Warming up....Effectively

The days of just half assing it on a treadmill or an elliptical and calling that a "warm up" are over. In fact they have been over for a good period of time now. And that also includes just doing a couple seconds of hamstring stretches and a few arm circles. Instead, we now know an effective warm up will raise your core temperature, excite your nervous system a bit and target dynamic flexibility and joint mobility. Sounds like a lot, but it can be accomplished in anywhere from 5-10 minutes with as little as five exercises and may be as many as eight.

When putting together an effective warm up there are a couple things I'm usually focusing on:

1. Ankle mobility


2. Hip Mobility


3. Hip Stability


4. Thoracic Mobility


5. Scapular Stability

The following is a short video of a warm up that really anyone can use. It does not require a ton of space, consists of eight exercises and should take you no more than 8-10 minutes once you get the hang of each exercise. Just do me a favor. If this warm up is to be effective, really focus on each exercise. Remember the days of half assing it are over.

Exercise of the Week: Suspended Push Up w/Feet Elevated

Random Thoughts...

• If you are not getting results with your training or nutrition program, you can not blame the program if you are not adhering to the program. Are you doing exactly what the program is telling you to do? Are you following the program on a consistent basis? 90% adherence to a program is ideal. 80% adherence can still get you some noticeable results. But once you start to slip below that 80% number, your results will go down. If the program is telling you to do X, Y and Z, but you're only doing X you can't blame the program because you are no longer following the program. It's your adherence to the program that's the problem. Blame yourself.

• I read something the other day that stated that 1 lb in front of your spine places about 4 lbs of pressure on your spine. Think about that for a minute. If you are carrying a lot of weight around your midsection, you are askingyour spine to carry four times as much weight. In a nutshell, pot bellies equal sore lower backs

• In terms of weight loss, I think what's going on in your head is more important than what is going into your mouth. A day doesn't pass where I do not hear someone talking about the next diet they are going to go on. Or the diet they couldn't get past two days on. Or how they know what to eat but they just are not doing it. I listen to people talk about their nutrition more than actually doing something about their nutrition. There is something psychologically holding them back from doing something about their desired weight loss. You have to change the mindset if you want to change the waistline.


• Better chance your back is hurting because you can not squat or deadlift than your back is hurting from actually doing squats or deadlifts. Got me? If you don't have the mobility and strength through the hips to execute a proper squat or deadlift all that stress is going where? To your lower back.


• Speaking of lower backs again, Dr. Stuart McGill states that those who have stronger lower backs are those who tend to have back pain. Why? They are constantly using their lower back for tasks they shouldn't be. Having muscular endurance is what you should be aiming for in regards to the lower back.


• Unless you happened to do something nuts, like drop a barbell on your chest and crush your sternum or try jumping on to a 50 inch plyo box and shatter your shin, in very rare instances can one exercise be blamed for your injury. Now if you've been doing this particular exercise over and over again with crappy technique, yeah, you can blame the exercise. The more logical reason you are hurt is probably because of your lack of mobility, lack of strength or downright poor posture. Or in other words lousy movement patterns repeated over and over again are to blame. Then you go perform "that" exercise and voila...you're hurt.


• You think you are more likely to get hurt for having no cardio or from having the strength of a kindergartner? Strength wins again!!


• Here's one I don't get, "I want to get in shape before I start working with a trainer." Huh? But I've heard that a couple times lately. So what are you going to use the trainer for after you get in shape? Have him or her count your reps or stretch your hamstrings out for you? Or someone to talk to about the Real House Wives financial issues?

• I would bet since the creation of Facebook the number of cases of insomnia has risen dramatically. Can't sleep? Stop going to bed with your cell phone by your side like it's a teddy bear. You can check up on Facebook first thing in the morning. I'm sure you are not missing much.

Exercise of the Week: Half Kneeling Anti-Rotation / Anti-Flexion Press

Exercise of the Week: Backwards Prowler Drag to Prowler Push

A great way to get the legs and lungs burning for some conditioning work. Drags and pushes are also very knee friendly for anyone that is suffering from any type of knee issue.

Imbalanced to Get Balanced

One of the components of any well written strength program should be balance. I'm not talking about ridiculous looking stand on a Bosu Ball balance. I'm talking about balance between movement patterns. For instance is there as much horizontal pulling work as there is horizontal pushing work within your program? Is there as much hip dominant work as their is quad dominant work? Is there single leg work in order to balance out left to right asymmetries?

Now this is taking into consideration the individual this program is written for is balanced to begin with. They have no left to right asymmetries. They hold pretty close to perfect posture. Their shoulders are in line with their ears. They have no existing or pre-existing injuries. Their balanced strength program is going to match up pretty good with their own physical balance. Wouldn't that be nice? But this type of individual rarely exists. In fact, this type of individual may be extinct.

What I'm usually seeing are imbalanced individuals. I'm not assessing their psychological state, just their physical state. Their posture may be way out of alignment. They may have a big strength discrepancy between the right and left sides. They may have poor glute function or have the look that they were born without any glutes at all. So a balanced program is not going to work for this type of individual, which again happens to be the majority of us. A balanced program for an imbalanced individual leads to...imbalance.

So what we should be focusing on is more imbalance in your training program. Exercises or set and rep schemes that are going to try to bring you back to neutral. Imbalanced in a good way. For instance:

• More horizontal pulling volume than pressing volume for those with shoulder or postural issues. Could be 1-2 more pulling exercises, could be a higher number of sets, or could be more reps per set. May be even eliminate all pressing work for awhile.
• More shoulder external rotation work than shoulder internal rotation. Exercises such as bench press or pull ups involve internal rotation of the humerus so you want to add in more exercises that address external rotation of the humerus. These exercises could be rowing variations, side lying or cable external rotation exercises, band pull aparts or prone T-raises.
• More hip dominant work than quad dominant work. More sets and reps of deadlifts, glute/ham raises and Valslide leg curls than sets of squats.
• More core stability work than trunk flexion work. Actually, lets just forget about trunk flexion work all together. That means no more mindless 100 rep sets of crunches.
• More single limb work in your program. I am not just referring to lower body exercises such as split squats or single leg squats, but also referring to upper body single limb work. Some examples are: dumbbell rows, single arm dumbbell presses or single arm cable rows.

It basically comes down to doing more of what you probably were not doing and less of what you were. Create the imbalance to get balanced.

Exercise of the Week: Overhead Medicine Ball Slam

Good exercise to use prior to a strength session to fire up the nervous system. Good exercise to use to train power. Good exercise to use as part of a conditioning circuit. And sometimes it's just good to throw something....hard.

TRX Basics