[quote]Old Dax wrote:
Eric / Mike,
How important is the supination when performing the prone lower trap raise?[/quote]
It’s pretty important to this particular movement, as the supination is what leads to recruitment of the lower trap fibers as opposed to the posterior delts.
[quote]I’m doing them to the best of my ability but I have limited supination on both sides but especially on the right.
If I hold my right arm in front, parallel to the floor (elbow at 90deg) I only get about 125-130deg supination. (Left=~155-160).
If I stand upright and raise my right arm straight and parallel to the ground (in line with my shoulders) it’s more like 115-125 deg.)
Dax
[/quote]
Were you ever an athlete in a unilaterally dominant sport (e.g. baseball, tennis)?
It sounds like you have some flexibility issues with which to contend, but in the meantime, don’t worry about not being able to do the prone lower trap raises. They’re just one tool in your exercise tool box. You can still get excellent recruitment of these fibers with horizontal pulling variations (seated cable rows are probably your best bet). Work with what you’ve got, and work toward what you don’t.
I know you guys are very well versed in the training of different typres of people and athletes.
Do you have any lactic acid conditioning workout ideas for a fighter(me)? I’m training to fight in June at a ripped 176lbs. I feel I have a good tolerance for punishing workouts.[/quote]
As it turns out, lactic acid isn’t really the cause of muscular fatigue, but that’s a whole other debate. Nonetheless, the training methods remain the same for improving this type of performance realm. The beauty of this sort of stuff is that the possibilities are endless. You can do body weight circuits, dynamic flexibility, strongman training (tire flips, sled dragging, farmer’s walks, etc.), stadium sprints, line/cone drills, complexes with a variety of resistances (barbells, DBs, kettlebells, bands, etc.). The only limit is your imagination. Mix and match from different categories and increase the challenge by shortening rest periods and increasing resistances - not necessarily going longer (although that is important in many instances). Try to pick exercises that will address your musculoskeletal imbalances while improving your metabolic conditioning.
[quote]Anything goes, also can you post up some finishers for mental toughness, willing to test yourself for the end of a workout.
[/quote]
Truthfully, I rarely add “finishers” to the end of sessions. In my opinion, this brings to light an amazing “phenomenon” that exists in the performance enhancement field. Those who make frequent use of finishers are the very same individuals who don’t know a thing about volume manipulation for optimal supercompensation. If the finisher was such a valuable inclusion, then why wasn’t it written into the program initially? Your mental training stimuli should already exist in your programming; if you need to search around for things to half-hazardly incorporate at the end of a session, then you need to take a look at program design abilities. Believe it or not, there should even be times when you leave the gym feeling fresh.
There may be instances where I’ll push an athlete (or myself) with increased volume and/or intensity based on the pre-training mood. This is one basis for cybernetic periodization; effectively, you can roll with the punches as needed.
[quote]Zulu wrote:
I posted a new thread then I realized I should post my question here as well…
In the military press I have a very blatant sticking point where I’m a lot weaker than in the rest of the movement. So I think it would be a good idea to strength that joint angle using isometrics.
I was thinking about using a barbell with 80% of my max and doing sets of 5s or so.
Has anything been written about what % and duration is best?
Also, I think an article on the Military Press would be a great idea. Dan John wrote about it in a recent newsletter but I couldn’t quite make the technical advice work.[/quote]
I’d stick with overcoming isometrics if you’re trying to bust past a concentric sticking point. Lower the weight a bit and press against the pins in a power rack at your sticking point. 5-10 seconds should suffice, but work on developing maximal force as quickly as possible. Make sure that you’re getting in plenty of sets, though.
[quote]Chewman wrote:
I am having difficulty with my knees and have had this problem since I was a teen. I am now 40.
I’ve been to 3 orthopedic specialists in my years, and 1 sports med doc. All have had different diagnosis. I have also been to Pysical Therapy 3 different times and all 3 times they have had me do leg extensions and cybex for the 10 - 20 visits. These kill my knees to the point I can barely walk.
Basically I have always had pain going down hills, down steps, or with the bottom 45 degrees on a leg extension. When I do squats I have to drop fast controled to get to the hole otherwise my knees will tighten up/become painful and I cant get past 45 degrees down. I also have to squat with a narrow shoulder width stance otherwise my knees hurt and I dont get down into the hole.
The pain is all patellar in nature the the most being patellar tendon area and lateral. I do have crepitous with extension against resistence but I have had this all along.
I have searched online a number of sites but nothing seems to speak to my concerns.
Any ideas you guys have would be wonderful to try. Currently I’m just trying to work past it, but expert guidence is a great thing to have.
[/quote]
A few questions:
What diagnoses have you received?
Have you had any soft tissue work performend - particularly ART? If it’s been around this long, chances are that you’ve got enough adhesions to sink a battleship and, more importantly, limit you in your rehab efforts. Do you have access to a foam roller?
It sounds like your flexibility is awful; what have you done on that front to address the problem?
Did you ever bother to tell the PTs that they sucked?
Have you had any soft tissue work performend - particularly ART? If it’s been around this long, chances are that you’ve got enough adhesions to sink a battleship and, more importantly, limit you in your rehab efforts. Do you have access to a foam roller?
It sounds like your flexibility is awful; what have you done on that front to address the problem?
Did you ever bother to tell the PTs that they sucked? :)[/quote]
TO answer:
Diagnoises…
First Ortho said I had Patela Alta and wanted to cut my quats to lengthen them (I thought he was crazy).
The next Ortho said my Tibia was mis-aligned and wanted to cut the bones and take a wedge out(I think this guy is crazy as well, first one wants to cut my muscles like a zipper, now this guys wasnt to break my bones).
The last said I had patellas that didnt comletely fuse and wanted to remove them(he did this by feel not xray).
Every Ortho wanted to do a bigtime surgery they dint agree with the causative factors, so I walked. Sports-med doc said needed to strengthen them so I went for my 3rd round of PT at a 3rd place. My family doc has tried PT twice before.
Never had ART. I have access to about anything I can get and friends in the right places to get them ( I work in medicine).
Flexibility, What stretches do you suggest. I’ve been following the stretching guides/articles here at T-Nation. I stretch multiple time a day. I am 6’6" and on a good knee day I can squat 315 to parallel. I can go ass to the grass with 225 on a good knee day. I dont know if I am answering your question here.
I would talk to them about the pain and ask if there was other activities that I could do, because I could barely walk. Knees would swell up, grind alot, and get really hot to the touch after PT. The only thing they would do is ice. Even when my cybex scores were less than the weeks before due to pain their answers were you have to get stronger.
Basically I am trying to avoid going to another Ortho and getting a 4th diagnosis which does nothing,or wants to perform another big time surgery and pay his Yacht Club Membership for another year. I want to get past this but the pain is hindering my progress.
I’ve seen you reference David Tiberio in one of your articles. I know he’s up at UConn in the PT department. How much influence has his, and by proxy, Gary Gray’s ideas had on your training protocols, if any?
Hey guys, im 18 years old and i just got from being sick with mono. Baseball season just started and obsviously ilost basically all my strength and muscle mass b/c of mono. I wanna gain all of which i lost back even though ill be lifting hard during the season. Im planning on following CW’s TBT because that gave me great results before. Do you guys think its advisable to gain back the strength and mass using his program during the season.
THanks
I don’t know why not; a lot of people have used the Olympic lifts to help develop their deadlift. I know that John Sullivan (one of Eric’s buddies) used the Olympic lifts with great success to build his deadlift. Keep the reps per set low and focus on proper technique and explosiveness.
Give it a shot and let us know how it works!
Stay strong
MR
[quote]praterhaus wrote:
Are power cleans and/or high pulls a suitable substitute for speed dead lifts? If so, would you use a similar set/rep protocol? If not, why not?[/quote]
To be totally honest, I feel it’s going to be tough to gain it all back in-season. Simply put, your bodies primary energy demands are going to be geared towards sports training. I would think, however, that after you get your weight back up and start feeling better, you’ll find that you didn’t lose quite as much as you thought. There’s always a rebound effect after being sick; you’ll feel terrible and weak for a while, but then as you start feeling better the strength comes back.
I would imagine that you’ll still need to follow a more traditional in-season program, with lower reps per set and focusing on the big exercises. I think you’ll be surprised at how quickly your strength comes back. Good luck!
Stay strong
MR
[quote]jreed212 wrote:
Hey guys, im 18 years old and i just got from being sick with mono. Baseball season just started and obsviously ilost basically all my strength and muscle mass b/c of mono. I wanna gain all of which i lost back even though ill be lifting hard during the season. Im planning on following CW’s TBT because that gave me great results before. Do you guys think its advisable to gain back the strength and mass using his program during the season.
THanks[/quote]
I use the Accumulation/Intensification scheme that C.T. (and others) have wrote about on this site. One thing I am trying to figure out in my program design is where to incoropate isometrics. (iso-dynamic contrast for example) In the acc. phase or intes. phase? I’m sure the weight you use and how long you can hold the weight is one factor to consider. But in general do you believe isometrics are better placed in the accum. or intens. phase.
How did you get to where you are today? Perhaps some personal background, bio, influences, how you became involved w/T-Nation, etc.[/quote]
Well to get here I was an ExSci major as an undergrad. I realized that I wanted to fuse my love of sports and iron, so I decided I needed to get a Masters. I went on to get a Masters in Sports Biomechanics in May of 2002.
As far as influences, they are too numerous to mention here. Some of the big ones are the members and writers here at T-Nation; I learn from everyone here on a daily basis. As well, my powerlifting coach at Ball State Justin Cecil who introduced me to the sport was a pretty major influence.
With regards to getting started writing, I went over this briefly in my “10 Iron Game Lessons” article. Long story short, I met John Berardi, he told me to send my work to TC, and the rest is history!
I’m out of school, so no more formal education for me! If you are serious about this stuff, though, the education never stops. I am constantly browsing the web, reading books, watching videos, etc. and in general getting my learn on to be the best coach, athlete and writer I can possibly be.
Training is my passion; I love being in the gym and working to get stronger every day. I’m a competitive powerlifter, so my training is 100% geared towards being as good at my sport as possible.
All of the above! I’m sure EC’s in the same boat as me (maybe worse off since he’s in school as well!), but things are always busy for me. I have clients daily, ranging from people rehabbing injuries, to athletes trying to take their game to the next level, to the independent business owner who wants to lose weight and get stronger.
Training days are even more hectic. Workouts range anywhere from 1-2 hours (including warm-ups). I’m a big proponent of getting your ass in the gym, training hard and smart, then getting the hell out!
E-mails and questions are part of the game; people answered my questions to get me here, so it’s the least I can do to help others. Beyond that, it makes you learn things much more thoroughly; it’s much tougher to know AND explain something, than to simply know it.
My wife and friends all tell me I need a hobby, because my whole life is geared towards training! When I work, it’s training related. When I train, it’s obviously training related. When I’m on the internet, reading, sitting around, I’m usually reading or thinking about training. You get the picture! I am totally obsessed with this stuff; it can get unhealthy if you don’t have anything else, but I really enjoy spending time with my wife, listening to music, and just hanging out with friends in general. You have to find that happy medium that works for you.
[quote]5. I’d really like to be in your shoes in the next 3 to 4 years; what advice can you give to me and other aspiring strength coaches?
Thanks guys,
Tim[/quote]
Here are some general things I can think of:
Stay humble! There’s always someone smarter, stronger, more confident, etc. out there than you. Confidence is great, but arrogance is a flaw.
Never stop learning! As I stated before, learning is a lifelong process. Beyond learning about strength training, if you want to be a performance coach you also need to learn about nutrition, recovery, psychology, flexibility, agility, mobility, conditioning, injury prevention, rehab etc. There’s way more to it than just getting someone’s numbers up in the gym.
Spend some serious time under the bar yourself. If you want to be a good writer, coach or trainer, you have to spend your time in the trenches as well. People are smart, and they’ll see right through you if you don’t know what you’re talking about or haven’t been there yourself.
I know Chad Waterbury has at least one article on Total Body Training, I would check that out.
Also, I have no idea how many sets, reps, etc. you are using, but I would imagine training daily like this it’s only a matter of time until you get injured or overtain. I would seriously consider revising your program, or following one of those outlined here on T-Nation.
Stay strong
MR
[quote]skorick wrote:
I’m currently working a full-body routine
Mon: Chest, Lats, Biceps, Hams, Calves
Tues: Delts, Triceps, Thighs 2x, Abs
Wed: increase weight/rest decrease reps & repeat Monday’s muscle groups
Thurs: same as Wednesday but repeat Tuesdays muscle groups
Hope that makes sense. Can you direct me to an article on this site that would cover that kind of subject?
[quote]praterhaus wrote:
Are power cleans and/or high pulls a suitable substitute for speed dead lifts?[/quote]
Yes and no. The two lifts may seem similar, but technically speaking, they’re somewhat different. It really depends on what your goals are. If you’re interested in pure athletic performance, then by all means get as much variety in as possible. If you’re just looking to improve your deadlift, be very careful in how you implement them. Some people will see outstanding deadlift results from O-lifting, particularly those who tend to set up with the hips too high (see Deadlift Diagnosis for more details). For others, it can negatively impact technique.
I usually only do speed pulls for singles and occasionally doubles, but with the O-lifts, you can take your reps up a bit. Just don’t get to the point where you’re doing so much volume that the speed starts to slow down considerably.
Well, I’m not going to be greedy or opportunistic here, so all I’m going to ask for is a three day a week program to improve Olympic and Power lifting while also working on chin/row strength. chuckle
In all seriousness, supposing I wanted to work DL, Sq, Bench, Jerk (Press), Clean, Snatch, Chins, and Rows, how in the world should I cycle the different movements and strength development methods? Particularly considering I’m by no means “strong” so I need more volume in each particular movement (b/c of low efficiency).
Doing so many “big” movements, where should supplemental/accessory movements (core and/or weak point training) be used?
I realize answering this fully would be a series of 20 articles over two years, but how about some important considerations … perhaps taking “Designer Athletes” and monkeying a bit to get it to 3 days a week and more emphasis on overhead work?
Diagnoises…
First Ortho said I had Patela Alta and wanted to cut my quats to lengthen them (I thought he was crazy).
The next Ortho said my Tibia was mis-aligned and wanted to cut the bones and take a wedge out(I think this guy is crazy as well, first one wants to cut my muscles like a zipper, now this guys wasnt to break my bones).
The last said I had patellas that didnt comletely fuse and wanted to remove them(he did this by feel not xray).
Every Ortho wanted to do a bigtime surgery they dint agree with the causative factors, so I walked. [/quote]
Big surprise…the surgeons wanted to do surgery! All of these issues (with the exception of patellar fusion issue) could simply be the result of muscular tightness and accumulation of adhesions over time. It’s interesting to note that patella alta has been associated with Osgood-Schlatter Syndrome in adolescents. It’s been said that there’s no treatment for OSS, but many ART practitioners could tell you otherwise. In “Release Your Pain,” Dr. Abelson actually writes about how he wishes he’d had access to ART when he was younger, as it would have saved him a lot of pain. If the adhesions related to the OSS early-on in life aren’t taken care of, they’re certainly not going to go anywhere over the next few decades! I’d get it done ASAP and invest in a foam roller; it’ll be the best $10 you ever spend.
I’m always fascinated that some PTs think that they need to just strengthen a muscle that’s weak because of overuse. If you want to really help it, don’t focus on making it stronger so that it can bear the brunt of the load. Rather, work to strengthen the musculature that’s going to distribute the load equally among all the tissues that can contribute to the effort. The hips and ankles are more important for knee health than you can possibly imagine!
See above. You won’t regret it.
The stuff we outline in the NNM series is a good start, and you’d probably derive some more benefit from some EQIs. I think that the foam rollling and ART are the keys, though.
It wasn’t a particular question of mine, but it certainly told me a lot. Biggers guys are notorious for having trouble activating their posterior chains; they’re very quad dominant. I should know; I work with four guys who are 6-10 or above on a weekly basis! Get the glutes and hams going and do some dorsiflexion work, and you’ll be amazed at how much fresher your quads feel. You’ll get hella strong, too.
That’s a sad commentary on some rehab “specialists.” Fortunately, there are some pretty damn good PTs out there; I’m sorry you couldn’t find one.
[quote]Basically I am trying to avoid going to another Ortho and getting a 4th diagnosis which does nothing,or wants to perform another big time surgery and pay his Yacht Club Membership for another year. I want to get past this but the pain is hindering my progress.
Thanks for answering me and assisting me.[/quote]
My pleasure. Normally, I don’t openly disagree with health care professionals on the internet, but it seems like you’ve exhausted your patience and haven’t got much to show about it; I guess there’s nothing to lose at this point. Give my recommendations a try and drop me an email to update me on your progress.
What do you guys think about depth landings or jump off box, using added load. supposedly it will really help your stretch reflex and strenth because of the fast deceleration on the ankle and knee muscles. are there any negatives to incorporating these into your routine. laters pk
I’ve seen you reference David Tiberio in one of your articles. I know he’s up at UConn in the PT department. How much influence has his, and by proxy, Gary Gray’s ideas had on your training protocols, if any?
Thanks.[/quote]
Dr. Tiberio has had a profound influence on my professional development. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been in his classes and he’s presently on my thesis committee. He’s unquestionably one of the best minds in physical therapy today. I think the area in which he’s had the most influence on my thought process is the way that I view the body as a single unit with tremendous interdependencies; nothing works in isolation. A significant need exists for those who can bridge the gap between the rehabilitation realm and true performance/physique enhancement training; there are very few “strength coaches” (if you need to know why that’s in quotes, see my “Top Ten Mistakes Coaches Make” article) who understand how to prevent, treat, and rehab injuries. I think that being able to fill this gap is one of my greatest strengths.
Certainly, Gary Gray’s stuff has influenced me indirectly through Dr. Tiberio. I’ve also covered a lot of his materials directly; he knows his stuff, and I’m always looking to get my hands on more of it. If you have the opportunity to see these two speak, I’d highly recommend it.
[quote]jreed212 wrote:
Hey guys, im 18 years old and i just got from being sick with mono. Baseball season just started and obsviously ilost basically all my strength and muscle mass b/c of mono. I wanna gain all of which i lost back even though ill be lifting hard during the season. Im planning on following CW’s TBT because that gave me great results before. Do you guys think its advisable to gain back the strength and mass using his program during the season.
THanks[/quote]
As Mike said, you’ll bounce back sooner than you think. Regarding your program, I’m a firm believer in fitting the program to the athlete, and not vice versa. I don’t recall CT ever saying that this was a baseball-specific program, do you?
