Thoughts on a Thursday

• This is mainly directed at the guys. Just because it's an upper body workout doesn't mean you have to bench press. I know some guys who have never done a chest or upper body workout without ever bench pressing. And I also know a lot of guys who are always complaining about how their shoulders are always screwed up. Bench pressing isn't bad, but doing it for years on end without any variation is. Yes, there are other upper body pressing options: incline press, barbell floor press, dumbbells bench press variations t0 name a few. You might even want to think about skipping on some pressing work for aawhile and focus more on exercises such as chin ups and rows.
• Number of people I see who foam roll routinely: very few. Number of people who I see doing some active flexibility work prior to a strength workout: very few . Number of people who I see that have flexibility or mobility issues: a lot.
• Focus on eating good foods and the calorie counting will take care of itself. Good foods tend to be less calorically dense and have a higher satiety index.
• In the past, I've talked about balancing out your training program. For example, you should perform an equal amount of pulling work as you do pressing work. But looking at it gain, I believe most people have a need for some imbalanced type of work because of the imbalances they've built up. More pulling work than pressing work. More posterior chain work than quad dominant work. Imbalanced training, but imbalanced the right way.
• I wish could tell a new client when they're going to start seeing results in regards to body composition or weight loss. But the truth is that I have no idea. I really have control over one variable that is going to determine their success, their workouts. And the only workouts I have control over are the one's they're doing with me.
• When I first saw ropes being used as a training tool, I was a bit skeptical. To me it looked a bit foolish. But after witnessing their rising popularity, I decided to go ahead and pick one up. Wasn't sure whether to get one that was 1.5 inch in diameter or the 2 inch one. Boy, I'm glad I got the 1.5inch. 20 or 30 seconds of fast paced work has never felt so long. And the best part is the exercises and patterns that can be done are really endless. I'll trade the foolish looks for their effectiveness. Plus, I think we've lost some of the fun in our training programs. Look for different rope workouts in upcoming Exercise of the Week posts.

Have a great weekend!!