So, you signed up with the latest cool app that claims to deliver personalized workouts and promises results. You have been diligently following along for two months but are growing bored and skeptical because you do not see the expected results.

Or, maybe you have been attending boot camp three days a week for the last six months. They’re social, challenging, and leave you feeling like you had a good sweat, but you now have some chronic pain in your shoulder that’s affecting your life.

The Advantages of a Personalized Training Plan

Chances are, if your fitness program isn’t personalized, you’re going to run into problems either with the lack of results or, worse still, injuries.

An individualized plan created by a professional coach should consider:

• Your age (both training age and biological)
• Training history
• Injury history
• Current fitness and skill level
• Your schedule
• Your priorities and goals

Here are four reasons to start a personalized fitness plan designed by a professional coach.

1. We’re Like Snowflakes – Consider Our Differences

You probably learned in kindergarten that we’re like snowflakes—We’re all different. We have different DNA, backgrounds, skills, health, injury histories, and on and on.

Chances are you have noticed that your body responds differently to certain foods.

You know the whole, “Why can he eat an entire ring of Brie cheese and feel great, and I find myself bloated with a crippling belly ache?”

The point is: We’re not all created equal. Why would a fitness program be any different?

“Health and wellness must be personalized (and) fitness sits here,” explained OPEX Fitness CEO Carl Hardwick. “People’s circumstances are unique, and an individually designed program meets them exactly where they are.”

This is why OPEX coaches put their clients through a thorough assessment first, which considers their body composition, the way their body moves, and their current abilities.

This provides a framework for the coach to build a program that considers all facets of the unique individual.

As a result, the program can offer appropriate volume and appropriate movements at appropriate intensities for that person.

“Individualization sets people up for success as it works within their capabilities,” Hardwick added.

Or, as OPEX coach Henry Torano explained, “The entire point of fitness is for it to improve.”

And the best way to help clients improve and reach their goals is to “meet them where they’re at” and adjust their training program accordingly.

This flexibility is something a fitness app or a group fitness class can’t provide.

2. Consider Reality and Your True Intention

One of the biggest and most frequently overlooked keys to sticking with a fitness routine long-term comes down to whether or not it’s realistic physically and practically.

This means it needs to consider an individual’s goals, schedule, priorities, and what they’re willing to do.

OPEX coaches work with the clients to figure out their true intention. Not their superficial, “I want to lose weight.” reason, but the deeper reason behind why they want to improve their fitness.

Frequently, people assume they’re supposed to work out five days a week for 90 minutes a day because that’s what their super fit friend does, but this might not be realistic, nor is it something they’re willing to make a priority. So trying to follow their friend blindly sets them up for quick failure.

“Once people realize what their actual goals and intentions are, and that they’re different from others, and most importantly that that’s okay, they will inherently realize their fitness and lifestyle routine will need to be, as well,” Hardwick said.

3. Consider Sustainability

Chances are you have been marketed by the 6-week diet and fitness challenge folks, who promise quick results in a hurry.

Is it possible to see results in six weeks? Absolutely, but it has repeatedly been proven that the strict diet or the overnight overhaul of your life mentality doesn’t last much beyond the six-week challenge.

Hard reality moment: “Individualized fitness is not always the fastest way to results, but it is the most sustainable,” Hardwick explained.

Bottom line: When we push too hard too soon because we’re fixed on seeing quick results, we don’t stick with it for long.

An individualized plan that is carefully progressive, on the other hand, allows you to hop on a path to long-term, sustained results.

4. Consider That Life Is Dynamic

Our lives, from our goals to our priorities to our schedules, change, and you’re going to be the most successful if your training program takes this into account.

What you want from fitness at 30 is likely different than what you’ll be after at 60, so it makes little to no sense to try to ignore this reality and keep doing what you did 30 years ago.

“We change jobs, move to new a place, have kids, etc. All of these could dramatically change your fitness needs, hence your fitness program needs to adapt to that, not the other way around,” Torano said.

Final Thought: Though we rely on technology and apps for so many things in our lives today, something like our health will always benefit from the human touch.

“In a world that relies so much on technology and automatization, I believe people appreciating what’s left of genuine human connection and service offerings,” Torano said. “That is what individualized training is all about.”

The post 4 Reasons to Ditch the App and Begin a Personalized Fitness Plan appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Coach to flailing client: “What are you doing?”

Client: “I don’t know really. I just saw it on Instagram.”

(Collective sigh among coaches all around).

Yeah, there are a lot of fit-looking people who like to post sexy-looking fitness moves all over social media, and most of them don’t come with a don’t try this at home unless disclaimer.

The result: It’s kind of like what would happen if a first-year engineering student enrolling in 400-level courses in college. It just wouldn’t go well.

In the case of fitness, the inappropriate movement selection that happens in mass doses – not just because of social media, but because of a lack of awareness on the part of fitness enthusiasts and even coaches – means that too many people are pursuing movements and bad exercise programs that are doing them more damage than good.

It comes down to this: Exercise selection needs to be individualized, and should take into account the individual’s strengths, weaknesses and limitations.

Whether you’re a coach or a client, we’re going to make that really simple for you through OPEX Fitness’ pattern-based approach to exercise selection.

Pattern-based approach? Huh? What does that mean?

Basically, as OPEX CEO Carl Hardwick, explains in this course, you can plug all exercises into six categories, or movement patterns. These include: Squat, bend, lunge, push, pull and core.

Some context: In short, we do each of the above movements pretty much everyday. Sitting down and standing up is the squat pattern, while bending over to tie your shoes is the bend pattern.

Walking up stairs, or even just walking, is effectively the lunge pattern, while putting something away in the cupboard is a push, closing a door or starting a boat motor is a pull, and basically everything you do requires the core (if you have ever injured your core, you probably know how hard doing anything becomes).

From there, exercise selection comes down to figuring out which types of squat, bend, lunge, push, pull and core movements are appropriate for the individual.

Practically speaking: If you or your client can’t pass a shoulder flexion test – the person needs to compensate by extending their spine or bending their arm when they put their arm overhead – then this person shouldn’t be doing overhead movements with load, like a shoulder press, a push press or a snatch. Instead, something like a landmine press is likely more appropriate.

Or, if the person can step forward into a lunge and stand back up again without assistance, or severely rounding their spine (or some other compensatory pattern), then chances are loaded reverse lunges aren’t the best call.

Sidenote: Although we’re laying out principles, exercise selection is still going to be more of an art than a pure science, and the answers truly come down to each individual.

This is why it’s important to either self-assess, or if you’re a coach to put your clients through an assessment before blindly deciding what movements are right for that person.

Take this assessment (or put your clients through this assessment) before beginning a training program. It takes a look at each movement pattern and will go a long way in providing information useful to make exercise selection decisions.

The Six Patterns: 1. Squat

Some squat movements include: air squat, goblet squat, back squat, front squat, zercher squat, overhead squat, wall ball shot, thruster, single leg squats.

Practical tip from Hardwick for the novice athlete: A goblet squat, with its built in counter balance, with a prescribed tempo to control and slow the speed of the movement (three seconds to lower and three seconds to stand, for example) is generally a great place to start.

Second, higher volume repetitions are going to help the novice athlete develop and improve the squat pattern.

The Six Patterns: 2. Bend (hinge)

Some bend movements include: good morning, deadlift, kettlebell swing, RDLs, single leg RDLs.

Practical tip from Hardwick for the novice athlete: A single leg RDL to a target-such as a 20 inch box-is a good option for a novice athlete who has limited balance and strength on their single leg.

The Six Patterns: 3. Lunge

Some lunge movements include: walking lunges, reverse lunges, farmer carry lunges, overhead lunges, step-ups, lateral step-ups.

Practical tip from Hardwick for the novice athlete: If an individual cannot pass a simple lunge test, meaning they can’t step into a lunge, get their knee to the ground and stand back up again without compensation or assisting themselves with their hands-an assisted split squat is a good tool.

This can be as simple as lowering slowly into a split squat while holding onto a dowel, and then using the dowel to assist themselves up with their arms.

The Six Patterns: 4. Push

Some push movements include: scapular protraction in a plank, push-ups, bench press, floor press, landmine press, shoulder press, push press, jerk, burpees, dips, ring dips, handstand push-ups.

Practical tip from Hardwick for the novice athlete: If the individual cannot pass a plank hold test – meaning they cannot hold a plank for 60 seconds in the front plank – then a simple scapular protraction in a plank position is a great way to build pushing strength.

This will help develop control and strength in the plank position before beginning to build pushing strength.

The Six Patterns: 5. Pull

Some pull movements include: banded pull apart, ring rows, pull-ups, chin-ups, muscle-ups, bent over row, lat pulldowns, Pendlay row.

Practical tip from Hardwick for the novice athlete: Spending time in the top of a ring row hold for as long as possible (rest and repeat three times) is a great way to build both scapular retraction and help them build muscular endurance in the pull pattern.

The Six Patterns: 6. Core

Again, everything uses the core, but some movements that tend to be core dominant include: planks, side planks, sit-ups, tuck-ups, v-sits, barbell rollouts, dragon flags, toes to bar.

Practical tip from Hardwick for the novice athlete: Planks, planks, planks. The novice athlete should build strength in both front and side planks, as this will translate into being able to engage the core in everything we do, both in the gym and in life.

Keep planking until the individual can hold each side plank for two minutes a side.

Conclusion

The bottom line: Randomly selecting exercises that look cool on Instagram is not the secret sauce to success. Taking a deliberate, calculated, individualized approach is.

So take the time to figure out what you (or your clients) actually need for long-term success.

The post A Better Approach for the Novice Athlete Than “I saw it on Instagram” appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But, for some reason, when it comes to metabolic conditioning, fitness becomes a free-flowing ocean of random, high-intensity efforts, filled with varied, whatever modalities are en vogue that week:

When it comes to strength training, most coaches and even clients understand the concept of progressing in a structured and systematic way, using percentages to build strength slowly over time.

But, for some reason, when it comes to metabolic conditioning, fitness becomes a free-flowing ocean of random, high-intensity efforts, filled with varied, whatever modalities are en vogue that week:

• Thrusters
• Kipping pull-ups
• Hang snatches
• Toes-to-bar

Since wall walks recently became a thing when they burst onto the scene during the CrossFit Open 20.1, we can now add wall walks to the cool movement club.

Though it’s tempting for many athletes and coaches to enjoy wild-west-style metabolic conditioning training, it’s not what’s best for most people.

It’s certainly not what’s best for longevity, explained veteran Opex coach Georgia Smith.

“If you do it too soon, and you don’t build a proper base of support, there can be some negative characteristics that come from that, and you can end up hurting their long-term health and vitality and their progression with metabolic conditioning,” she said.

So, like strength training, to avoid developing compensatory movement patterns that can lead to injuries, and to improve recovery and produce sustainable, long-term results, metabolic conditioning needs to be progressed in a systematic, structured way, Smith explained in Opex’s free course: Metabolic Conditioning: Principles and Progressions.

Principles

For metabolic conditioning to be sustainable, Smith offered four principles to always keep in mind when programming for individual clients.

Principle 1: Repeatability

“Everything a client does should be repeatable,” Smith explained.

For example:

• If they do a five-minute conditioning piece and take five minutes rest, they should repeat that piece and achieve the same result.
• Or, if they do a 30-minute AMRAP, they need to know how to pace the 30 minutes equally, meaning maintaining the same pace throughout the piece, as opposed to flying and dying.

Principle 2: Slow to Fast

When programming for new, inexperienced clients, Smith emphasized the importance of programming slower efforts first, and in time, as they gain experience, you can move to faster actions.

Principle 3: Long to Short

Metabolic conditioning needs to progress from longer (slower) efforts to shorter (harder) efforts as the client becomes more experienced and fit.

Principle 4: Simple to Complex

Smith explained that movements in a metabolic conditioning environment need to be kept incredibly simple for inexperienced clients (think biking and rowing instead of thrusters and cleans).

Including movements that are too complex too soon can lead to poor movement patterns and, often, the intention of the workout gets lost.

For example, a thruster movement might end up being more about muscular endurance than the session’s intention—aerobic conditioning.

Progressions – The Four Cs: 1. Cyclical

Smith recommends introducing metabolic conditioning to new, inexperienced clients as cyclical training sessions.

For example,

Rest 90 seconds between sets.

The idea here is to help the client figure out how to pace these low-skilled, low impact, non-dynamic intervals, where the goal is to maintain the same speed throughout each interval or overall piece.

In this way, the client will start to build a more robust aerobic system while learning how to pace workouts according to their fitness level.

Progressions – The Four Cs: 2. Circuit

Once the client has developed themselves aerobically and understands pacing, you can start introducing circuit workouts,

Smith explained. These can be AMRAP-style or workouts for time, where you’re repeating various rounds of various modalities throughout the piece.

• The key here is to include movements where the client has the technical proficiency to put it into a metabolic conditioning piece. If their form breaks down after 20 wall balls, it makes little sense to include an AMRAP where they are asked to do 30 wall balls multiple times.
• Like cyclical work, circuit training should be repeatable and sustainable in terms of the person’s pace. If they do the first round in one minute and the third round in four minutes, they’re probably not ready for this type of training.

Progressions – The Four Cs: 3. Chipper

Chipper-style workouts are, of course, when you go through a list of exercises one at a time.

For example:

These are tougher for someone to learn how to pace because it’s hard for inexperienced athletes to know how to break up the repetitions.

As a coach, you don’t want someone reaching muscular failure on a movement, which is why they introduce them to circuit-style pieces first.

Progressions – The Four Cs: 4. Constant Variance

An example of a constant variance workout would be to complete the chipper above, rest, and then repeat it two more times, but both times with the movements in a different order.

• These are particularly hard for less experienced athletes, as they’ll be lost regarding how to pace themselves. Thus, Smith recommends constant variance workouts for advanced level athletes only, who have spent a ton of time progressing through cyclical, circuit, and chopper-style workouts first.
• Smith said that the only people who need to know how to tackle constant variance-style workouts are athletes competing in fitness sports, adding that the average person probably never needs to progress to this level.

Final tip from Smith: For all four of the above style workouts—cyclical, circuit, chipper, and constant variance, remember to consider the four key principles in making program design decisions: Repeatable, slow to fast, long to short, and simple to complex.

The post The Four Cs of Metabolic Conditioning appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Have you spent much time thinking about the method you’re going to employ to maximize your performance in, give or take, 320 days from now?

For more than 99 percent of those who participated in the 2021 CrossFit Open and the quarterfinals, it’s back to the drawing board: eleven months of training ahead of you in hopes of improving upon your efforts next year.

Have you spent much time thinking about the method you’re going to employ to maximize your performance in, give or take, 320 days from now?

• Are you following your gym’s group programming? Following CompTrain, Invictus, or some other competitive programming? Or are you working with a coach who has written an individualized plan for you?
• Or, are you a coach who has clients with their heart’s set on pursuing CrossFit as a sport? Athletes, who are focusing on maximizing their performance in the Open in 2022?

Regardless of whether you’re an athlete or a coach, here’s some food for thought from James FitzGerald, the 2007 CrossFit games champion and the founder of OPEX Fitness, about things to consider to maximize the next 320 days of training leading up to the Open in 2022:

Consider What You Want Your Training to Accomplish

“So we have 340 days to prepare for three hard tests,” FitzGerald explained as the starting point (or at least 2021 Open included just three tests, with four data points, over three weeks).

Of course, next year might be five weeks again with five tests like past years, but in general, you know you’re training for three to six weeks, one test per week.

Next, if you look at the last eleven years of Open competition, FitzGerald deduced that you’re looking at approximately 36 minutes of work throughout the entire competition. While this is, of course, an estimation, the point is, you know you’re not doing 30 seconds of work, and you know you’re not doing three hours of work.

Thus, thinking you’re preparing for essentially three to five 12-minute tests “makes it simple for our brains to organize it,” FitzGerald explained. At the very least, this gives you a starting point for creating an effective training program, he added.

Break Up the Year to Get Maximal Expression

“Different kinds of training (must) take place (at different times of the year) to get the maximal expression,” FitzGerald explained.

He recommends breaking the year into the following pieces:

• Base: The base period should take up approximately 200 days, FitzGerald explained. It’s the big hunken part of the year and takes up the majority of your time. The purpose here is to lay the foundation by logging volumes, accumulating skills, fixing asymmetrical issues, and focusing on characteristics and weaknesses that need attention.
• Tough: The tough phase is precisely like it sounds. It’s frickin hard! FitzGerald said it should last approximately 60 days, and it’s when you start doing the more intense shit. In other words, the tough phase is when you can begin to take the fitness you built during the base phase and put it to the test. You’re putting the last 200 days of hard work into action, he explained.

  Pro tip: For those who fear rest days, FitzGerald recommends taking three full-stop rest days per month during the whole year.

• Pre-Comp: This phase lasts roughly 40 days and involves multiple simulations of what the actual competition will look like—in this case, the open. This pre-comp phase is a chance to prepare the way you will for those open workouts, not just in terms of the workouts themselves but also in terms of your nutrition, sleep, workout timing, recovery, mental prep, etc. “Basically, it’s about preparing yourself mentally as much as physically, so you’re ready to chew beads,” FitzGerald said when the open begins.
• Comp: The Open is here. This portion was 21 days long in 2021, although it was 35 days in previous years, so you’re looking at 21 to 35 days.
• Deload: After the open, there should be a deload phase of, give or take, 20 days. FitzGerald recommends getting out in nature, playing a sport, having fun. Anything but more thrusters and pull-ups. Give yourself a break.

Intention + Modality + Person = Design (IMP = D)

By this, FitzGerald means that what your training will look like, aka your program design, depends on three things:

1. What Is Your Intention?

What is your intention, goals, and priorities for the Open?

How does training fit into the rest of your life?

Your intention is super important because it’s hard to know what your training should look like without understanding this.

2. The Main Keys to Modalities

• You need to be able to make all dynamic contractions aerobic and as sustainable as possible. This is the “key ingredient (for) optimal performance over a long period of time,” FitzGerald explained.
• Strength and skills need to progress at the correct rate. Unless you’re a beginner, who will improve at a rapid rate, if you progress too quickly (without laying the proper foundation), you’re going to create compensatory patterns, FitzGerald explained. The point is, you can’t force yourself to gain skill and strength. It needs to be done intelligently and at the correct time and way.
• FitzGerald explained you need to scaffold skills, meaning you need to get used to putting skills together with the way they might show up in the open. Nobody predicted wall walks this season. If you had practiced pairing a high-rep double-under with getting inverted, such as CrossFit movements like the handstand hold, handstand push-ups, or handstand walks, then your body would have been more prepared for a high-rep double under paired with wall walks in the 21.1 Open workouts.

Sidenote: When FitzGerald said this, I was immediately taken back to my 2010 CrossFit days. I was determined to get a ring muscle-up. I wasn’t strong enough yet, but I willed myself through the rings.

From there, I adopted this compensatory movement pattern, where I literally would invert my entire body upside down, throwing my feet well above my heels, to generate enough momentum and lift to get through the rings.

And, you know what, I got pretty good at muscle-ups for the 2010 era. In 2013, CrossFit implemented a rule where your feet couldn’t shoot above the rings’ height, and I was stuck trying to relearn the muscle-up in the two weeks I had to prepare for regionals. In the end, I missed out on games’ qualification by one spot because of my compensatory muscle-up.

3. Understanding the Person and Where They Are

This understanding primarily comes down to having a solid understanding of where you physically are, including your biological age, training age, and sports age.

FitzGerald shared these Key Performance Indicators (KPI) based on data accumulated by thousands of athletes.

Focusing on improving at each of these KPI tests (not necessarily hitting each KPI, but improving on each test and ironing out imbalances) will send you in the right direction in terms of maximizing your performance during the Open in 2022.

Doing random stuff—spending the next 11 months hitting random Crossfit workouts, following generic programming, or redoing past Open workouts—isn’t what’s going to set you up for success in 2022.

Following a systematic, individualized training plan designed for your specific intention, needs, physical abilities, and goals will set you up for success.

The post How To Optimize Your Training for Next Year’s CrossFit Open With Former Champ James FitzGerald appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

After 11-plus years of coaching, I have learned that pretty much every single person who shows up to train with me has some pain.

Pain is something to which we can all relate. For some, it’s an emotionally-rooted pain, and for a vast majority of adults, there’s a certain amount of physical pain they deal with every day.

It can be tempting, as a coach, to want to fix this pain by writing the perfect training program. The OPEX Coaching Certificate Program (CCP) enlightened me to another idea. The training program is only a small part of helping your clients live without pain.

Shift Your Mindset

Most people are impatient and want results now. It’s why people try muscle ups when they can’t even do a strict Chest-To-Bar (CTB) pull up. It’s not their fault.

We have all been told we can:

• Get abs in seven minutes.
• Lose 30 pounds in 30 days.

Unfortunately, the path to improved fitness and decreased pain is a slow one.

The key is to help our clients shift their mindset to embrace a long-term, patient approach to fitness and pain-free living.

Here are three steps you may not have considered to change your mindset and get out of pain long-term.

Step 1: Many People Don’t Know Where They Are.

“Meet them where they’re at” is how OPEX CEO Carl Hardwick, a man with almost 20 years of coaching experience, often puts it.

The basic idea is to get to know as much as you can about your client’s:

• Training history
• Injury history
• Nutrition habits
• Sleep habits
• Wants and needs
• Goals, schedule, and priorities

Then, you can design an effective program for them that considers their entire life and ultimately “meet them where they’re at” in all areas of their life.

However, one of the issues with this is that many people don’t know where they are. They don’t even know what it is they want to achieve from working out.

Somewhere along the way, they decided that snatching and learning a muscle up sounded like a cool idea. Still, some clients have ignored the fact that they can’t put their hands overhead without extending their spine (or maybe they don’t even realize this is the case) and that they’re in physical pain every time they snatch.

This person keeps trying to shove a square peg into a round hole—Talk about pain!

Other people set arbitrary goals without really considering what it will take to achieve them. Have you ever had a client who says she wants to lose 20 pounds and get a pull up, but her actions don’t align with her goal?

She never sticks around to do the pulling homework you gave her, and she keeps admitting to her Taco Bell addiction. It’s frustrating as a coach to watch this person continuously fail, and it’s even more frustrating to be the person who feels like a failure.

Much of sorting out of this emotional and physical pain stems from awareness.

Helping clients figure out what they want—their intention or why—is the first step to uncover, work through, and eliminate their emotional and physical pain, explained Firass El Fateh, the owner of OPEX Abbotsford in British Columbia.

You have to, “Dig really deep with their exact reason for doing this whole thing,” El Fateh said. This starts on day one. “It’s about setting expectations right from the start during the initial consultation. Going through the assessment together and giving the client a clear picture of where they stand physically,” he added.

Emotionally speaking, when clients are honest about what they’re genuinely willing to sacrifice, such as losing 50 pounds—they’re more likely to shed emotional baggage and work to fix their problem.

Practically speaking, putting them through a thorough assessment allows your clients to understand their limitations.

• For example, if your client knows they failed a shoulder flexion test, they’re more likely to respect the fact that maybe going overhead with a barbell isn’t a great idea just yet. Perhaps it’s even the reason they’re always in pain. From there, you can lay out a path that will help them fix this weakness and get out of pain.

The mindset change starts with awareness of what’s causing the emotional pain, physical pain, and understanding what they want to achieve.

Step 2: The Beauty of Simplicity

Remember the saying in elementary school: Keep it Simple, Silly (KISS)?

As coaches, we’re always trying to reinvent the wheel to keep people interested and show off our knowledge. Another lesson I learned from the OPEX CCP was about the beauty of simplicity.

This comes down to, as Hardwick calls them, the “Basic Lifestyle Guidelines (BLGs).”

Simply put, “Start with lifestyle,” Hardwick said.

First, you have to look at what the person has been doing for fitness and whether they have been doing “a bunch of inappropriate (for them) contractions and movements,” Hardwick said.

Look at what they’re doing the other 23 hours of the day. How are their sleep hygiene, nutrition hygiene, and stress levels? Teach them how this contributes to their pain, lack of recovery, and fatigue, Hardwick added.

“If the client isn’t sleeping well, drinking enough water, getting enough sun, there is no point of diving deep into the program design part of it,” El Fateh added.

Beyond sleep, stress, sunlight, nutrition, other basic lifestyle guidelines, Hardwick asks coaches to consider how many steps the person is taking each day, how much water they’re drinking, and what kind of bowel movements they’re having.

As OPEX Founder James Fitzgerald put it, if you don’t feel comfortable talking to your clients about their poo, you’re missing out. “It’s an indisputable barometer of health…You need to talk about it with your clients,” he said.

“Identify the lowest hanging fruit lifestyle habits,” Hardwick said, “and tackle them before you bother writing a fancy training program that promises your client the world.”

Step 3: Teach Them Why.

Anyone can teach someone how to squat, press, hinge, pull. While useful, for people to indeed be on board with a long-term path to better health and pain-free living, they need to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. Doing this fosters that all-important buy-in explained Hardwick.

“It has to start with having the ability to educate our clients,” Hardwick said, not just through “principles and science,” but also through your own and other clients’ experiences.

El Fateh agrees. Once his clients have a clear understanding—based on the OPEX assessment he puts them through—he can now “tie in how their program will take them from where they are to where they want to get,” he explained.

He added: “Explaining the why behind the program is important…When people know why they’re doing something, they are much more likely to keep doing it.”

The more self-sufficient and autonomous your clients become, the more likely they’re going to make decisions when you’re not looking (which is most of the time) that are smart for them and ultimately help them get out of pain long-term.

The post Embrace A Long-term, 3 Step Approach To Pain-free Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

There’s a reason functional bodybuilding (FBB) has become an overactive buzzing buzzword in the fitness industry today: It combines traditional strength training with a more, let’s call it, practical way to train, one that gets you moving better—moving more functionally. This goes a long way in improving health and fitness long-term.

Learning Functional Bodybuilding

Functional bodybuilding, which focuses more on quality of movement than intensity, allows us to bring bodybuilding principles to functional resistance training.

This helps build a great foundation of strength and efficient movement, one that is designed to accommodate each individual’s abilities and goals in a way that’s supportive for health and longevity.

Hence, it’s useful not just for high level athletes, but also for people just wanting to be healthy and functional for life, but who aren’t interested in being bodybuilders.

A Functional Bodybuilding Primer

I mentioned the importance of understanding the principles of bodybuilding and energy system training. Let’s talk about these principles, starting with traditional bodybuilders.

Bodybuilders are known for their ability to increase muscle mass (aka hypertrophy). This isn’t just about lifting heavy weights, it’s also about understanding how to manipulate repetitions, sets, tempo and rest time, as well as mastering concepts like time under tension—meaning the amount of time a muscle, or muscles, are under tension during any given set.

For hypertrophy to occur, the optimum time under tension is in the neighborhood of 40 seconds.

While that might sound simple enough—5 squat reps @3311 = 40 seconds of time under tension. Easy peazy—it’s not quite THAT simple.

It’s also incredibly important to consider the person’s abilities and their training age, meaning how long they have been training. This is why if you’re a coach, or if you’re a client looking for a program or a coach, an individualized assessment with a coach is key to the process. You may want to try the systematic approach assessment guide for coaches.

That being said, here are four key principles to keep in mind if you’re about to start, or build a FBB program for a client:

1. Compound movements first: Compound exercises, like a squat or a bench press, should be done at the start of a training session, while isolation exercises, like a bicep curl or a leg extension, should be done later in the training session.
2. Keep track of contractions per muscle group in any given session: Ideally, the number of exercises per body part should be between two and four per session. If not, technique and recovery is likely to suffer.
3. Keep in mind intended contraction: This comes down to knowing what movements are appropriate for you (or if you’re a coach, knowing your clients’ abilities and limitations). Don’t be fooled by sexy movements. If they’re out of your ability, they’re not going to help you.
4. Quality over intensity: It’s as simple as that. This doesn’t mean there can’t be intensity. It simply has to be appropriate intensity given the skill and strength level of the individual. Simplicity over complexity. Quality over intensity.

Energy System Training

One of the ideas behind FBB is to provide strength training without hurting aerobic capacity. This largely comes down to understanding energy system training, meaning the anaerobic alactic, anaerobic lactic, and aerobic systems.

Two important, and often overlooked, concepts to understand include:

• Get the rest time right: The most important part of rest and recovery time comes down to the individual and what they are capable of recovery from. This is true to both rest time during interval training and recovery from one session to the next.
• Avoid interference: If you’re doing (or programming) aerobic work, consider the types of movements you (or your client) is going on their resistance/FBB training the next day. For example, if they’re doing a ton of hinging the next day, then maybe avoid high-volume rowing intervals on their energy system training day, as it’s a similar movement pattern. As a general rule, keep these movement patterns separated by at least a day.

Key takeaway: Whether you’re someone wanting to begin a functional bodybuilding program, or a coach looking to design one, the most important takeaway is that there’s no one-size fits all approach to a program.

For best effectiveness, a great functional bodybuilding program needs to consider the individual’s capabilities, priorities, training age and goals. This concept is at the heart of OPEX education, and the foundation of their new functional bodybuilding guide.

Choosing the Right Functional Bodybuilding Program

Take one scour of the old internet and you’ll find countless functional bodybuilding—or FBB—programs for sale. And like most products and services, they’re not all created equal.

I believe a great functional bodybuilding program will get you results and requires understanding the key principles of not just bodybuilding, but also of energy system training.

Check out OPEX’s free How to Program Functional Bodybuilding Workouts introductory ebook.

The post Health, Fitness and the Tao of Functional Bodybuilding appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It’s the reason people hire personal trainers or sign up for a bootcamp with a friend: Accountability. And what more convenient accountability partner than your intimate partner? If you live with the person, even better.

There’s strength in numbers. Never is this more true than when it comes to committing to working out.

It’s the reason people hire personal trainers or sign up for a bootcamp with a friend: Accountability. And what more convenient accountability partner than your intimate partner? If you live with the person, even better.

What if we’re at different fitness levels? How does that work?

Rest assured, it can still work, even if one person is much fitter, stronger, or faster than the other.

Here are 5 ways to workout with your partner, even in the comfort of your own home, if you so desire:

1. Choose Your Own Adventure Burpees

Burpee intervals, where you each work for a specific amount of time, tend to work well for people who move at different speeds, as you’ll both end up doing an appropriate amount of work for your level, as opposed to one person whooping the other person’s butt.

Try this:

1. One person works for 30 seconds doing as many burpees as they can, while the other person rests. Then reverse roles.
2. Repeat for a total of 8 to 10 rounds each. Can you hold the same number of burpees in your last interval as you did in your first?

Make sure your chest touches the ground at the bottom of the burpee and that you fully extend your hips and jump at the end with your hands overhead.

2. High Five Partner Planks

You have probably done a plank before, and maybe a shoulder tap, where you raise one arm and touch your hand to your opposite shoulder, all the while stabilizing through the core and keeping your hips from shifting.

This is the same concept, only instead of tapping your shoulder, you raise your hand and high five your partner’s hand.

To perform:

1. Face each other and assume the plank position.
2. At the same time, raise your right hands and gently high five. Then the left. Back and forth.
3. Focus on keeping your hips from shifting and your glutes and abs as tight as can be through the duration of this exercise.

After finishing the choose your own adventure burpees, finish with 3 rounds of 20 high five partner planks with one minute rest between sets.

3. Ab War

One two three four—I declare an ab war.

On a day you’re feeling competitive, go for a max effort hollow hold against each other. Who can hold a hollow hold longer?

Make sure your shoulder blades are off the ground, your lower back is glued to the ground, your hands are straight overhead and your heels are hovering four to six inches off the ground.

Then finish with 100 hollow rocks as a team. Break them up as needed and complete 100 together.

4. Interval Isometric Fun

Similar to the burpee workout, trade off movements of:

1. 30-second wall sit hold
2. 30-second dead bug hold

Or better yet, make it a bully dead bug, where your partner pushes your arms and legs around a bit to force you to resist their pushes and tighten up your core with everything you’ve got. This is also a great core activation drill.

5. Race a 10 to 1

I really like 10-1 workouts, because each round gets easier. You can do this with all sorts of movements, but basically select two movements and do 10 reps of each, then 9 reps of each, then 8, 7, 6 all the way to 1.

If you’re at a similar fitness level, then select one movement each that you’re good at and then race each other. Or, if one person is way more fit, then have them do 10-1 while the other person does 9-1, kind of like a handicap in golf.

Try it with air squats and sit ups, or burpees and lunges, or push-ups and hollow rocks. The sky is the limit.

Why?

Because as the saying goes, ‘Those who train together stay together.’

The post 5 Ways to Workout With Your Partner appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“They’re not functional and they create a cortisol addiction. Drops in power during bodyweight circuits, although it looks fancy on a Zoom call with a class, create poor movement compensations, and you’re 1,000 reps deep” he added.

So although 200 lunges for time might create a “sweaty workout” that many people seem to crave, per Fitzgerald, the five major reasons to avoid programming workouts such as air squats, push-ups, lunges and burpees “for time,” include:

1. They don’t create sustainable results
2. They lower immunity and resilience
3. They lead to poor movement patterns and compensations
4. They are not functional
5. They create cortisol junkies and poor behaviors around exercise

So 200 Lunges for Time Is Out, What’s In?

Fitzergald explained there are safe and effective ways to program bodyweight workouts that can create long-term progress. It’s possible if you follow foundational program design principles.

He gave the following as an example of a more effective way to utilize bodyweight movements than four rounds for time:

• Max set clap push-ups. Rest 60 seconds.
• 20 Jump squats. Rest 60 seconds.
• 60-second reverse plank. Rest 60 seconds.

Repeat four times.

Why is this a better approach?

Fitzgerald asks you to consider the following principles of bodyweight training:

The Dose-Response of Bodyweight Training

To create an effective bodyweight workout, you need to understand “the dose-response,” meaning the stimulus or outcome of each training session. This comes down to three things, according to Fitzgerald:

1. Intention: What is the goal of this program and what is the client working toward?
2. Modality: What type of movements is the client doing?
3. The individual person: Who am I programming for? What are their individual abilities, skill level, limitations, training age?

When you understand the who (i.e. the person), the what (i.e. modality) and they why (i.e. intention), you can control the dose-response, and ultimately the adaptation and results that occur from it.

The Limitations of Bodyweight Training

Before putting together a bodyweight program, you must also understand its limitations.

These limitations primarily involve closed-chain activities with relative strength, meaning strength against bodyweight, as well as strength endurance, meaning the ability to perform repetitions at submaximal loads.

They also have relatively low variability because of the lack of access to equipment and novel means to perform movement patterns.

This leads many coaches to prescribe lots of repetitions of very similar types of muscle contractions, which can become a problem for most because poor movement patterns are then repeated for a large volume of repetitions.

Further, bodyweight workouts effectively lack intensity, at least in terms of maximal effort, because you have no access to external loading. For stronger and fitter clients, this means that strength endurance efforts are then sometimes turned into metabolic efforts that become glycolytic. In other words, they begin to use the anaerobic lactic energy system, which is a great way to lower immunity and create negative metabolic adaptations, as it promotes using sugars for fuel.

Three Final Tips To Effective Bodyweight Program Design

Once you understand the above, you can start to consider how to effectively program bodyweight workouts.

Fitzgerald recommends programming full-body resistance, which include both upper body and lower body movements, as well as core movements.

From there, he says:

Tip #1: Create a progressive program

Like any effective program, be it a strength or endurance program, a bodyweight training program should be progressive over time, with each week building from the previous. Three ways to do this include:

1. Increase volume over time, adding repetitions each session and each week.
2. Increase the speed of the contractions over time, from motor control to strength endurance to dynamic movements
3. Adjust the tempo and increase the eccentric, or lowering, phase of an exercise

Tip #2: Split the days

For most lifestyle athletes, Fitzgerald recommends keeping to a simple training program that focuses on consistency and that alternates between full-body resistance training days and aerobic training days.

To #3: Consider the individual long-term

Simply put, make sure you have a good understanding of your client’s physical abilities, goals, and intention, and then design workouts that are “within your client’s capabilities.”

If you’re interested in learning more from Fitzgerald, you can check out his various education options at OPEX Fitness.

The post 5 Reasons Why High-Rep Bodyweight Workouts Are Hurting You appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Because…

People want to learn them.

They’re a cool party trick, they’re satisfying to learn, and they make you feel young and limber when you’re doing them (if you become proficient, that is).

While there’s some debate in the functional fitness world whether handstand holds, handstand walks, and handstand push-ups should be considered functional movements, I would say it doesn’t really matter.

Because…

People want to learn them.

They’re a cool party trick, they’re satisfying to learn, and they make you feel young and limber when you’re doing them (if you become proficient, that is).

As a former national level gymnast and now fitness coach of more than a decade, I have learned the biggest challenge to learning a handstand isn’t strength. It’s not even mobility, although that’s a close second.

The biggest limiting factor to handstands is a lack of body awareness upside down. People kick up but then they freak out because they have no idea which way is up and which way is down.

Thus, gaining body awareness is the first step in being comfortable upside down.

Below are five progressive exercises to focus on to build that body awareness.

Body Awareness Step 1: Inverted Box Hold

During a box handstand holds, your feet remain on the box while you invert yourself. They’re a great starting point to getting upside down, as they will keep you a little more safe and stable than a full handstand against a wall.

When you’re in this position, spend 5-10 seconds pressing your hands into the ground to get a sense of which way is down, and then a couple more seconds getting as long as possible in your spine toward the ceiling to engrain which way is up.

Make sure your body is as inverted (vertical) as possible on these. It helps to take a video to see if your torso is vertical.

• Try 3 to 5 sets of 20 seconds where you spend 10 seconds focusing on your hands driving into the ground and 10 seconds lengthening your spine to the ceiling.

Body Awareness Step 2: Inverted Box Hold Weight Shifts

Beyond knowing the which way is up and which way is down, you also need to know your left from your right if you want to walk on your hands. And you most certainly need to be able to shift your body weight from your left side to your right side as you walk. These weight shifts are great for teaching just this.

The idea here is to shift your weight toward one side of your body and then gently lift the other hand two inches off the ground. Then shift the other direction and lift the other hand.

• Perform 3 to 5 sets of 10 weight shifts per side.

Body Awareness Step 3: Inverted Box Shoulder Taps

These are slightly more advanced than the weight shift. This time, instead of lifting your hand two inches off the ground, lift your hand and tap your shoulder. This is also a great way to build balance and control upside down.

• Try 3 to 5 sets of 10 shoulder taps per arm.

Body Awareness Step 4: Handstand Weight Shifts

Although you can do these with your back to the wall or facing the wall, I prefer them with your front facing the wall as it forces you to get into a better handstand position. So, if you can wall walk or cartwheel your way up to the wall, this is preferred.

If you’re doing them with your front facing the wall, focus on keeping just your toes and nose touching the wall. If you’re doing them with your back facing the wall, focus on being in a perfect hollow body position and lengthening your spine as much as you can.

The idea here is the same as the inverted box weight shifts, only now you’re in a full handstand position.

Check out the video for both variations: back to the wall and wall facing.

• Perform 3 to 5 sets of 10 weight shifts per side.

Body Awareness Step 5: Handstand Shoulder Taps

Same as the above: You can do these with your front facing the wall or with your back against the wall. In either case, focus on a perfect handstand position and on moving slowly with control as you shift your weight and raise your hand to tap your shoulder just like you did during the inverted box shoulder taps.

• Perform 3 to 5 sets of 10 shoulder taps per side.

Body Awareness Bonus: Freestanding Shoulder Taps

If you can do these, walking on your hands across the gym will be a breeze.

The post Build Body Awareness Upside Down appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Yet, most of us casual gym goers (and even high level athletes) don’t spend all that much time training to be more explosive and powerful. Instead, we devote much of our time in the to training gain strength, and we assume gaining strength will translate into being more explosive.

Power: Often considered the holy grail of athletic prowess.

Yet, most of us casual gym goers (and even high level athletes) don’t spend all that much time training to be more explosive and powerful. Instead, we devote much of our time in the to training gain strength, and we assume gaining strength will translate into being more explosive.

Power, however, is as dependent upon speed as it is upon strength. Remember the whole power equation thing you learned in high school?

• Force x Distance/Time = Power

In other words:

• Speed + Strength = Power

This past year, I have devoted some time to work on becoming more explosive—and as grounded and pathetic as I sometimes feel when I work on explosive drills like bounding, I have noticed it has made a big difference in helping me rekindle some of that natural explosiveness I had as a kid.

Below are five of the exercises I have used to improve explosive power in both my upper body and lower body.

Note: Before you start bounding, take 5 to 10 minutes to warm up your ankles. Give your Achilles a good stretch and throw in some slow ankles rotations and calf raises, especially if you suffer from any previous foot injuries.

1. Plyometric Course

I like this course because you can start small with lower boxes, and as you become more comfortable and confident, you can slowly work toward higher boxes. Check out the videos for two courses—one baby course and one bigger course.

See if you can rebound quickly between boxes instead of landing loudly with a thump. Then quickly gather yourself for another jump.

2. Broad Jumps

The two biggest mistakes I see during board jumps is forgetting to use your arms and forgetting to jump vertically as well as horizontally.

Picture an Olympic long jumper for a second—though their sport is all about how long they can jump, they also jump pretty high. The height on your jump will also give you more distance.

Note: These can be hard on the joints, so I suggest using a mat for landing.

3. Single Leg Bounding

Once you start to feel more confident jumping and bounding via the plyometric course and broad jumps, start to dabble with some single leg bounding.

4. Single Leg Box Jumps

Similarly, once you feel confident jumping on one leg, play around with some single leg box jumps. The goal here is for an immediate rebound from one box to the next.

5. Plyo Push-Ups

Speed and power isn’t just for your lower body. These plyometric push-ups have gone a long way in improving my upper body power, as well. Try these with just your arms first, and then add the legs.

The post The Benefits of Working on Your Explosive Power appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I was reaching for something in the back seat of my car and heard a pop in my shoulder.

Not again!

How did you get injured?

I was reaching for something in the back seat of my car and heard a pop in my shoulder.

Not again!

Oddly enough, many of us are scared to workout because we think we’ll get injured at the gym. But we’re more likely to get injured when we least except it—usually because we’re reacting to an unexpected stimulus during, for example, a men’s hockey pick-up game or while we’re cooking in the kitchen.

If you’re an avid fitness enthusiast, you have probably been taught to focus on perfect movements all the time, like keeping your knees out when you squat. Yet in life, we get bumped and end up injuring a knee because we find ourselves twisted in a vulnerable position our joint wasn’t ready for.

All this is to say, it’s important to strengthen not just your muscles, but also your joints to prepare them for moments in life when something unexpected comes up and you end up in a less than ideal position.

Below are some simple accessory-type work exercises to help strengthen two of the most common joints we injure—the knees and shoulders.

The next time you reach for something behind you, or you get bumped in the grocery store and your leg buckles, your joints will be better equipped to withstand the blow.

Banded Knee Circles

Attach a band to a post. Face the post and put the other end of the band directly behind your knee. Take a few steps back until there’s some good tension on the band. With your foot flat, bend your knee a bit and start to rotate your knee in circles, reaching for as much range of motion in each direction as you can. Keep your hips still and your foot flat on the ground, so as to isolate the movement to just the knee.

Complete 5 slow rotations in each direction and then rotate your body 45 degrees. Repeat. Then rotate another 45 degrees and repeat. And then again. By the end, you’ll have completed 10 knee circles (5 in each direction) facing each of the four wall.

Banded Knee Extensions

A common knee injury happens when you accidentally hyperextend your knee. These banded knee extensions will help bulletproof you against these unexpected hyperextensions that can happen in sport and in life.

The set-up is similar to the banded knee circles except you’re just focusing on end range extension. The idea here is to work against the band to fully extend your knee (do this gingerly and don’t do them if you feel pain). Keep your foot flat on the ground as you bend and extend. Complete three sets of 10 on each leg.

Cuban Press for Shoulders

The Cuban press starts with a single arm high pull. Try to keep your shoulder blades down here to avoid dumping your shoulder forward, as the idea is to work your internal rotation in this part of the movement.

From the top of the high pull position, rotate your hand upward until it’s at a 90 degree angle from your elbow. Then simply press overhead like you’re doing a shoulder press. Keep your ribcage down throughout and avoid spinal extension.

Add 2 to 3 sets of 10 to the beginning or end of your training session. You probably won’t need to go heavier than a 5lb plate.

Turkish Sit-Ups for Shoulders

These are great for shoulder stability. Basically, it’s just the start of a Turkish get-up: Begin lying down with the weight pressed directly above you like the top of a floor press. Use your other arm to help sit you up all the while driving your foot (left foot if the weight is in the left hand, right foot if the weight is in the right hand). The movement ends at the top of a sit-up with your weight overhead and directly over your center of gravity.

Add 2 to 3 sets of 8 to the beginning or end of your training session.

Shoulder Extension Stretch

With a dowel behind you (touching your bum) and your hands in a supinated grip, drive the dowel away from your back as far as you can until you feel a good stretch. The idea here is to work on improving your active range of motion.

Keep these slow and controlled. The wider the grip, the more range you’ll be able to achieve. Thus, the more flexible you are, the more you’ll be able to narrow your grip.

Add 2 to 3 sets of 10 to the beginning or end of your training session.

The post Bulletproof Your Knees and Shoulders appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

What do I mean by hollow body position?

Hollow rocks and hollow holds: There’s a good chance you have been doing them wrong, and because of it, there’s an even better chance they’re not translating to make your other gymnastics skills—like ring rows, pull-ups, push-ups, handstands, and muscle-ups—more efficient.

What do I mean by hollow body position?

It’s characterized by a shortening of the anterior part of the torso (abs are contracted) and a posterior pelvic tilt (to achieve the posterior pelvic tilt, think about squeezing your butt cheeks together). Ultimately, doing this puts your body in a hollow, or banana-shaped, position—hence the name.

If you’re in a hollow hold position on the floor, it means just your bum and lower back only are touching the floor. Your shoulder blades and extended legs shouldn’t be touching the floor, your heels should hover just a couple inches off the ground, and your arms should be extended straight overhead squeezing your ears.

This position should look the same during most gymnastics movements we do at the gym, be it a pull-up, a ring row, or a handstand hold.

In the picture below, you can see the feet, hips, vertebrae, shoulders, and hands are all stacked on top of each other in a perfect hollow body position in a handstand.

A Word On the Common Mistakes of the Hollow Hold

Often, when I see people performing hollow rocks and hollow holds, none of the above standards are met. Sometimes feet are way too high in the air, leaving the person in an almost L-shaped position. Other times, lower backs peel off the ground, and other times still shoulder blades remain on the ground.

And the more tired you become, the more the position will break down…

On the pull-up bar and in a handstand hold, this inability to keep a strong hollow body position usually translates to a massive spinal extension, which we want to avoid.

In short, if you can’t hold a stable hollow body position on the floor for a good 45 seconds to a minute, all gymnastics movements will become a little more dangerous in terms of developing injures, as well as a little less efficient.

Below are five ways to start building the hollow body position to gain the necessary core strength and stability to move to more advanced gymnastics skills.

1. Deadbug Holds

The key here is to make sure your lower back stays on the ground. The larger the angle between your shins and quads, and between your quads and your torso, the harder it will be. Start with a 90 degree angle. If that’s not challenging, then push your legs away from your body to lengthen your angles.

• Test: Can you hold a perfect deadbug hold for 3 minutes?

2. Wall Deadbugs

The idea on these is to press your hands into the wall to build more tension in your body. Focus on pushing as hard as you can so your core is on fire. No matter how fit you are, if you’re working on building maximum tension in your body on these, they will be difficult.

• Log 2-3 minutes (break up as needed).

3. Banded Deadbugs

Similar to the wall deadbugs, the band will add extra tension and will force you to work a little harder to maintain the perfect position.

• Log 2-3 minutes (break up as needed).

4. Straight-Legged Deadbug Holds

If your hamstring flexibility permits, try these. Keep your lower back and glutes to the ground and your legs extended.

• Perform 3 sets of 30 seconds to 1 minute hold per leg.

5. Tuck-Ups

Tuck-ups will get you working the hollow body position in a more dynamic fashion. Focus on doing these with control (two seconds to tuck-up and two seconds to release into the hollow body hold position).

• Log 3 sets of 8-20 reps at a slow tempo.

Master these and a hollow body hold and hollow rocks will start to feel like a breeze!

The Hollow Mash-Up

If you think your hollow body position is already pretty solid, try this hollow body mash-up test. Can you do it unbroken?

• 10 V-Sits
• 15 Tuck-Ups
• 20 Hollow Rocks
• 30 Second Hollow Hold

The post The Hollow Body: The Most Important Skill to Master appeared first on Breaking Muscle.