete or client is of utmost importance.³

Focus less on counting reps and focus more on the client’s needs and know when to refer out.

Coaches are not licensed to be psychiatrists or medical doctors (unless one holds that title); nevertheless, understanding how EI applies to a client’s lifespan warrants some explanation.

EI is a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ emotions, discriminate among them, and use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions, according to Salovey & Mayer, 1990.

In the context of coaching, this requires first an understanding of how a person approaches being instructed, how one manages failure, success, plateaus, and their interaction with nutrition and overall personal wellness.^3,4,5,6

Emotional Intelligence in Coaching Builds Trust

One of my sessions consisted of six minutes of a client discussing their issues for the day before mobility work and isometric drills. EI allows that client to feel comfortable and builds trust.

Without trust, a client is not likely to follow instructions, and the client does come first.

You can have a Ph.D. in biophysics, but the client could care less; their foci are:

1. Achieving their intended results
2. Feeling appreciated

Those six minutes to my client made the remainder of her day far more enjoyable, and she will look forward to her next session.

As a coach, having a graduate degree makes reading bloodwork easier and discussions with a client’s physician more illuminating. The client learns that you care beyond the aspect of the job; this creates buy-in.²

This client is more likely to refer others to you and participate in higher engagement training.

Another client learned quickly that their well being is most important in and out of the competition. During a time such as COVID-19, clients are far more reluctant to engage with their coach, let alone purchase high-fidelity coaching programs.

As clients resurface, it is far more important to cater to mental health needs with the same vigor as a premium program or nutritional plan.

In particular, athletes who face suspension of events or entire seasons may feel displaced without a coach guiding them.

Contrary to popular belief, athletes often suffer more mental illness than average gym patrons.

Furthermore, they are less likely to seek to consult for mental health issues.

As a coach, it requires that red-flags in normal function be caught sooner rather than later and ensure that your gym or office is a safe space. It is through a proper institution of emotional intelligence practice that client outcomes improve.⁷

You might also like Emotional Intelligence As A Success Marker For Fitness Training.

References:

1. Abbott, Melinda. “Characteristics of a Successful Personal Trainer.” Doctoral theses, Columbia University/Academic Commons, 2018.

2. Bartholomew, B., Conscious Coaching: The art & science of building buy-in. Bartholomew Strength, LLC. 2017, p. 286.

3. Rippetoe, M., Kilgore, L., & Bradford, S. E. Practical programming for strength training, Aasgaard Company. 2006. Vol. 222.

4. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Fitness Trainers and Instructors, (visited January 13, 2021).

5. Richard C. Thelwell, Andrew M. Lane, Neil J.V. Weston & Iain A. Greenlees, “Examining relationships between emotional intelligence and coaching efficacy.” International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. 2008.6:2. 224-235.

6. John D. Mayer, Peter Salovey, “The intelligence of emotional intelligence.” Intelligence, Vol 17, Issue 4,1993, 433-442.

7. Scott B. Martin, (2005) “High School and College Athletes’ Attitudes Toward Sport Psychology Consulting,” Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17:2, 127-139.

The post A Successful Coach or Trainer Needs Emotional Intelligence appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Personal trainers and or coaches who aren’t sold on online coaching, take note. This article will be a discussion about the win-win situation for the average gym patron and online coach.

Amidst the reopening growing pains, most beginners will continue to participate in purchasing or researching online programs or fumble.

Personal trainers and or coaches who aren’t sold on online coaching, take note. This article will be a discussion about the win-win situation for the average gym patron and online coach.

What Is Online Coaching?

In an era where the information highway is but a tap of one’s smartphone, jobs, including personal training, can be accessed online. This plethora of information, however, comes at a price.

This price is called the paradox of choice. The more information available about training, nutrition, rehabilitation, the less accessible it is, and even less screening takes place, which brings us to the era of online coaching.

I’ll begin with what online coaching isn’t. It’s not a random stranger with a CPT certificate asking you for money and merely providing a non-specific, non-measurable, non-attainable program and series of guidelines.

Indeed, it’s not fad dieting coupled with bro-science training programs. It is a legitimate business model and a way to kickstart progress.

Choosing a coach within certain circles will fine-tune what this will mean. For example, an online bodybuilding coach will ask for:

• Blood-work
• Physical Activity Readiness Questionaire, (PAR-Q)
• Food allergen testing
• Goals for competing
• Body composition measurements regularly

The coach should be:

• Dietitian
• Exercise specialist
• Sports nutritionist
• Have experience competing numerous times

In Olympic weightlifting, coaches should have competed in the sport, earned certification, and successfully taught others.

Coaches should be actively involved in their communities, whether that be within a federation or online community, not Instagram.

During the onboarding process of online coaching, the coach will then provide a series of questions to meet the needs of the client best. Programming should be a product of said questionnaires.

After the onboarding process, follow-up calls, check-ins, and in-person meetings ensue. This combination of expertise, support, and individualization creates a beneficial online coaching experience.

Start Online Now?

COVID-19 has caused closures of most gym facilities worldwide, and as such most people have forgone clean and sensible nutrition and, in some cases, activity altogether.

For those who have become passive and unmotivated, gym reopening will not miraculously rejuvenate the luster of fitness. Instead, having a gameplan to rejoin the gym and continue a healthy lifestyle begins in their home.

Within the home, there are great tools to discuss with your coach for weighted training such as gallon jugs, or couches. Home cooking is becoming more a mainstay considering restaurant closures as well.

Learning how to count your macros, weigh food, and understand the nutritional content hasn’t been more straightforward. With a healthier plan, most dishes aren’t from a can or a box; they require seasoning, marinades, and cooking of raw ingredients. Within the home, there is more time to spend with family without concern about the spread.

After Social Distancing?

Hybrid coaching. If a coach is stagnant and will not part ways with pen and paper in this era, they are at a significant disadvantage. Zoom workouts, Youtube, seminars are becoming more popular amongst the young and old.

Coaches now have more work to do. They need to be accessible outside of the gym or office, scale to their clientele, and provide obsessively excellent service or lose face to IG models.

Meeting in person may or may not become a premium, but it should be just as important as the online portion, if not higher.

Companies such as Starting Strength and Renaissance Periodization have taken this to another level. They offer seminars and camps, both in-person and online, while providing certifications for ordinary people to learn the technique and implement at home in the kitchen or out there in the gym.

Many patrons and clients will not return to gym facilities right away. With guidelines set, social distancing and awkward gym etiquette aren’t too far away.

Online coaching provides an opportunity to regain control of your nutrition, learn to become more consistent independent of the gym environment and, upon return, doesn’t seem like a far stretch.

I hope this was helpful and encourages you to regain control of your health and inspire you to support your local coaches. Lift with love, my friends.

The post The Symbiosis of Gyms and Online Training Post-Pandemic appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Here are three things I knew prior to training for competitions or setting a new PR during a session.

1. Order Matters

Oft, we find differing beliefs on which lift goes first. We hear from one camp¹ that post-exercise energy expenditure isn’t going to vary significantly based on strength training methods. In other camps, we understand resistance training (RT) is impacted dramatically by exercise order and other prescriptive variables, which according to De Salle,² include (but not limited to) volume, intensity, tempo, and rest intervals. In my experience, however, exercise order is primarily dictated by program goals.

If you aren’t on a program of any type, this is already a recipe for disaster. Pick your poison if you will (they will all hurt):

• Push-Pull split
• Wendler’s 5/3/1
• Texas Method
• Russian Strength-Skill
• Bulgarian method

Thankfully, there is a method to the proverbial madness of training. Exercise order becomes vital in situations such as hitting PR’s for powerlifting, weightlifting, and sport in general.

Heavier compound movements reign supreme, while accessory work remains secondary. However, bodybuilder compounds will remain supreme, but accessory work will become just as important to developing an overall balanced physique.

Nevertheless, sacrificing a higher volume and higher intensity deadlift for the sake of hitting a PR on hamstring curls or low cable rows is ludicrous.

Finish tasks in the gym that will take up the most set up and effort first. As you become more experienced, you can weigh options in this regard. Lift hard and heavy to develop the muscle and lift for the sake of good biomechanics.

2. Good Biomechanics

Good biomechanics often is left untouched when we begin talks of drop-setting, super-setting, or circuits. However, if exercises are ordered in such a way that overall fatigue is left secondary to intra-exercise fatigue, this is the money.

To understand this, one must understand the pre-exhaustion and post-exhaustive phases of training. For example, leg extensions are an excellent pre and post exhaustive exercise on quad focused leg days, while lying nordic hamstring curls are best for post-exhaustive work.

Pre-exhaustive exercises have a higher tendency to negatively affect performance on heavy compound lifts while they are most useful in warming up the muscle group intended.

In this case, cluster setting with similar movements for maybe one or two total sets may be more effective than spending five minutes warming up.

Post-exhaustive work then is best left to working tissues from another angle, which couldn’t be achieved before and secondary muscles, which are not directly isolated.

3. Experience Equals Results

According to the adaptation principle, muscle tissue needs new stimuli to seek effective growth. This occurs both on a neurological and musculoskeletal level.

Furthermore, as we expose a muscle to differing stimuli over time via a wider selection of exercise choices,³ the more mature⁴ a muscle becomes. This is not to be mistaken as an excuse to spend more time in a single session.

Sessions are periods where a meticulous use of time is spent training muscle tissues by educating them on how to perform. For example, if a program calls for 90% 1RM for three consecutive sets followed by five accompanying exercises for a total volume of 120 reps, there isn’t much use in spending two and half hours in the gym.

If anything, this wastes time replenishing your muscle tissue, ergo overtraining.⁵ However, we each learn by experience to improve time management for both training and nutrient timing to prevent random regression.

As a natural bodybuilder, I often thought to thrash my muscle tissues into the ground to ensure soreness for consecutive days, were a means to stimulate growth.

Nevertheless, I’ve learned recovery is far more critical. What good is a muscle if it can only hit near-maximal forces once every few months.

Naturally, everyone will peak, and therefore, a series of undulating periodization⁶ might be necessary to keep muscles and joints performing optimally.

References:

1. Da Silva, Rodrigo Lavinas; Brentano, Michel Arias; Kruel, Luiz Fernando Martins, “Effects of Different Strength Training Methods on Postexercise Energetic Expenditure,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: August 2010. Volume 24, Issue 8, p 2255-2260.

2. Simão, R., de Salles, B.F., Figueiredo, T. et al. “Exercise Order in Resistance Training.” Sports Med 42, 251–265, (2012).

3. Charles Poliquin, “Five steps to increasing the effectiveness of your strength training program.” NSCA Journal Vol 10, Number 3, 1988.

4. K. C. Darr, and E. Schultz, “Exercise-induced satellite cell activation in growing and mature skeletal muscle.” J of Applied Physiology 1987, 63:5,1816-1821.

5. E. Randy Eichner, “Overtraining: Consequences and prevention,” Journal of Sports Sciences. 1995, 13:sup1, S41-S48.

6. Zourdos, Michael C.; Jo, Edward; Khamoui, Andy V.; Lee, Sang-Rok; Park, Bong-Sup; Ormsbee, Michael J.; Panton, Lynn B.; Contreras, Robert J.; Kim, Jeong-Su, “Modified Daily Undulating Periodization Model Produces Greater Performance Than a Traditional Configuration in Powerlifters,”The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: March 2016, Volume 30, Issue 3, p 784-791.

The post Unspoken Rules to Size Up Your Session appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Yes, sugar is a carbohydrate. However, spinach is predominantly water and fiber but is also considered a carbohydrate. In short, understanding what carbohydrates are, along with their classes and application, can guide a gym-goer or athlete to consume the carbs that will help them to perform their best.

Carbohydrates are a macronutrient, meaning a larger nutrient class, which (for the most part, must be obtained externally. Carbohydrates are often mistakenly thought of as sugars.

Yes, sugar is a carbohydrate. However, spinach is predominantly water and fiber but is also considered a carbohydrate. In short, understanding what carbohydrates are, along with their classes and application, can guide a gym-goer or athlete to consume the carbs that will help them to perform their best.

Carbs 101

Carbohydrates are molecules of carbon and hydrogen. They are classified as sugars (digestible) and fiber (somewhat non-digestible). Examples of digestible forms are:

• Complex sugar
• Simple sugar
• Added sugar
• Sugar alcohols

Non-digestible forms of carbohydrates include soluble and insoluble fibers. For the athlete or common gym-goer, understanding how the grain, legume, and vegetable balance plays a role in proper nutrition can help them make better choices.

Simple and complex sugars are in most foods we eat, such as:

• Oats
• Fruits
• Rice
• Potatoes

Added sugar and sugar alcohols are manufactured from simple and complex sugars to meet a need. An example of added sugar may be:

• High fructose corn syrup
• Corn syrup
• Caramel color

These added sugars and sugar alcohols are best avoided or limited due to their link to cardiovascular disease.

Sugar alcohols, often found in fermented products such as beer, have no caloric value and are linked to weight gain. Carbohydrates, from this understanding, metabolically have a substantial effect on the human body.

Carbs and Humans

The human brain alone utilizes 40% of the human body’s glucose (a simple sugar). Muscle tissue has a simple sugar store called glycogen, and thus without sufficient carbohydrates, force output suffers.

What might be far more critical to you as a reader, is the effect on your daily training and which carbohydrates work well and at which times. Three things one must denote to utilize carbohydrates effectively:

1. Glycemic index
2. Gastric emptying time
3. Sensitivity and timing

Humans typically have an excellent tolerance for differing forms of carbohydrates, and thus, diversifying your carb intake is pivotal to longevity.

Carbohydrate Sensitivity

I am, predisposed to coeliac disease. So much so that my go-to carbohydrate source is gluten-free cream of rice. Coeliac is an autoimmune disorder ( the body fighting itself) by which the digestion of wheat-based products causes damage to the intestinal/gastrointestinal (GI) tract, more specifically inflammation due to gluten.

Carbohydrate sensitivity needn’t be this severe, however, in terms of digestion ease, we understand that the High Glycemic Index (causing a spike in blood glucose) typically is shuttled through the body quickly. In contrast, low to medium GI foods remain longer in the GI tract.

Nevertheless, people often do not consider foods that provide the best yield in rebuilding glycogen stores and digestibility. Sensitivity is best done piecemeal. Try three carbohydrates that are not highly processed, such as:

• Oats
• Jasmine rice
• Sweet potato

Utilize this source as your carb source for 48 hours. Record bloating, energy level, force output, and do this with alternate sources of carbohydrates.

Ultimately, your ideal is carbs that will give you the best pump in the gym, force output, promote proper digestion without bloating, and is readily accepted by the body. For those interested, insulin sensitivity goes hand in hand with carbohydrate sensitivity.

Carbs and Stomach Happiness

Gastric emptying time refers to how quickly the stomach and intestine can move food. This movement is typically measured in isolated environments such as the doctor’s office via ultrasound. Gastric emptying is affected by the types of foods ingested.

Protein, for example, takes more energy to metabolize but is classified into fast-digesting and slow-digesting, such as whey protein versus casein, respectively. For carbohydrates, this exists as well.

Most high glycemic index foods such as jasmine rice move through the colon quickly. For science buffs, dextrose and amylopectin are examples of fast-digesting carbs that are longer chained carbs found in supplement powders typically.

Slower digesting carbohydrates are low or medium GI. An example would be a sweet potato. This speed of digestion is important for timing meals. You wouldn’t want to have a slower digesting carbohydrate closer to a workout, which can mean 30 or even 120 minutes before training.

Carb Timing

As previously discussed, carb timing peri-workout is vital to understand in athletes and typical gym-goers based on their training. Longer training sessions benefit from fast-digesting carbs before training and a combination of fast and slow carbs post-training, especially if the next meal will be a significant time away (4+ hours).

This is the case as the body during training expresses a protein called Insulin-like growth factors 1 and 2 (IGF-1), which increases the human body’s sensitivity to the release of insulin. This is important in nutrition as the faster-digesting carbohydrate; the faster muscle glycogen can be recovered.

However, this is different based on the amount of adipose tissue in the individual. As such, in diabetic individuals, for example, who are overweight faster-digesting carbs may not be the go-to pre-workout as the body is not prepared to promote lipolysis; instead, it will use the incoming carbs to fuel the workout.

Seek a coach and an endocrinologist’s advice on where you stand. Nutritionists and dietitians are helpful but seek out sports nutritionists or dietitians who specialize in sports nutrition, not one for the general public.

A Friendly Carb PSA

• Myth #1: Carbs before bed are helpful.
  This is one of the most nonsensical things I’ve heard for athletes and people who train consistently 4-8 days a week. As previously discussed, high GI foods such as Pop Tarts or jasmine rice right before bed pump your bloodstream full of glucose. This scenario would be great if you’re about to do a nighttime competition, however, not before bedtime for the average healthy sleeper, as discussed by Afgahi et al., 2007.
• Myth #2: Carbs are evil.
  Carbs are structural and energy-producing machines, non-responders, please leave the conversation. Even vegans have carbohydrates, and my good colleague Alexa, an aspiring health and nutrition coach, agrees. Aside from carbs, protein can derive from things such as grains, sprouts, and germs (nutritionally dense and packed full of carbs).
• Myth #3: Carbs make me fat.
  As previously discussed, the issue is insulin sensitivity, not an isolated issue about mother nature’s fuel source. Training increases insulin sensitivity as well as consistent steady-state cardio and (biomechanics allowing) high-intensity cardio such as jumping rope or sled pushes for intervals.

A Final, and Important, Note

All processed carbs are bad. Have you seen how to make gluten-free cream of rice?

For anyone interested in vegan approaches to eating and carb questions, please follow Alexa Pizzarello on Instagram.

Lift with love, my friends.

The post Understanding How Carbs Can Impact Performance appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As we move into spring, many of us run the risk of making fatal errors to our training for the remainder of the year, and of those errors program overhaul is one of them.

This is not saying however, changing things that do not work isn’t warranted, rather, when starting out, frequent changes in programs don’t allow for adaptation. The renowned scientist Hans Seyle is known for the concept “general adaptation syndrome” (GAS) which describes the three physiological stages the human body goes through while under stress. These include the alarm reaction stage, resistance stage, and exhaustion stage.

In an effort to create a sound training program, the American College of Sports Medicine along with the National Academy of Sports Medicine uses the guidelines of GAS as a means to create resistance programs for the general population to ascertain rep ranges, exercise choice, etc.

This is done in an effort to maximize muscle development. However, the work of Dr. Seyle is best suited to avoid overtraining research on GAS done by Samuel Buckner and others on potential misapplications to resistance training.

In order to understand the dilemma, Buckner did a review of Seyle’s original work and found that his work was a result of exposure to toxic levels of pharmacological agents and stimuli.

Furthermore, the everyday lifter may follow a periodization plan for muscle size and strength in which the athlete is subjected to constant stress outside of resistance training such as in sport and life. This amount of life stress and the like doesn’t account for how the athlete should adhere to a training program to maximize gains.

Resistance Training Versus Aerobic Training

Resistance training and aerobic training are different in their own respects, according to Knuttgen. Strength training performed under high intensity for greater than 20 reps isn’t feasible. Knuttgen explains that it takes a few weeks in order for one to physiologically adapt to this form of training.

However, aerobic training uses at most 20% of maximal power and thus is dependent on oxygen delivery and small organelles called mitochondria which supply energy to tissues. He further expresses that rep ranges are a more sensible conversation when referring to strength training, while time and heart rate are vastly more important in sports such as cycling.

This doesn’t mean you cannot talk about reps during aerobic training. However, it’s more useful to consider the time and type of cardio performed while allowing your body to become adapted to improve overall performance. As one advance in strength training, sets may decrease in favor of higher percentages of one’s 1RM being performed to an adjustable volume per week.

In my experience as a natural athlete, overtraining in Seyle’s definition isn’t typically reached by most general weekend warriors and focusing more on a consistent program is far more useful. In my professional recommendation, cardiovascular training should be challenging but not impossible.

Stairmaster, kickboxing, Taibo, sled pushes, battle ropes, or jump rope are some examples that help support healthy joints. Otherwise, the world is your oyster with stationary bikes, Zumba, etc. However, choose two types of cardio per week and strive for the maximum time while increasing tolerance every week. Do not begin to frequently change cardio because this along with changing strength training can become a daunting task.

My clients often have three types of cardio to complete. Most get two types done but rarely all three—and that’s alright. It’s better to increase one’s time running than worry about how many mountain climbers one completes in a minute.

Strength training, as of late, has become an atrocity on social media. It seems that everyone has the latest and greatest workout plan. Some swear by having the exact exercises needed to reach your goals.

However, exercise encyclopedias do not improve your performance. They may educate you on different movements encourage you to keep an open mind, however, the main exercises are universal.

These exercises include, but are not limited to: push up, pull up, dip, squat, deadlift, hip extension-based, knee flexion, knee extension, plank, overhead press/shoulder press, row, bench/dumbbell press, and mainly patience.

Don’t Make It Complicated

Confusing your body with stability ball renegade rows or jump squats on a half Bosu ball is a recipe for disaster, injury, and an award recognition on YouTube. In the words of Bruce Lee, keep it simple. Track your progress weekly and aim to keep eating and training as regularly as possible. For example, eat four meals a day and train each body part differently each day.

It’s important to leave your ego at the door and actively pursue function and strength not muscle confusion and gimmicky techniques that promise to help you reach your goals quickly. My parents would always tell me “what comes fast goes fast.“

For the advanced lifters, don’t skip the gym and don’t fix what isn’t broken. Form creep may happen on certain movements, indicating tightness and mobility concerns, however, don’t seek to change your program every week.

Instead, replace an exercise or two with something different. This will provide overall well-being. Operate for success while keeping in mind failure happens—and consistency is key.

The post Adaptation Is Not a Bad Word, Body Confusion Is appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Whatever it means to you, the off-season should truly be considered an improvement-season. It’s time to look at the areas where you may fall short. For bodybuilders, the six to eight weeks post-competition bulk period becomes pivotal for growth. During this time macronutrients need to rise to help rebuild stressed tissues and balance hormones.

For other athletes, the off-season allows for improvement in technique by attending camps, recreational scrimmages, and individual training sessions. Overall, the off-season should be a continuation of your hard work—not a vacation from your prep.

Off-Season Time Management

Don’t treat the off-season as a fixed time to meander or to move away from your commitments or routines. Try setting time to grocery shop, train, meal prep, work, and sleep but treat the off-season as an opportunity to train your scheduling or behavioral patterns.

1. Stay on track with training time (no more than 60-90 minutes). If it takes you far longer than 120 minutes you’re idling. You’re also playing a losing battle with cortisol if you do.
2. Plan a week in advance for food but take each day individually.
3. Focus more on your weaker body parts, lifts, or skill-sets and spend one or two days for your stronger areas.

Your schedule is not based on a specific development cycle and is looser in focus, but still, these 3 key points, keep you on track for your goals and prepare you for more challenging cycles.

Diversify Your Training Portfolio

Coaches will often inform athletes not to try new things during their preparation for competitions or as part of specific training cycles. This is a sound precautionary measure to ensure proper rest of muscle tissue and avoid unnecessary injury.

However, the same doesn’t hold true during the off-season. As you improve your physique by removing things that prove no reasonable benefit, the addition of new rep, tempo, and ROM schemes will prove useful here.

Muscle tissue is highly adaptive and may need a new stimulus to provide differing results. For example, a men’s physique athlete planning to transition to bodybuilding may incorporate more leg exercises. A fencer may spend more time on footwork training or a rugby player may incorporate more explosive deadlifts with band work.

Supplementation At the Optimal Time

Given my history with supplementation, I am careful to recommend things and even more careful to implement them in my planning. In the off-season, this isn’t an experimental free-for-all. Instead, it’s a calculated approach to guided supplementation.

As a vegan athlete supplementation with a protein powder supplement and a multivitamin is enough. However, as athletes, we may be prone to the buy-in to taking three stacks of mass gainer plus a high stim pre-workout and other things that might not be necessary under individual circumstances.

In my off-season I take less things in order to give my body a rest from additives and instead I focus on my meals. Currently, creatine and a multivitamin are staples for me and I cycle off creatine once my prep starts because my coach doesn’t find it as necessary.

With the supplement industry being overcrowded it’s best to take the off-season to do more guided research into what products are useful, and what needs to be discarded.

Off-Season Prep Is In-Season Gain

For some athletes, they have a year-round sport. As previously expressed, others do not. In the off-season as a fencer, my coach Kornel Udvarheyli of NYU Fencing encouraged us to go to fencing clubs and practice. If possible, compete in local meets.

Our coach required us upon return to the season to relinquish a card that we filled out demonstrating the times we did open bout versus competitive fencing. For rugby, we often did intra-team scrimmages between our 15s and 7s teams as per the direction of our coach Russell Lamb of NYU Rugby.

As a bodybuilder, my off-season focuses on challenging my previous weight limits in order to add size and improve the mind-muscle connection between lagging body parts.

Utilize these tips next time you are preparing for your next off-season to streamline your efforts.

The post Staying On During Your Off-Season appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Welcome to Ego Lifting 101 this is your bro coach speaking. Social media never fails to astound us with the tomfoolery that demonstrates the fitness community’s finest lifters. Instagram is riddled with trips to snap city on a deadlift or a demo of a knee-jerking quarter squat or a bicep curl that looks more like a cardio session on an elliptical.

We have become obsessed with breaking a personal record (PR) without paying much attention to the fundamentals of smart programming. We are stuck with a group of persons that have embraced PR syndrome.

The point I’m making here is that training is a slow and arduous process. PRs aren’t going to be set every week or every month—especially as you advance as a lifter. It’s far more important to be injury-free and only increase per phase by 5-20lbs than place yourself in an orthopod’s hands due to poor judgment. Let’s look at how PR syndrome began and determine what we can do about it.

PR Syndrome

PR syndrome was invented because most people want to lift more than anyone else. Sorry to break it to you but there are things that we can aspire to train to be able to do based in good methodology.

However, some advanced methods should not be attempted by your average gym patron. We look at the magazines of strongmen and bodybuilders lifting three or four times human body weight and aspire to replicate this without considering the process of programming.

According to the OPT Model by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, there should be a progressive method from stabilization endurance to power in your training. However, the human body doesn’t always work this way. Instead, it’s hybridized to work on all facets of lifting if done correctly. There will be periods where the body requires more strength or more stability.

Through appropriate coaching there will be a plan for manipulating training intensity, volume, focus/stress, cardio, tempo and the like; this provides a much more specific way of training in comparison to cookie-cutter plans.

For the beginner, the cookie-cutter plan may prove useful because there doesn’t lie a proper foundation. After the initial preliminary stages of training, we need to continue to focus on weaknesses and improve the strengths in such a way that isn’t counterproductive.

In order to best gauge if you’re suffering from PR syndrome, perform a test week by looking at your form, weight lifted, recovery time needed between sets, and how well you recover overall each day. Furthermore, what lifts provide the most issue? You will want to engage any issues directly.

For example, a test day and a processing mechanism for programming looks like this:

1. Perform the programmed exercise as intended.
2. What was difficult?
3. What was easy?
4. What recovery time was needed between sets?
5. What was the overall recovery time from the exercise in general?

In order to understand this concept, think of a week of seven test days happening a month from now. During every workout, if you notice a change note it and work on improving things such as activation, power output, and conditioning by having regular rest period intervals for struggling body parts.

In my philosophy of relative strength, the ultimate goal is becoming neurologically much more efficient and having a well-rounded approach to training. If we can track power leakages through markers such as poor stabilizers, taxing the prime movers to force secondary muscle groups to become just as strong, concentrating on the stretch, contracting reflexes instead of weight, and drilling proper biomechanics to prevent injury, the better we will become at adapting and growing.

On the seventh day of test week, make sure to take a rest day and focus on nutrition and life balance. I evaluate how to recover better through food and address things that are harder to control like autonomic responses and other life imbalances

As a bodybuilder, I take this seriously day very seriously because of my hectic schedule and tendency to become overwhelmed as contest day nears. Our individual personalities play a big role in how we work through issues, however, so remember to work intelligently to yield intended results.

Ego Lifting, the Greatest Sin

There is a large difference when you test a heavier weight out of expectation based on previous performance or curiosity than if you lift to stroke your ego. Stay away from ego lifting—it is a sin.

It is also a transgression against the laws of proper biomechanics, neuromuscular science, and is not proper gym etiquette. So, why does this still occur? We often chalk this up to temptation but in reality, it is only to impress others.

In China, I was humbled and during a few instances saw examples of ego lifting causing a trainee to fail needlessly. I urge anyone to set your game plan before you enter the gym and accept failure in a calculated and non-emotional way.

If we learn to fail it teaches us to respect the weight and respect our bodies as temples of love for lifting. If we carry out protocols that are individualized and work on our most hated weaknesses, we can improve them to magnify our strengths.

In the words of Lee Haney, stimulate don’t annihilate. If we are not creating an environment for growth, we are simply creating one for constant catabolism and ultimately injury. The best way to uplift your ego is by putting in the proper work.

Lift with love my friends!

The post Why Are You Chasing PRs and Personal Bests? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As an aspiring professional bodybuilder, entering the area of Chinese weightlifting in some regard is foreign. Why would a bodybuilder train two times daily for two weeks without bodybuilding training being the cornerstone of the programming?

Sure, the front squat, back squat, deadlift, pull up, dip, overhead press, and weighted abdominal sit-ups are a backbone to overall strength, but to most, they are irrelevant and not sport-specific.

After my trip to Changsha Hunan Vocational College, along with the opportunity to learn from Olympic athletes, I realized the importance of relative strength and how one may exploit this to become better.

The Role of Relative Strength

Relative strength, according to the American Council on Exercise, is the “amount of force generated per unit of body weight.

It can be increased by using all of the various types of strength training to improve the magnitude of force production while maintaining or reducing total body mass. If neuromuscular efficiency and muscle force production increase while maintaining a consistent body mass, relative strength will increase.”

I believe having an off-season program which demonstrates an emphasis on powerlifting and weightlifting provides an athlete the mobility, strength, stamina, and power required to excel.

This occurs because the greater emphasis is applied to biomechanics, mobility drills, and technique over ideas such as tempo scheme, time under tension, failure, pyramid training, and tricks to restrict blood flow like blood flow restriction/katsu.

In order to maximize relative strength, incorporate calisthenics (both weighted and non-weighted), powerlifting, weightlifting, and bodybuilding style training with a healthy dose of cardio. I also want to emphasize the importance of working on weaknesses. Do not allow yourself to fall behind on weak points for the sake of trying the latest program or stroking your ego.

Something that Coach Jianping Ma of MaStrength taught me is the importance of adding in myofascial release with training and acupuncture while modifying my off-season to incorporate more weightlifting—all of which will increase my mobility significantly.

For example, during a three-month period, one should focus on building a strength foundation in the basic movements and lifts along with basic calisthenics. After this period is over, the body has begun to adapt and now it’s necessary to focus on correction and increasing mobility through unstable environments such as dumbbell focused training and unilateral work.

As that period comes to a close, incorporating both aspects into one program can begin. For the average person, six months is the required amount of time needed to dedicate oneself fully to programs and begin an individualized journey.

However, it should be noted that you must diversify your training to yield the best result. As a bodybuilder, training in this way has allowed me to withstand greater weights for longer periods of time, deload more effectively in the off-season, and increase my endurance and conditioning in-season.

Keep An Open Mind

Coaching has helped me navigate the different avenues of strength such as weightlifting and bodybuilding and it may assist you in our goals. However, always remember to stay open-minded to new ways of lifting in order to maximize your genetic potential.

Lift with love my friends.

The post Diversify Your Training Portfolio appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It’s a common term that’s being used as the catchphrase for the new wave of eating. However, this is an old school phenomenon that your average gym patron can easily adhere to. In short, it summarizes the need to ensure protein, carbohydrate, and fat needs are met appropriately without neglecting key nutrients for survival.

If it fits our macros.

It’s a common term that’s being used as the catchphrase for the new wave of eating. However, this is an old school phenomenon that your average gym patron can easily adhere to. In short, it summarizes the need to ensure protein, carbohydrate, and fat needs are met appropriately without neglecting key nutrients for survival.

In my recent article, the “Tao of Eating” I discuss what nutrition is and how to treat your meals. This is not an excuse to go on a binge of your favorite food and justify it by thinking that it fits your macronutrient requirements. Rather, this is an opportunity to have a reality check on your eating habits. You can also consider utilizing this method toward your competition goals as well.

The Role of a Clean Food Source

The first requirement in “if it fits your macros” is if it comes from a clean food source. Often, we see our favorite athletes chow on donuts as a cheat meal to hit a carbohydrate goal or watch them grab a box of pizza and have a field day—and we think we can do the same. The key difference, however, is that their training requirements are much higher than yours.

Clean eating is often attributed to raw ingredients. In a fast-food age, we forget how much processing goes into basic food items such as bread or condiments such as ketchup. Therefore, the grocery list and ingredients label should look more like words a fifth grader can pronounce rather than something that requires at least a collegiate level of chemistry to understand.

Adherence to clean eating is difficult and the flexibility lies with sources that appeal more to your palate. For example, instead of eating three chicken-based meals per day, alternate by having some fish, bison, or vegan alternatives such as tofu. By doing this, it decreases the incidence of failure.

If your goal is only for maintaining a generally healthy lifestyle, operate on a level that allows you to look to more options such as switching almond butter for peanut butter once in a blue moon.

However, if your goal is competition, the fewer ingredients something has, and the more it attributes to a direct macronutrient count, the better. For example, bodybuilders may have a snack of only bison meat or cream of rice with almond butter to hit a protein goal or carbohydrate and fat goal, respectively.

You needn’t compete however, in order to meet nutrition goals and this kind of thinking attributes itself greatly to body recomp. Clean eating runs on a spectrum and avoiding processed foods will reap long-term benefits.

The Role of Nutrient Timing

The second requirement is nutrient timing. The great debate exists around protein and not enough attention is paid to carbohydrates and fats. Nutrient timing is often attributed to insulin sensitivity, gastric emptying time, protein sensitivity, and circadian rhythm. In short, when you east depend on your ability to receive nutrients and put them to optimal use.

For those on a busy schedule eating smaller, more frequent meals may seem best but isn’t a practical route. Instead, choose an easier to digest meal later in the day while eating your meals with more dense calorie counts earlier in the day.

Obtaining most of your carbohydrates near your workout time seems to be most effective in replenishing glycogen stores and more importantly keeping metabolic homeostasis. The same, however, is not true for protein. Protein speeds up digestion and having a consistent protein load throughout the day with a bigger spike post-workout seems to be the best way to create an anabolic effect.

Eating smaller, more frequent meals improves gastric emptying time and, as a competitor, this proves to be most useful. Competition, however, adds a level of complexity to micronutrients such as sodium, potassium, and calcium levels. Vascularity, hardness/dryness, inflammation, and water retention can all be manipulated (temporarily) by ensuring micronutrients are accounted for.

For more information on flexible nutrition feel free to slide into the DMs @flexx_fairbairn and follow me on my road to World Championships WNBF 2019.

The post Flexible to Competitive Nutrition appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Can you feel it? I do. It’s the sound of giants thundering down the hallway, a team that has slaved together on the field and in the training hall. They are titans. Football is America’s favorite pastime and a dream come true for many. Today, we’re going to talk some programming for you diehards out there. Fasten your seatbelts. It’s game time!

It Starts From Within

An athlete isn’t your average Joe aiming to scale the top. It’s someone with determination, drive, and passion. As D-lineman coach, Arthur Pollard explains, “Kids (I think) lack desire. So many things get their attention. It’s difficult for them to focus (even on the simple drills), but as a coach, we have to help reach their potential and stay realistic.”

It’s learning how to take the raw material (a child, or even an adult) and help them to “evolve their talent,” or what I like to call their latent ability. Pollard further explains, “Lifting with sport in mind is a challenge, it’s like trying to ride a bicycle and a play musical instrument at the same time.”

Lifting, from my experience as an athlete, was always prescribed to me based on what the strength and conditioning coach at Clara Barton High School had planned for track and field. Working with strength coaches was also a big part of my training at NYU for fencing and rugby.

During the season, my training was as exacting as Arthur expressed, “a challenge of focus.” As an aspiring professional bodybuilder, I often need to reign in my desire to lift the whole gym worth of plates on a squat or bench press for the sake of focusing on a bodybuilding program.

Someone I look up to in that regard is two-time Mr. Olympia Breon Ansley. According to his blurb, football and track were his focus from the age of seven. And he adds “I played basketball and baseball as well but they were left at the wayside.” His is a tale of focus and determination as he progressed into becoming a bodybuilder.

Inch By Inch, We Strive

Arthur expressed that his “love for the game and wanting to leave more of an impact…to do it on a bigger scale” is what led him to teach youth. He played college football in Kentucky “and never left.” His words for anyone starting are: “keep showing up (to practice) and try to improve every day. It’s not an easy game but its vastly rewarding and putting yourself through it is the only way to get through it.”

It depends on the time you have, how you set your priorities, and “no matter your physical gifts, it’s about slowly building confidence (through practice) and training your mental,” says Arthur. I couldn’t agree more. It takes a strong-willed person to pursue sport and train so rigorously. I’m truly honored to have met a great friend like Arthur. Let’s keep striving, my friends, we have a lot of work to do!

Intro to Football Programming

Conversations with me regarding programming typically go like this, “Blah blah blah. Eh, but it depends though.” My clients can attest to this. (I’m shocked I haven’t been dumped with a bucket of water yet.) Programming is a fancy word for workout methodology over time. Every athlete, whether they have the physicality or skill, will have to be “pressed, wrung out, and folded.”

Training begins with the basics: squat, deadlift, press, bench, and power clean. However, we must not forget that mobility and flexibility work to help us become more functional, according to Pollard. Strength is vital but so is functionality. If you develop a strong lifting foundation your force output will inevitably increase.

According to Tudor Bompa, PhD, almost all physical activities incorporate speed and flexibility including, maximizing quickness and frequency, overcoming resistance, and maximizing range of motion and coordination.” In my own studies I have found that balancing between bodybuilding, power training, strength training, and integrated training works best for anyone starting out.

Bompa goes on to explain that team sports typically have two prep phases and strength training is done anywhere from 2-4 times per week. This is despite the long competitive season lasting anywhere from 28-36 weeks. For football, strength-speed should dominate and if you’d like to learn more, read Advanced Sports Nutrition by Dan Bernadot for how to optimize nutrition with your training.

For the average gym-goer, this means if you aren’t training at least three days per week you may want to improve your conditioning for at least another three months at higher intensities at a minimum of three days a week

Your training should have a balance between endurance, strength, and speed but be within reason, such that you recover adequately. A training split such as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with active rest days between training days is best. The fourth day should be used to work on weaknesses and technique.

Bodyweight Training to Master

I believe that most people are soft and building a stronger, less fragile body is of utmost importance. That being said, we will start with a sample of bodyweight training that must be mastered.

1. The Push-Up: Master a plank, then move onto going up and down on your hands, isometric holding the top position and repeating. The second is utilizing an incline to increase repetitions. The third and final step is including variables such as military push-ups, diamond push-ups, push-ups with a medicine ball (to work on stability), reverse hand position push-ups (to engage the bicep), and advancing to the Hindu push-up (for shoulder engagement).
2. The Dip: Master the tricep press down, face pull, dumbbell tricep extension, and tricep push-ups (sphinx push-ups). Lastly, start using the assisted machine or a resistance band. This is crucial in order to gain pressing power in the bench press—which is used in the NFL combine as a measure of strength and endurance.
3. The Squat: Master your range of motion, hip angle, and improve mobility. Most people go directly to the barbell squat without fixing key issues such as lower cross syndrome or improving mobility first. Variations that prove useful are the Sumo squat, box squat, hip banded squat, and counterbalance squat
4. Hip Hinge and Lateral Hip Mobility: I highly suggest doing the glute bridge and its modifications. Use the Bosu ball to learn how to overcome instability and engage the hamstrings and glutes to a greater degree. This will allow you to engage these muscle groups at will in order to move appropriately in the deadlift, Romanian deadlift, squat, barbell row, lunge, box jump, vertical jump, broad jump, etc. In my humble opinion, learning how to hip hinge is such an underutilized and underappreciated aspect of bodyweight and weight training. Lateral mobility includes side-stepping and learning how use a side lunge, thus allowing movement along the frontal plane.

Plyometric Training to Master

Plyometric training is another critical training aspect and is very beneficial because it can be done weighted or non-weighted. This kind of training most closely resembles sport and embodies athleticism therefore, as a patron of football, these might be worthwhile to add to your arsenal.

Disclaimer: Do not attempt these if you are injured and do not practice these with improper form.

1. Vertical Jump: Jumping straight up teaches one how to improve power in the sagittal plane. Furthermore, it teaches thoracic extension and emphasizes stability throughout the body.
2. Broad Jump: This is a lateral jump executed for the sake of increasing power similarly to the vertical jump. This is also called the frog jump/leap or rabbit jump in other practices such as martial arts.
3. One-Legged Hop: Promoting unilateral stability and coordination, this jump can be executed over a hurdle or a line depending on the level of stability of the participant.
4. Plyo Push-Up: This is a push-up done on an incline (preferred) by which the athlete initiates a push-up in a normal fashion but continues doing push-ups in an extended and very rapid fashion without returning to the starting position. This teaches reaction time, neural drive, and priming for explosive movement of the upper body. Clap or power push-ups are great alternatives here also.
5. Box Jump: This is a variation of a vertical leap that affixes a height and certain level of aptitude in the ability to explode from a squatting or standing position.
6. Power Pull-Ups: I believe these are just as important as power/plyo push-ups because pulling and pushing should be equally emphasized in sports. A muscle-up is not a necessary requirement because, unlike CrossFit, this movement is rarely ever tested.
7. Chest Pass with Lateral Step-Up: This is a chest pass and lateral step-up combination that teaches upper and lower body coordination and power. Utilize a sturdy box and have a partner that will pass the medicine ball to you. This works both the frontal and sagittal planes simultaneously.
8. Squat Twist to Throw: This teaches the use of the transverse plane and requires an understanding of how to squat and twist without hunching or using torque from the hip in order to generate force for a throw in the opposing direction.

Free Weight Movements to Master

Free weights provide a great opportunity to teach coordination, stability, mobility and emphasize both power and strength. As discussed by Pollard and Ansley, the barbell squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press, and power clean are your bread and butter.

To add to this arsenal I would suggest the rack pull, one-arm row, push press, Pendlay row, Anderson squat, Anderson deadlift, weighted walking lunges, Bulgarian split squat, split jump (weighted), and squat jumps with dumbbells.

Learning to put these exercises into your regimen is a daunting task and learning to balance cardio with all this training seems to be even more problematic. Coaching can be helpful, as previously discussed. A good start to any form of programming/periodization is to start with a month to month plan then slowly gravitate toward a plan for every three months, then every six months, then yearly.

Below is an example.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Drills can be anything from agility ladders to technique-based drills (such as throwing or catching) to mini scrimmages where plays are practiced.
• Spaces are left intentionally for clarity of reading and notes from your coach about eating and or energy systems.
• Create another sheet or utilize a notebook for reps sets and weights used.

Get Started On Your Training

For those who have an interest in coaching with regard to football, you can always begin with recreational clubs or leagues in your city. For children, start with a reputable children’s program and continue with age-appropriate weight training in order for them to build a foundation.

Consider pursuing training and coaching for children seriously in middle school as it can help them prepare for high school sports. The NCAA will give you a good guideline about what’s required and provides a standard.

For most, going to the NFL is a dream and a very ambitious goal. It requires a lot of sacrifices and making connections with the right people (even more so than your training alone). Learn from others who have foundations in weightlifting and powerlifting to develop a good foundation for yourself. Learn from sprinters or middle-distance runners to maximize stamina on and off the field.

Lift with love my friends!

The post Become a Titan: An Intro to Football Programming appeared first on Breaking Muscle.