50 Rep Squats - They'll Make You A Believer! Endurance Athletes You Need To Do These Now

Recently I have been following Dan John's Mass Made Simple Program, available here.

Not so much to build mass but to maintain mass and strength while I up my running in preparation for an ultra run. The mass made simple program basically covers all your bases - upper body, lower body, strength, complexes and endurance reps - all in one workout.

The workout normally finishes with some high rep back squats with a barbell. This is after you've done all your upper body strength work and complexes.

I haven't tried high rep squats for a long time, not since I did the super squats 20 rep squats program, rest pause reps,  also favoured by DC Training, where you do (and I did) 20 reps with a 10 rep max weight, with some heavy breathing in-between every few reps after number 10.

Second most popular squat picture on the Internet

The squats can be in the 25-30 rep range, and today I did a set in the 50 rep range. That's right 50 reps in one go, after a couple of warm up sets.

This is the only weight training that comes close to the feeling you get running up a long hill on trail with a rucksack on, a hill that takes at least 45-60 seconds, and sometimes takes 5-10 minutes.

The high rep squats make you push into that same zone. Your legs are screaming, you are breathing hard, trying to recover, keep form and get some oxygen in. You fight through the fatigue and keep going. It has the same mental feeling as endurance hill running, where you have to push through the pain and your body's saying 'stop you idiot, just stop and sit down'.

Although the research for strength training for endurance athletes tends to focus on the lower rep ranges, less than 5, and Olympic lifts, and plyometrics, and also the standard 8-12 reps; I can't helps but feel that these high rep squats have the same mental training effect and the same fatigue effect. There must be some carry over in my opinion, even if its 'just' mental toughness.

Yes, low rep squats are still valid for all the usual reasons we should strength train. However, I would say these high reps must have some glycogen depletion effect, and possibly localised capillarization and increase mitochondria. And even if none of this is true, you should still do them, as nothing else quite gives you that ultrarun feeling of an elephant standing on your chest while your legs are both painful and numb at the same time.

Alli McKee squatting should make you a believer ladies

So give it a go, finish your workout with 2 x 25 reps of squats, and build from there, maybe 2 x 30, and then 1 x50. Start with just the Olympic bar, 20kg, or light kettlebell goblet squat., and increase the weight from there.

Also, for all you trainers and coaches out there. High reps squats are something you can get your female clients to do. If you ever tried to get a woman to do a set of squats that are at her 5 rep max, only to find that in reality they could 10 reps with that exact same weight, this is the method for you. Using just the bar means some women trainees will be lulled into a false sense of security, happily thinking they are in their 'toning range', then make them do 30-50 reps, and they'll realise that light weights with proper depth squats (parallel or below) are hard - psychologically and physically. Their legs will be somewhere between painful and numb, and their heart rate will be way beyond the normal 'I'm watching the cardio theatre range'. Once you get them hooked on squatting, you can increase the weight and lower the rep range.

Third most popular squat picture on the Internet: Pauline Nordin

Try it. High rep squats will make you a believer. And in my opinion, carry over into endurance training as well.

Club Swinging Essentials DVD - A Review

This is a review of the Club Swinging Essentials DVD featuring Brett Jones, Gray Cook and Dr Ed Thomas. I purchased this DVD from dragondoor.com

It looks like this

Cost and what you get for your money

The DVD costs $79.00. International delivery was not cheap and cost another $20 to ship to the UK. On the plus side Fed Ex delivered the DVD a mere 4 days after it was shipped from Dallas Texas, which is quick, on the minus side British customs charged me VAT on top! Which means delivery and VAT cost me almost as much as the product itself.


The DVD is approximately 1 hour and 27 minutes long and also comes with a 72 page colour spiral bound manual. The manual is particularly useful when you are teaching yourself the moves without the DVD in front of you, at the gym or in the garden. The manual covers many of the discussion points from the DVD, as well as photos of the movements, there are also some extra points about  functional movement screening and  historical material about clubs in the manual.

A small point, the word movment (sic) is spelt wrong on the front of the DVD cover, some proof reading may have helped here.


Content in brief

The DVD starts with an introduction discussion with Gray Cook, Brett Jones and the humble Indian Club Master Ed Thomas. It then moves on to Brett Jones discussing safety and grip, then the five movements are explained and demonstrated by Ed Thomas standing and then Gray Cook in tall kneeling and open half kneeling postures. After these five essential moves, three more advanced moves are demonstrated by Ed Thomas. We then move onto a demonstration of club swing by Ed Thomas and finally a discussion about the history of clubs, fitness and the philosophy of fitness.

You must grow a moustache before you start swinging clubs

Paradigm Shift

In the introductory section Gray Cook explains that he sees Indian Clubs as the upper body equivalent of the jump rope, expanding on his idea of self limiting exercise. Both skipping and club swinging demand technical proficiency, unlike running for example, which is easy to do badly with poor posture.

Ed Thomas then explains his background and where he learnt Indian Clubs, after his explanation of clubs as both a healing and martial tool, his time spent in Burma and elsewhere learning the clubs, and his self effacing attitude you are in no doubt that Dr Thomas is the real deal.

The idea of neural training is introduced and then Ed lists the three concepts that are needed to move well

1. Joint Integrity
2. Mobility
3. Efficiency

Dr Thomas them covers some more profound ground. Making the point that every time you do a movement you do it differently, you are a different person and

"every breath you take, you're a different person"

He then covers the concept of rational training, every movement you do either makes you better or worse off.

The dynamic between Gray Cook and Brett Jones is great, as it is on all the DVDs they have done together that I've seen, and Dr Thomas complements this nicely. At this point, you know you are getting much more than a list of Indian Club exercises or a fitness DVD. The fundamentals of exercise are being addressed.

It feels like you are watching the development of a paradigm shift in exercise, away from the mindless treadmill running and 'we must smash our clients into pieces because that's what they expect' attitude towards what Dr Thomas calls 'Mindful Movement'.

Having the brain and the body in the same place at the same time. This is very much in the martial arts tradition, as well as Yoga and Tai Chi Chuan schools.

It gets better, with Dr Thomas explaining that people need to learn to move, when they come to the gym we need to teach them something. People need to

"go to the gymnasium to learn to workout"

With this point I think he hits the nail on the head, this is something I've been trying to evolve towards in the way I coach people.

 Ed Thomas cover his training principles of progression, variety and precision.

Gray Cook adds that much of the exercise variety we have is for entertainment purposes, not for the purpose of exploring how our bodies can move and that the

"solution is not moving more, it's moving well."

For me, this introductory section alone is worth watching over and over again. I don't know if they script this stuff before hand, but the discussion and banter looks natural and spontaneous.

Safety section

Brett Jones then covers safety, just in case you don't know that swinging a club in you house might result in you breaking some stuff. He then goes through the grip, wrist position, elbow and neutral pelvis. This attention to the precision of movement wasn't covered on the power club course I recently attended (see review here).

The five movements

In the next section the five movements are covered, helpfully numbered 1,2,3,4,5. The complexity builds with each new movement.

First Dr Thomas demonstrates the movements in the classic standing posture. A posture I've seen used for classic military pressing and in the original Pilates exercises. Then Gray Cook demonstrates them in tall kneeling and open half kneeling.

Gray points out that these kneeling postures allow for a more reflexive stability, they mimic the developmental sequence (see Pavel Kolar & Vladimir Janda) and help to break bad patterns. They also allow the trainer to see mistakes more easily, as the lower body is taken out of the equation.

The movements are done with what Brett Jones describes as 'Tai Chi slowness' to begin with, and Ed Thomas breaks down the movements as well. Again the details matter. Dr Thomas then comes out with another gold nugget quote

"Do it well before you do it fast."

 There are five movements in total, done in three positions, so that's 15 movements, not counting having to do some with both arms

Gray Cook takes a back seat in this section as he demonstrates the kneeling moves and Brett Jones coaches and talks.

These movements are a lot more complex to learn that the powerclub moves. I personally wouldn't be confident to coach these moves without a lot more practice, as in hours and a few thousand reps! Whereas, powerclubs does have some complex moves, it also has some simple moves that can be coached immediately.

Advanced moves

After the five essential moves, three advanced moves are covered 1) Side stepping lunge 2) Deep knee bend and 3) Wrist Pattern.

It'll be a while before you attempt these moves, but it's worth watching this section for the discussion of the deep knee bend, as Gray Cook says

"people can't squat because they don't squat."

The presenters point out that these are the essential moves, there are an infinite number of patterns after this.

Bonus section - return to the source

Next is a section showing Ed Thomas swinging the clubs, so you can see what can be done. Then there is a discussion between Ed, Gray and Brett.

This is a really interesting section, Ed talks more about the history of clubs, the Turner gymnasiums that originated in Germany, the martial and restorative aspects of clubs and how they can be a weapon or healing device. Ed Thomas then covers off the ground training, and how this is essential as gravity is constantly moulding the human body, so we need to adopt uncommon postures (more on this can be found on the internet). But to give you an idea, we all used to climb ropes in school, I remember there being a ropes in the school gymnasium, but gradually they fell out of favour, no one knew how to teach it properly anymore, safety became an issue and they stopped being used.

One good reason to start rope climbing again!

The point about going to the gym to learn and not workout is re-iterated, you will get a workout in the process. This is a fundamental point that is worth repeating.

Gray Cook then attacks the bootcamp mentality, where everything has to be a full on balls to the wall (my words not his) workout, which is okay if you are 20 and fit but not if your 30 or 40 and overweight and sedentary. You should come out of your workout feeling better than when you started, and then occasionally you test your limits.

The clubs used in the video are only 1 pound (approx 0.5kg), Dr Thomas states that boxers always used lighter clubs, and wrestlers used heavier ones, this is situational correctness, does the club remain therapeutic and restorative, no one begins with a heavier club. Unlike Power clubs, where you start with a minimum of 2.5kg and are using weights in the 4-8kg range quite quickly. Ed Thomas finishes by demonstrating with some 8 pound clubs, which are considered light in the world of power clubs, but the movements are different.


Philosophy

Some fundamental questions are asked by Dr Thomas.
Why do we go to the gym?
What is the purpose?

These questions have got me thinking.

And Gray Cook inadvertently quotes British comedian Harry Hill 'You gotta have a system'! Yes you have.

Conclusion

As you can see from this review, the discussion of fitness, the philosophy and its antecedents interested me as much as the Indian club techniques.

I can recommend this DVD, though the best place to start with Gray Cook and Brett Jones would be Secrets Of The Shoulder or Secrets Of The Hip and Knee. I intend watching Kalos Sthenos next.

There is a definite difference between power clubs and the Indian clubs presented in this DVD. Ideally take the middle way, you can do both. The therapeutic Indian clubs and the more strength basic powerclubs.

If you are doing this at home, I would buy the Indian club DVD . If you are going to be personal training clients then do the powerclub course. I'm somewhat sad to say that the variety of power clubs holds more of an attraction for the average client and putting the time and effort in on a five key moves may be beyond most clients, and the power clubs have some technically easier moves. But you don't have to be that guy or gal! You can teach your clients and they can get a workout as part of the process.

Personally I'm going to use the lighter Indian clubs, and the power clubs, and kettlebells, and Olympic bars, and dumbbells, and bands, and run etc etc etc....................

A Review Of The Premier Training Power Club Course

This a review of the one day power club course that Premier Global (Premier Training International) offer here in the UK. I took part in this course a couple of weeks ago.

I was looking for a course to learn more about club training (Indian clubs, power clubs etc), this course was the only one I could find in the UK. It is a one day course, that is REPs accredited with 4 CPD points (for what it's worth, the pointlessness of REPs points is a discussion for another day).

A picture of some power clubs aka clubbells - just in case you were wondering what they look like

Cost

The course costs �129, for this you get a one day workshop and an e-manual sent to you.

The manual covers all the major exercises, brief history of club training, the various grips and positions, and a table given suggested club weights for men and women of different strength levels. The manual is 65 pages long, I would recommend printing it out if you have access to a printer, as it's easier to read and flick back and forward with a printed version.

Venue

The course I did was held at Premiers venue in North London. Having a dedicated venue makes a difference. So many courses I've attended are held at health clubs, where you end up having to wait for the studio to be free, or sitting in a store cupboard because someone forgot to book the room out. The Premier training venue has dedicated classrooms with projectors and PowerPoint, as well as a gym and studio space. This gives it a more professional feel than some other training providers.

Content

The course was presented by a guy who looked like Rudy Reyes from Generation Kill. It also turned out that he was a part time fitness model, who had recently taken part in a feature on power clubs in Mens Fitness. This immediately made all the women on the course start swooning and made me want to hit him with a power club. But just like Rudy Reyes he was a nice guy, so it was difficult to hate him!

Rudy Reyes from Generation Kill - as far as I am aware he doesn't teach power clubs

An aside

There were only a small number of people on the course I took part in. The course teacher recognised one of the women as having done the premier personal training diploma a couple of years before, and said it was good to see that someone was still working in the industry. This is a sad indictment on our industry, that someone who runs fitness courses' is surprised to find someone still  working in the industry a few years later.


Back to the course

We started with a brief history of club training and looked at some videos of club training like the one below featuring the premier trainer Ben McDonald who developed their power club course. But as the Rudy Reyes lookalike pointed out, we weren't here for a history lesson but to learn some power club exercises!



In the studio, we covered all the power club exercises in the manual and more. Rudy Reyes doppelganger was a good easy going teacher with two caveats.

I would like to have seen some more coaching on our technique. Seeing as there were only five of us present, there could been a lot more coaching, and he really could have been a stickler for precision and hand and elbow position. Since attending the course I have watched Indian Club Essentials with Gray Cook, Brett Jones and Ed Thomas (which I will review in a few days time) and they covered some key points on hand and wrist position which didn't happen on the power club course. Heavy power clubs and Indian clubs are used in slightly different ways, but the wrist and hand position is crucial to both.

There is  always a danger with one day workshops, that anyone can do them, and you can't fail them. So you could have the worst technique in the world, and no one is going to fail you, a few days later you can be out there teaching power clubs to people even if you can't do it yourself. Of course, I'm not saying I'm perfect and I would have liked a bit more coaching on my technique, but my background with kettlebells and Olympic lifting gives me some ideas of how to move.

We covered more exercises than were in the manual, which in some ways is a good thing, as it gives a whole host of movements to go away with. The disadvantage of this is we didn't really spend too long on any one movement. Possibly doing less and trying to perfect fewer moves would have been more advantageous. This is a trade off, everyone want variety for their clients, but too much, and the movements become confused and merge. Quality movement and doing less until these are perfected is the direction I'm going in, the details matter with these type of dynamic circular movements.

Another aside

Lunch break, one of the women in the course was standing outside smoking a cigarette, classic fitness industry.

Back to the course

We covered quite a few hybrid movements. Though the instructor said we were doing complexes, I would disagree and say if one rep flows into the rep of the next movement you are doing a hybrid, whereas with a complex you would do all the reps of one exercise before starting the next exercise. For example, if you do a front squat straight into a torch press, straight into a flag press then you are doing a hybrid, if you did 5 front squats followed by 5 torch presses then you did a complex. This a minor point, and I don't want to get hung up on definitions, and it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the course. And the hybrids/ complexes we did were mostly good.

To his credit the instructor stated that power clubs were an adjunct to other training, you still need to do your squats, deadlifts and strength training. Also, in a classic moment one of the participants asked the Rudy Reyes lookalike instructor what he thought of the ViPR, he replied 'I think it's a piece of plastic with two handles in it!', which echoes my own views to be found here.

We finished  two hours early, maybe because there were so few of us. However, as I had paid �129, a bit more content could have been put in. Possibly, us having to design a power club circuit and be observed coaching the other participants of the course.

Do I need to go on the course or could I teach myself power clubs from the internet?

Most of the information covered is available on the internet. The Mens Fitness article that our instructor took part in, covers many of the exercises. And the guy who developed the course appears in a whole series of youtube videos demonstrating many of the exercises. So yes, you could teach yourself.

However, there is something different about having someone demonstrate the exercises for you and talk you through them. I think this can help you get a better feel for some of the movements. Having an instructor breaking down the moves and seeing them from different angles does help. Its always good to see how other people coach and teach, and interesting to see other people who work in the industry.This can either make you feel good about yourself or despair for the future of mankind.

If you don't work in the fitness industry and you don't need a certificate to say you're competent to teach other people then you could teach yourself.

Nice touch

The clubs we used on the course were the clubbells made by Wolverson and developed in conjunction with premier. Doing the course entitles you to a 15% discount on any order of these clubbells. I purchased a pair of 2.5kg, 4.5kg and 6kg, and so far have been impressed with their quality.

Final thoughts

I enjoyed the course. �129 for a day course is a reasonable price, there was enough content to justify this. An actual printed manual would have been better than an electronic one, and a bit more coaching of our technique would have added to the content. If you want to learn power clubs to teach the public this course is a good starting point.

Since taking part in the course I have been using my power clubs personally and with a couple of clients. And the exercises I learned on the course are great for the forearms, grip strength, shoulder mobility and strength; and the circular movements feel natural and a good departure from linear training.

Look out for my review of Indian Club Swinging Essentials DVD in the next few days. Which resource will come out as the winner, the power club course or the Indian club DVD?

In the mean time stay frosty!

Vanishing Point. Zen And The Art Of Training

"Vanishing- point: the point at which receding parallel lines viewed in perspective appear to meet: the stage of complete disappearance."

           - The Oxford Reference Dictionary

Vanishing Point: Make sure you watch the original 1971 film

 
Typical Gym Conversations


Typical gym conversation no.8

Member: I'd like to book in to get a new program written
Instructor: (Places coffee cup down) Ok, when did you last have a new program?
Member: 4 weeks ago
Instructor: I see (skepticism now kicks in), can I have a look at the program
Member: Sure, here it is
Instructor: This program card looks pristine, have you actually done this program?
Member: Yeah, at least 3 times
Instructor: And what's this, all these other program cards stapled to it. You've got a program from every trainer here. And they are all untouched! Dammit, you're a program whore! You're looking for the magic bullet. Stop wasting my time and get out! (or more realistically, okay, you're a paying member, so I'll write another program you'll never do and a little piece of my soul will die and my bitterness levels will rise another notch).


Typical conversation no.9

Member: I think I need a program update
Instructor: (carefully places his protein shake down) Ok, how long have you been doing the old one?
Member: 2 years, but I'm not getting any results
Instructor: 2 years and no results, wow, that's a long time with no return for your investment
Member: I know, and I train every week, a minimum of three times a week
Instructor: Ok, lets have a look at what you are doing..... so by how much have you increased the weights you are lifting, the time you run for, the speed you run?
Member: Oh, I haven't changed anything, I do exactly what the instructor wrote, I lift the same weights, do the same amount of cardio at the same level and at the same speed. I thought it would be unsafe to increase without someone telling me how.
Instructor: Listen to your body! Train with intuition and most importantly you need some progression. Your body will never have to adapt if you never increase the load or the stimulus. I bet you do cardio while reading a book or watching This Morning. You're making me look bad!

Typical conversation no.12

Member: I haven't trained for 6 weeks because I was ill, what should I do? I need a new program
Instructor: Just do what you were doing before, but lower the weights, times and sets. Take it easy and see how you feel.
Member: I'm not sure how to do that
Instructor: Listen to your body, feel your way back into it. What weight were you lifting before? How far were you running.
Member: Lets see, before I was ill I did a couple of runs, but before that I was on holiday for 2 weeks, I managed to get one gym sessions during that time. But before that I was really busy with work, so only made it to the gym twice that month, and I tried running outside but it hurt after 10 minutes so I stopped.
Instructor: You've got no consistency. Do the basics consistently. It doesn't have to be complicated, a simple program you will follow is the best. Without training on a regular basis you won't have any feel for what works or what your body is trying to tell you.

Simplicity, Consistency, Intensity.

Variations of the above conversations happen in nearly every gym every week.  I've come to the conclusion that most training programs should follow three basic concepts, simplicity, consistency and intensity. If you follow these principles you will get results. I'm going to give you examples of world class runners, weightlifters and martial artists who follow these principles with great success. If they can, so can you and your clients.

And its not all the fault of the gym members, yes some are lazy and don't want to be there but others are just confused by the shear amount of information and disinformation and don't know what to do for the best. Trainers and instructors have written them programs, but no one has shown them how to train properly.

The three pillars of training:

Simplicity: The program doesn't have to be complicated, but it has to be effective and work. In the first example above, the member was looking for the golden fleece of programs. Trainers can end up writing more and more complicated programs to appease the clients boredom and frustration, none of which work because the basics haven't been mastered. As we will see, some of the best Olympic Lifters and Power lifters of all time follow deceptively simple programs. And constant program switching also means no consistency.

Consistency: Mastery of something involves repetition. Without consistency there is no training effect. As we will see below the Kenyan distance runners are the masters of this. In the conversations above, the last member had no consistency, constant breaks from training and interruptions means your body doesn't have a clear run at it. You will never progress because you don't know where you're at.

Intensity: In the middle conversation above the gym goer had consistency, they trained regularly every week. But there was no intensity, they were going through the motions. If you don't stress your body in some way, it will not have to adapt.

The foundation

Before moving onto examples of the three pillars. There is a key element that has to be in place for these principles to work. Without this foundation the pillars will fall down.

In the book Kurikara: The Sword and the Serpent, the author quotes Miyamoto Musashi, the famous Japanese sword fighter:

Discern the advantages and disadvantages of all things

Discover through yourself those things that cannot be seen

Take care even with small matters

Do not do useless things

and explains

Even though the goal is desirelessness, if you do not find a genuine love for this art, leave it well alone      

 - John Maki Evans

In short, before you do anything you need to want to do it. If you want to run an ultramarathon or enter a powerlifting competition, do it because you really want to do it, not because you think others will look up to you or respect you more for doing it. The passion and excitement must be there in the first place, to help fire you through the darker times when you wonder why the hell you're doing this thing in the first place. Conversely, if you hate going to the gym, stop blaming everyone else and making excuses, just stop going and find something else to do, something you actually want to do. Life's too short to waste time.

There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment

         - Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai

Or to put it another way, how many summers you got left, how many good summers? If time is limited, focus on the things you want to do, simplicity, consistency and intensity require you to first be in the moment doing what you want to do. Of course, this is easy doing something you love. I can't make it any clearer than this.

Time is a funny thing. Time is a very peculiar item. You see when you're young, you're a kid, you got time, you got nothing but time. Throw away a couple of years, a couple of years there... it doesn't matter. You know. The older you get you say, "Jesus, how much I got? I got thirty-five summers left." Think about it. Thirty-five summers.                                                          

- Tom Waits in the film Rumblefish

Tom Waits as Benny in the film Rumblefish. How many summers you got left? How many good summers?

Simplicity

Training programs don't have to be complicated but they do have to work. The average gym bunny does more exercises than an Olympic athlete, but it doesn't make them any fitter. The equipment options are vast now, weights, dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, swiss balls, bosus, cables, vibrating platforms and a million fly by night fads. And personal trainers sometimes try to combine all these equipment options into one workout, utilising sagittal, frontal and transverse movements in 20 exercises variations per workout.

Compare this to the average Olympic Lifter, who does the following:

1. Clean
2. Snatch
3. Jerk
4. Front Squat
5. Back Squat

Yes, some of these are technical movements, and they may do some power variations of the lifts and some pulls and presses. But this amounts to about 10 exercises in total, forever!! And the better a lifter gets, the more they focus exclusively on the lifts.

Simplicity in weightlifting

Check out the training programs that Glenn Pendlay gives his Olympic lifters and American Football Players at California Strength. There is rarely more than five exercises in a session. This simplicity allows for the other elements to shine, they can focus on coaching and a fantastic training environment.

In the book The Purposeful Primitive Marty Gallagher outlines the training programs of some of the greatest strength athletes in history.

For example, Bob Bednarski was an American lifter who clean and jerked 486 pounds (220kg!) back in 1968. His training program consisted of the following after warm up sets:

Monday: Clean & Press 3reps x 5sets

Tuesday Snatch 3reps x 5sets

Wednesday: Squat 3reps x 2 sets

Thursday: Clean & Jerk 1 rep x 5sets

Friday: Rest

Saturday: total on 2-3 lifts, work up to max single in 2 or 3 lifts

Sunday: Squat  3reps x 2 sets

Simple as that. Everyday concentrating on one lift. Chemical assistance aside, this guy managed to put 220kg over his head at a bodyweight of 110kg following this program.

And Ed Coan, the greatest power lifter of all time also followed a simple approach, get as a strong as possible in the off season in the bench, deadlift and squat wearing no lifting gear, not even a belt; and crucially never missing a lift in training. He then basically followed a 5 day split program of legs, chest, shoulders, back, light chest & arms. No crazy exercises, the same rep ranges everyone else uses in the gym and progressive incremental increases in resistance. The guy deadlifted 901 pounds at a bodyweight of 219 and squatted below parallel 1003 pounds (455kg) at a bodyweight of 241 pounds! (if you want to know more, go and buy the book The Purposeful Primitive).

In weightlifting you can basically do push movements, pull movements in the upper body, knee dominant & hip dominant movements in the lower body. Pick a few of these and get better at them, and get stronger.

Simplicity in running

The Kenyans are pretty good at distance running. So what do they do differently to everyone else. In his book More Fire: How to Run the Kenyan Way Toby Tanser outlines several of their training programs.

Kenyans generally don't use heart rate monitors or fancy gear, they generally don't record their weekly mileage though most of the marathon runners are hitting over 100 miles per week.

So what do they do? Firstly

"run to improve running." (Tanser, 2008:282)

Couldn't get more simple than that! Tanser also states that Kenyans get a training program and stick to it. If its a 12 week program they follow it exactly, and do exactly what the coach says. The book More Fire outlines the training programs of a whole host of runners from 800 metres up to the marathon. Below is a typical program. Felix Kipchoge Limo has a personal best of 2.06.14 for the marathon:

Monday

AM 60 mins easy running

PM As above

Tuesday

AM Fartlek, not less than 15k of 3 mins hard, 1 min easy*

PM Easy running, distance does not matter

Wednesday same as Monday

Thursday

AM Long run, 38k, start program at 30k and work up

PM Rest

Friday Same as Monday

Saturday

AM Either 1 min easy 1 min hard for 15k or 2 mins hard 1 min easy for 15k

Sunday Rest

* Can be hill work or speed session 15 x 1000m

(Taken from Tanser, 2008: 229)

Running programs can really only have 4 elements

1. A long steady run (slow run)
2. A run where you go fast and then slow and recover (interval, fartlek)
3. A hill run (can be slow or fast, short or long)
4. A fast run (tempo runs, or where you try to run as fast as possible for a set distance)

That's it. The distance you are training for will determine the length of these runs, the number of intervals you do and how fast you run relative to your maximum speed. But that is all there is, all training is effectively a combination of these elements. Simple.


Consistency

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is never-ending.

           - Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai

To get good at anything requires repetition.

"This is stressed in maxims like 'ten thousand hours achieve the goal' or 'a hundred thousand swings bring mastery'. Yet other factors must be taken into account if repetition is to bring success." (Evans, 2010:1)

This means be wary of going through the motions. You must fully engage in the repetitions and the moment. Sometimes you must battle for fatigue, and this can involve attempts to 'switch off' but this is only possible if you are completely confident in your technique and form. Mindless repetitions are no use.

See the video below of John Maki Evans training in Japan, learning the art of the sword. At the start of the video he states that he trains 30 hours a week, and the art of the sword takes 30 years to master. Now, not everyone is going to go and live in a temple in Japan or stand under a freezing waterfall in the snow (7 mins into the video), but that sure is dedication.

It is a hard concept to grasp for the western mind that after 2 or 3 years of training, one of your teachers would consider that you really hadn't made any progress but that is what one of his teachers says at about 8mins30secs into the video. Training for over 10 years in Japan for 30 hours a week certainly is consistency. We live in a world where people are considered experts and masters after a weekend course. Where exams are designed to make sure no one fails, where quality has been subsumed by quantity and the 'I want it now' attitude.




Of course, training 30 hours a week and living in Japan may not be feasible if you have a full time job, a family and other commitments. But you can certainly take elements of this approach and apply it to your own training. Dedication. You take what fits into the time and place you live.

It is said that what is called the 'spirit of an age' is something to which one cannot return. Although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation. This is the mistake of people who are attached to past generations. They have no understanding of this point. On the other hand, people who only know the disposition of the present day and dislike the ways of the past are too lax.

          -Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai

This applies to weight training as much as anything else.

Consistency in running

As noted above to get better at running, you need to run more. The average beginner or runner doesn't run enough to get better (I include myself in that). Matt Fitzgerald outlines this in his book Run The Mind Body Method Of Running By Feel.

"Most runners run less than they could and would run better if they ran more, but they prefer not to run more." (Fitzgerald, 2010;64)

In essence they like running, but they don't like it that much. And in the real world, you can only run so much when you have to go to work etc and are not a full time athlete. And for the average person, the increase in performance is not worth the effort. As Fitzgerald point out, very few elite marathon runners run less than 100 miles per week. For distance running, getting your mileage up above 70 miles a week means you are going to have to run twice a day.

Consistency also requires volume. You may consistently run for 30 mins once a week, but you are never going to get any better doing that. And if you're happy with that, it's fine. If, however, you want to improve you need to do more, but in the right way. Below is the training program for Deena Kastor when she prepared for the 2004 Olympic Marathon, she got a bronze medal.

Day           First Workout               Second Workout    Third Workout

Mon          12  miles easy               30-60 mins easy

Tues          6-8x 1 mile                   30-60 mins easy      Strength & Plyo

Wed          2 hr run                        30-60 mins easy      Strength & Plyo

Thur          12 x 600m                    30-60 mins easy      Strength & Plyo

Fri             Easy Run                      30-60 mins easy

Sat            8-10 mile tempo run      30-60 mins easy

Sun            long run 2- 2.75hours

Source: Fitzgerald (2010;69)                       

Note the other key thing here is repetition. Doing the same runs and the same workouts over and over again. Both Fitzgerald and Tanser point to this as another reason for the Kenyans success, they do the same training runs, run the same hill, over and over again. This gives you a standard against to measure yourself, if you keep running random distances on all different courses, you will never know if you got any better. And your body doesn't have time to figure out how to cope with a distance, how to pace itself. Try and be consistent with your intervals and hill training, this way you will see if you are making progress. Take you time building up volume, getting to the point of running 70 miles a week takes time. Be patient.

Repetition obviously applies to weight training. If you follow a program for only 6 weeks, and this program has legs only once a week, and you do a standard 3x10 with squats; this means at the end of 6 weeks you would have only done 180 repetitions of squats. If you then replace squats with something else, you really haven't done anywhere near enough repetitions to even be competent at squatting. Let alone thinking about increasing your weights and intensity with the squats. Pick something and do it consistently.

Intensity

To practice Zen or the martial arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve - as if you might die in the next instant.

        Taisen Deshimaru - The Zen Way to the Martial Arts

This is easier said than done. Living intensely while you are standing in the queue for the supermarket or waiting for the commuter train to arrive is a hard thing to do. However, you can apply this to training.

Make every repetition count, make every step perfect. This doesn't mean you should finish every training session exhausted, in fact the opposite. You should try to concentrate and be in the moment and feel vitalised.

Now, sometimes intensity does mean you need to go for it. You need to try and lift a heavier weight than last time, you should push to run faster or further.

The Kenyans are the masters of the improvised intense session. They may start with their planned intervals and if they are feeling good, just keep going and going until exhaustion. Spontaneity is important in training, if you are feeling good, then use that energy.

Intensity in running

Hill training is intense. In the training program used by Felix Limo mentioned above he would sometimes replace his fartlek training for hill training, after a 30 minute warm up he would then run up and down a 200m hill for the next 1.5 hours! The famous Kenyan runner Moses Tanui, another guy who can run a 2.06 marathon will often run the infamous 20k hill in the Eldrot region of Kenya that starts at 1300m altitude and climbs to 2700m, he does this in 1hr 30mins! As he says, if you run this hill, you will never fear another hill.

Intensity is about picking something you're not sure you can do. Running through the fear. Try and clean and jerk that weight that you're frightened to pick up over head. We can't all train like we're at the Kenyan Armed Forces Marathon training camp, but you can apply intensity whenever you need to push past barriers in your own training.

Intensity with weights

Donny Shankle, American weightlifter, advocates going maximum every day. Ripping that weight off the floor. He states that a master is somone who lives without fear. You must fear that heavy weight, and overcome it.

Beyond intense

Ray Zahab was one of three guys to run the entire Sahara desert, 4300miles over 111 days without a day off. By his own admission Ray was just a regular dude who decided to start to run. In the documentary film about the run, Ray says

Any limitations we have, we set upon ourselves. If you think you can only run 5-10k, you will only run 5-10k. It's where we set these boundaries.

Vanishing Point Redux

Existing where there is nothing is the meaning of the phrase 'Form is emptiness'. That all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, 'Emptiness is form'. One should not think that these are two separate things.

         Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai

Somewhere in France: It's the same distance back as it is forward. Run to the vanishing point and then keep going until you disappear

Head for the horizon. Run for the vanishing point. In the midst of  the repetition and the intensity, go beyond the vanishing point, until you disappear. Until there is no you, there is no training, it just is.



References

John Maki Evans(2010) Kurikara, The Sword and the Serpent, Blue Snake Books
Marty Gallagher(2008) The Purposeful Primitive, Dragondoor
Taisen Deshimaru(1982) The Zen Way to the Martial Arts, Compass
Matt Fitzgerald (2010) Run, The Mind Body Method of Running by Feel, Velo Press
Yamamoto Tsunetomo Hagakure The Book of the Samuria translated by William Scott Wilson
Toby Tanser (2008) More Fire, How to Run the Kenyan Way, Westholme

The Supine Pallof Press aka The SC Press (patent pending).

This is an exercise I came up with a few days ago. As far as I am aware I invented it, as I haven't seen it before. However, if someone else happened to come up with this first don't write to me, I'm sure there is nothing really new in fitness.



The SC Press - how it came about.

A couple of days a go I was working with an exercise referral client, and he was having all sorts of trouble with the pallof press (see video below for standard Pallof press), his knees were too bent, hips too flexed and shoulder position was off. He couldn't kneel down due to knee surgery, therefore half kneeling and tall kneeling versions were not an option.

So I came up with a supine (laying down on your back) version - The SC Press.

With this version quite a few things became easier to coach. Firstly, no kneeling down, so no knee pain. Secondly, it's easier to grasp the concept of neutral spine and bracing, and easier for me to check the lumbar spine to make sure it wasn't imprinted or too curved. And lastly, it was easier to cue the idea of packing the shoulders down and the neck, with the floor giving automatic feedback. If the shoulder girdle is protracting too much, its easy too see and cue the shoulders to be pulled back and down. And the head forward posture is corrected straight away because the head is on the floor.

Plus the core seems to be working harder.

When I got my colleagues to try it out, we all agreed that it seemed to work the core a lot more than the standard standing Pallof press. Maybe, it's because the legs are taken out of the equation, so the core has to work harder, but we could all feel our rectus abdominis (6 pack, 8 pack, 1 pack, depending on who you are) and obliques working hard.

Shoulder Position.

Yesterday, I tried this with another client who has shoulder issues and normally has trouble with the concept of shoulder packing. But with this exercise she grasped the idea of shoulder packing straight away, as the floor is giving feedback and she felt her core working harder as well.

Why call it The SC Press?

The Romanians have the deadlift, Arnie has the Arnie shoulder press and Bret Contreras has the hip thrust, so I'm claiming the SC Press. It could stand for 'Supine Core Press' or 'Static Core Press', and SC also happens to be my initials (Steve Collins), what are the chances?!

How to do it.

Set the cable hand up at chest height. I tried other heights, but this worked best for me.

Press out cable and hold statically. Keep the lumbar spine neutral and the core braced. In the video you can see I check the curve in my back with one hand. I could only do this as it was a light weight for filming purposes, you wont be able to do this with a heavy weight.

Keep the shoulders packed, the neck packed and keep breathing!

If you don't have a cable, then use a band.

Three possible leg positions:

1. Both legs straight. As the hip flexors are lengthened here, it can put more curve in the lower back than when the legs are bent, so you may have to work harder to keep neutral, and it is also harder to use your legs to brace in this position.
2. One leg bent/ Turkish get up position. I bent the leg that is nearest the cable column to try and mimic the turkish get up where the weight is in the hand on the side the leg is bent. You could try the other leg bent. You could even try one arm holding the cable as well.
3. Both legs bent. When we tried the various versions out most people seem to find this hardest, however, some people find the leg straight version harder. The glutes seem to work harder in this version as the feet and press into the floor to help stabilise you. Experiment, see what works for you.

You can hold this for 10 secs or 30 secs or try transitioning leg positions while still pressing the weight out. I imagine this would be good conditioning for floor based martial arts like Brazilian Ju Jitsu or MMA.

In the video below, Nick is doing the bent leg version static hold for 60 seconds.




In summary

An anti rotation exercise that works the core, especially the obliques and helps clients to grasp the idea of neutral spine, core bracing and shoulder packing and enables the trainer to check positioning.

Give it a go, thought I'd share it with you. Remember The SC Press, The Supine Core Press or The Static Core Press, you heard it hear first (probably, if not, you heard it somewhere else), a cool new core exercise.

I'd still use standing versions of the pallof press to integrate core strength and leg strength and help root yourself into the ground, generating power into the floor. But to really target the core and take the legs out of the equation try the SC Press.

HIP HINGE! Your Body Wants You To

The hip hinge is a fundamental movement pattern. You need it to get out of a chair, squat, pick things up, deadlift, do an Olympic lift and generally spare your spine while moving.

See the video below of how to do a hip hinge.



However, it's surprising how many people can't hip hinge. I've noticed it with a whole host of different populations. When I get a client who has back pain, one of the first things I do is observe them get in and out of a chair. A high proportion of these clients tend to get out of the chair by lifting their hips up high and then unrolling or flexing/ bending  through the lumbar spine. Some can't even get out of the chair without using their hands to push themselves up. A few simple cues and adjustments and then suddenly they can get out of the chair with a neutral spine and without using their hands. Mostly I tell them to bring their feet wider, push their knees out, hinge from the hips, keep the chest up and drive into the floor with their feet - and bingo they get out of the chair with a neutral spine and using their hips.

Chair Squat - start position

Chair Squat - mid point

Why can't people hip hinge then?

If the hip hinge is a fundamental movement pattern, and everyone should be able to do it and use it on a daily basis, why can't people do it. Why do they bend/ flex in the lumbar spine? Why does the thoracic spine round too much?

The body will take the path of least resistance, the least stiff part will move and compensate for the stiff part. In the words of Charlie Weingroff (2010):

"The movement goal is achieved but there is no integrity to the movement."

Which means I asked them to get out of the chair and they got out of the chair, the goal was achieved. The hips and thoracic spine may be stiff so they used the lower back to get out of the chair, they achieved the ultimate aim. Or in the context of weightlifting, one person deadlifts the weight using the hips, while another person uses their lower back - they both got the weight up, and if you're in a competition you can justify it to yourself, but don't train like this, you're going to end up in a world of hurt.

Your body responds and adapts to what you practice most. If you adopt a certain posture 8 hours a day, what does your body do, it adapts to it.

"Prolonged sitting has been cited as a factor in the development of back pain. Cyclists who spend 3 hours riding their bicycles in a position of lumbar flexion have a reduced lumbar curve when compared with control subjects who do not ride bicycles." (Sahrmann,2002:13)

which means

"repeated motions of daily activities, as well as those activities of fitness and sports, may also induce undesirable changes in the movement components." (Sahrmann, 2002:13)

So in most cases the lumbar spine is moving too much. In this context the joint by joint theory espoused by Mike Boyle and Gray Cook makes sense. If the body is a series of joints stacked on top of each other, with some tending to be more mobile and some more stable, a loss of mobility in a joint may affect the ones above or below. So in the case of the hip hinge, if I lose mobility in the hips the lower back will compensate, if I lose mobility in the thoracic spine, the lower back will compensate; the lower back should be stable. In lower back pain rehab we always ended up spending as much time on trying to restore peoples hip mobility and strength and their thoracic spine mobility, as well as lumbar spine stability. When I first read Mike Boyle's joint by joint article in made perfect sense because I was seeing it on a daily basis with people.

And remember, stable doesn't mean static and still

"stability is the ability to control movement in the presence of potential change." (Weingroff, 2010)

So why can't I bend my lumbar spine, it's meant to bend isn't it?

Somewhere in Canada there's a guy called Stuart McGill and if he's not on his yacht or kayaking or cross country skiing or grooming his moustache then he's in his spinal lab at the University of Waterloo. He breaks spines so you don't have to.

It seems the number one mechanism for herniating a disc is fully flexing the spine.

"In fact, herniation of the disc seems almost impossible without full flexion." (McGill, 2002:56)

 And the number of flexion is important, the spine doesn't have to be loaded up, the repeated flexing of the spine with minimal load can cause disc herniation. I like Mike Boyle's analogy of a credit card, if you keep bending it back and forward eventually it will snap, not because you were applying much force but the repetition caused a weakness in the plastic until it snapped.

Imagine this shiny new gym membership card is your spine, eventually it's going to snap

"repeated spine flexion - even in the absence of moderate load - will lead to discogenic troubles." (McGill, 2002:127)

The way to avoid this is to flex at the hips while keep the back in neutral and the abdominals braced for the task at hand. This is the hip hinge. Interestingly,  one group of people who lift some of the heaviest weights are Olympic lifters, they lock their spine into neutral and rotate around the hips (McGill, 2002). Their incidence of back pain is lower than the general population. If you look at the video clip below of the snatch grip romanian deadlift, you can see the spine in neutral and the hips doing the work. The position of the bar below the knee is essentially the same as the start of the second pull in the Olympic lifts. (note: if you ever film yourself doing a lift, then it gives an insight into your technique and will immediately make you lift with better technique).



Hang on, shouldn't I be able to touch my toes?

Toe touch: an assessment not an exercise

Being able to touch your toes is still seen as a measure of flexibility. It appears in Gray Cooks Selective Functional Movement Assessment  as one of the tests you employ if someone is in pain, it's the multi segmental flexion assessment (Cook, 2010).

I think Charlie Weingroffs Core Pendulum theory is a good explanation of this. Charlie explains this in his excellent DVD set Training=Rehab Rehab=Training (go and order it now, it'll change your life for sure! And I don't get any money for saying this). We need to exhibit for flexion and full extension for our spines to know where the middle is, joint centration. If you have a loss of flexion then your neutral spine will be off because your body doesn't know where the middle is, same as if you have a loss of extension. The lumbar spine is meant to flex and extend but going to the end range on a regular basis is not a good idea, its proven to eventually cause disc problems. Remember an assessment is not an exercise you should be doing on a daily basis.

Core Pendulum: If neutral is in the middle(3), then your body only knows its the middle because it can get to the end ranges (1 & 5), if it can't, adopting neutral spontaneously is going to be difficult.

As an example, I never practice touching my toes and I hardly ever stretch my hamstrings passively and my flexibility in this area isn't the greatest and yet I can touch my toes. This is purely from doing hip hinges, kettlebells swings, deadlifts and so on.

Save your spinal flexion for when you need it, on those occasion's when its impossible not to flex, the rest of the time adopt spine sparing strategies such as the hip hinge, squat using the hips or a golfers lift for picking things up.

Golfers Lift: reduce load on lumbar spine when picking up light things

A quick note on the golfers lift: The leg cantilevering behind acts a counter weight, effectively hinging one hip and helps reduce the load on the spine. To train this movement I like to put a kettlebell in the hand opposite to the one on the floor.  For back pain clients who can't balance, it's acceptable to support one hand on a wall or chair or table when picking things up.

Hip hinge common mistakes

In the first video clip below you can see Nick is bending his knees too much and flexing in the thoracic spine. Knees should be about 20 degrees  (if  you happen to carry a protractor or goniometer around with you) this allows the glutes to be engaged more effectively. You should feel a stretch in the hamstrings on every repetition. Cue to keep the chest up but the head neutral.



In the second clip below, you can see the hips hardly move back at all. In fact, Nick had a hard time trying to demonstrate this because he's is so used to hip hinging, his hips are still moving, you'll see some people with no hip movement and all spinal flexion. You can try to get them to push their hips back by standing near a wall and trying to push their glutes (bum) back to the wall and touch, may be a foot length away from the wall at first. The broomstick on the back can also help people feel when the back starts to bend.



Another thing that can happen mainly with women is the lower back has too much curve in it, too much extension. No video of this because neither me or Nick can get that much extension in our backs! Remember neutral is not over extended, it's in the middle of the pendulum swinging.

You can start to weight the movement using a kettlebell once the hip hinge has been grooved in, and some people will naturally start to brace more when they have a weight in their hands, and it helps to get that stretch feeling in the hamstrings, loaded up and ready to contract.




And finally the squat

For most people using a squat that has some kind of hip drive component to it is the way forward. If you're an olympic lifter you are going to drop almost straight down and most probably be in a front squat position. For everyone else, especially the general population, sitting back more is going to be more beneficial.

I've used the bench squat technique (see video below) successfully with back pain clients as well as clients referred to me on GP referral (exercise referral scheme) with knee replacements and hip replacements. It is essentially an unweighted box squat. The client learns to break at the hips first and sit back, keeping a near vertical shin also helps those who have knee pain. The hip hinge is a vital component of this.



When a person can't sit all the way down onto a bench or chair I use a step on risers, and gradually as they get better reduce the number of risers down. Don't think about loading up a squat until someone can do it bodyweight with neutral spine.

In the video below are some common squat mistakes.




On the first repetition - trying to do all the movement at the knees, no hip hinge. A lot of people do this when you ask them to squat. I think it might actually be a misunderstanding, you say squat and they think the knee must bend, they have an image in their head of what a squat is. Sometimes you can correct this immediately with the right cue to use the hips. Thus demonstrating it's not always a muscle or joint issue.

On the second repetition - rounding the thoracic spine and over extending the cervical spine by looking up.

On the third repetition - knees caving in.

To paraphrase Gray Cook (2010) I wouldn't get too caught up trying to analyse why all this is happening, is it because the hips are tight or not working, or the lower back not stable, or thoracic spine being immobile or the ankles being stiff? Possibly all of these, but work on fixing the movement pattern. Sometimes its just because the person just never moves that way, the software isn't in their brain, practice the movement and the nervous remembers it and saves the software for the new improved movement pattern.

And maybe they never challenged themselves before, if you sit in a chair all day you don't need to be very mobile or stable. You only need stability in the presence of mobility (Weingroff, 2010)


In conclusion

You need the hip hinge. You need it to spare your spine and keep your lower back neutral when picking things up at home or in the gym. You need your hips working for you, not against you. Your body remembers what you do most.

Tina Fey: No, don't pick that typewriter up with a flexed spine, hip hinge dammit! Okay, I forgive because you created 30 Rock and you're hot. But if you're ever in England and you have back pain give me a call and I'll see what I can do.

References

Cook G (2010) Movement
McGill (2002) Low Back Disorders
Sahrmann (2002) Diagnosis & Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes
Weingroff (2010) Training=rehab rehab=training DVD

Top Ten Fitness Trends For 2011

It's been a busy January. Unlike some internet fitness gurus I actually train people in the real world, hence this is my first blog of 2011.

Here are my predictions of what's going to be big in 2011 fitness-wise.

Note: Of the top ten trends I have put together, some are things that I like, some are things that I don't personally like but will be popular anyway, and a couple of things are probably wishful thinking on my part - things that I want to be trends. I have also put a list together of things which are already popular and will continue to grow.

Before I get to my list I want to review the list that is put together by the American College Of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Below is their list and my commentary on it

1. Educated and experienced fitness professionals. Of course they would say that, they are an accreditation organisation. I want this one to be true. Rather than having a system that at one end of the spectrum churns out sports science graduates who don't even know how to squat or deadlift, and at the other end has courses that last a day or two and then suddenly the person is a fitness professional. A profession that lets you deal with peoples bodies, the most sacred possession they have, with the minimal of experience of training. Let's hope this changes.
2. Fitness programs for older adults. This one has been around for years, and it has never really taken off or come to fruition. Here's why: older adults are not all the same! I have a female client in her 70's who can rack deadlift 60kg from just below the knees, as well as doing goblet squats and a whole range of strength exercises. I also teach a group of older people, where at least 4 of them couldn't get of a chair due to a whole host of problems they have accumulated over a lifetime. And then we have ultra runners like Jack Dennes who is in his 70's completing the badwater ultra. The obvious point is, the population over the age of 60 are not one amorphous group; some are very fit, some are injured, some have trained their whole life, some haven't.
3. Strength training. How can strength training be a trend?! It should be a fundamental component of any fitness program!
4. Children and obesity. Another one that has been banded about for years. All attempt I've seen so far to tap into this market have failed.
5. Personal Training. Of course they would say that. See my list to see a more specific trend. One to one training may well be over.
6. Core training. Whatever the core may be, there is no definitive definition. Having core training as a trend is like having leg training as a trend.
7. Exercise and weightloss. Shouldn't this be number 1, every year, forever?
8. Bootcamps. This is already happening, see my list for how it may evolve. And my previous post on bootcamps here.
9. Functional training. Whatever this is, isn't a deadlift functional?
10. Physician referrals. This is a whole other blog post, because the healthcare system is set up differently in the UK compared to the USA, I will write about this another time.

And without further ado, to my list of the top ten fitness trends in 2011.

1. Small group training/ semi private training.


I'm going to make a bold statement. Personal training doesn't work for most people, you might as well do a gym induction and write them a program to go away with, it has about the same success rate. Here's why. Most people only have one personal training sessions a week, if you're lucky they might do two. Then most of these clients don't do any training when they aren't with the trainer or train in a half-arsed way, and then most of these have a few sessions and then stop. Of course, there are some exceptions, but most people follow this route.


The cost of one to one sessions is too prohibitive for most people. That's why they only have one session a week or buy a block and then stop. Small group training makes the sessions more affordable, suddenly a person is paying a quarter of the price, so they can then attend more sessions.

But the most important reason the small group sessions work better for most people is the group dynamic. With all the small group training sessions I have been involved with, there is a sense of group camaraderie, banter between the participants and the instructor, and they are always high energy with everyone pushing everyone else to achieve more. The results from semi private training are superior in my opinion. As an instructor, they are more enjoyable to teach and you end up getting results with more clients. Everyone's a winner.

The semi private training model has been perfected and made popular by the likes of Alwyn Cosgrove and Cressey Performance and has been around for quite a few years. However, it seems commercial gyms have never really gotten a hold of it, and don't know how to deal with it. Are the trainers teaching a class or doing a personal training session they ask? It doesn't fit their payment model. This year might be the year commercial fitness facilities finally grasp the concept, and don't get left behind; as they increasingly are these days.

2. Online training

You can only train so many people one to one, and even in group training environments you can only train so many people per week. With online training, it is possible to have hundreds of clients at any one time.

This guy has 500 online personal training clients

Again, online training has been around for a while. And got a bad name in some circles, as it ended up being the domain of internet gurus who had never really trained anyone in real life. Also the technology wasn't there to begin with. Now anyone, can put together some decent quality videos and post them immediately.

Two recent products seem to have exploited this video phenomenon. Eric Cresseys Show & Go and Mike Boyles BodyByBoyle. I don't own or subscribe to either of these products. But the model is sound, why buy a book when you can get a whole video library as well, either through a one off payment or on-going monthly subscription.

Commercial gyms already have access to the market, but once again are lagging behind. If someone joins your gym and has a one off induction, (and if you're lucky they might get 4 or 5 follow up appointments) but then want to remind themselves of an exercise technique, why not create a video library online. They can still get advice and coaching from the instructors, they two concepts are not mutually exclusive. If a customer wants to buy an exercise program from you or access your virtual gym, why not let them. Sales people and owners of large chains are still enamoured by equipment and museum tours. Your product is not the room full of treadmills, it is the expertise of your staff and how they help clients achieve results.

With an online product, your market is not just the town you live in, but everyone in the world who could benefit from your knowledge. It's time the true fitness professionals took the online market back from the hucksters and keyboard warriors.

3. Crossfit style workouts & crazy gymnastics

There are a few crossfit facilities in the UK, but not that many. I expect a few more will open. But what is more likely is trainers will start to copy the model. Get yourself an olympic lifting qualification, even if you haven't lifted a weight in your life, buy some gymnastic rings, put together a random workout and bingo - you got yourself a class!

There are some good people involved in cross fit, see Kelly Starrett's mobility WOD blog for an example. And we could debate the benefits of high repetition olympic lifting all days. But more troubling, will be the trainers with a little knowledge making people do stupid things. These are probably going to be the same people doing bootcamps in the park. Don't worry if you've got the hip mobility of a wooden table and a bad back, these clean & jerks and hand stand back flips should sort you out.

Crossfit does make women hot

Conditioning workouts can be great, and crossfit does seem to produce an abundance of hot women. But appropriate movement screening and exercise modalities to suit the individual should be considered.

Or are the women of crossfit hot before they even start?

Again, commercial facilities could create their own version of this and invest in their staff training, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Who cares: hot women do crossfit, that's all we need to know

4. Bootcamps

Yes, bootcamps are already a trend. See my post here. In 2011, I think the market will become more segmented and commercial facilities will try to get in on the game about 2 years too late.

There already is some market segmentation, with bootcamps for women only like Fit For A Princess. This year there will be more of this. Rather than just military bootcamps, there will be weight loss bootcamps, kids bootcamps, sports bootcamps etc. Of course, the exercises you will do in all these bootcamps will be exactly the same! Run around the park, do some burpees, crunches, plyometric lunges and press ups.

Workout in the park: Bootcamp Peter Griffin style

Bu the people running these know they are onto a good thing. No equipment, no personal training rent, no individualised program, no building needed. Why make �40 an hour from one person, when you can get 20 people and charge them �10 each, that's �200 an hour for shouting at people in the park. Job done.

5. Corrective exercise & mobility.

With all these cross fit style workouts and bootcamp randomness there are going to be some injured people. The trainer well versed in corrective exercise and mobility will be positioned to deal with this. These days, it's rare for me to see anyone who hasn't been injured in some way. May be its just the people who get referred to me, but in  nearly every consultation I have some kind of back, shoulder or knee injury is mentioned. Almost every week someone says to me in passing 'I've got a shoulder/ knee/ back / problem what exercise should  I do for it.'. The correct answer is, it depends. I'm not going to give you some random exercises without assessing it and getting some history.

With regards to this I recommend Charlie Weingroffs DVD 'Training = Rehab Rehab = Training'. Use the functional movement screen, the selective functional movement assessment, the joint by joint approach and the core pendulum theory as your blue print. Again I can't recommend this DVD highly enough.

Even if you don't use this, have some type of systematic approach to it, I have no problem blending the work of Janda, Sahrmann, McGill, and Thomas Myers Anatomy Trains. Be the go to person.

This is one of my wishful thinking trends. I still see trainers giving people crunches and knee side to side...sigh.

6. Indian Clubs/ Power Clubs

The most popular exercise of the Victorian era is due a come back. I first saw 'bear clubs' mentioned on www.intensefitness.co.uk (the place I bought my first kettlebell from) about 6 years ago. Since then Indian clubs have been threatening to be the new kettlebell, but have never quite broken through.

Indian Clubs

There is now at least one training organisation (Premier) in the UK offering a one day course in 'power clubs', see the video clip below. I haven't done this training course, but I may well do.




The name 'Indian clubs' has always been dragging them down, if they'd called them 'hardcore MMA conditioning clubs' or 'fat loss skittles' then they'd be mainstream already.

The potential for shoulder rehab work, mobility, as well as conditioning, make these are versatile tool.

7. Yoga, breathing, meditation

Yoga makes a comeback every few years with a different emphasis. Sometimes its as a cardiovascular power workout like Ashtanga, sometimes its purely as a stretching class and sometimes its a bunch of folk in a super heated room overstretching their ligaments.

The current comeback will be based around breathing. In this ever increasing  sedentary and stressful world people are breathing in a very poor way. Recently, I've seen quite a few people breathing high up into their chest and shoulders, and they were unable to breather into the diaphragm or abdomen when I first demonstrated it, they had lost the ability to breathe properly.

The benefits of meditation and breathing correctly are well known. Many people are still reluctant to go to a class on meditation, but they will go to a yoga class, where they can get many of the same benefits. Though, I think in 2011 we may even see a rise in meditation classes. Good yoga instructors can combine breahting, stretching, mobility and quietening of the mind into one seemless narrative.

Here's a good article on the benefits of meditation.

And this is an article on breathing I like by an RKC and yoga teacher

He may be meditating peacefully now, but how's he going to get back to dry land?

8. Intermittent Fasting

The only nutrition trend to make the list. Fasting has been around since forever, but as a product it's hard to sell. You tell someone not to eat for 24 hours, they don't really need a diet plan or supplement for this. There's nothing to sell them.

In recent years, intermittent fasting has started to get an underground internet following which may well go mainstream. Brad Pilons ebook Eat Stop Eat is very good and covers some of the science, the website leangains has a good following and most recently Christian Thibaudeau on T-nation has come up with at least two fasting protocols. And rather than saying eat nothing, they've linked it to a supplement protocol, which makes it more marketable. And once somethings on t-nation its only a matter of time before someone copies and pastes it. True story: I have seen a PowerPoint presentation given by a training company to group of people as part of a Fitness Industry Association seminar that had sections in it copied and pasted from t-nation. Now the information was good, but it shows that the people running training companies don't know anymore than anyone else with an internet connection.

When intermittent fasting goes mainstream expect it to confuse the public and the mainstream media. For years, the message to eat breakfast and  eat 4-6 small a day has been a mantra in the fitness industry. Suddenly, the message will get confused, when someone starts saying, actually you don't need to eat breakfast, and may be try eating nothing for 24 hours?!

Of course, the 'eating small and often' and the 'intermittent fasting' approach both work, just to add to the confusion the public will have about this.

9. Vertical pole

Pole dancing has never gone mainstream. However, as I mentioned in the complete history of fitness part 1, at least one company is offering vertical pole classes to men and women. And if anyone at pussycat poles wants to invite me to try the class and write a review, I'm more than happy to give it a go!

All you need to do is put one of the vertical poles in a crossfit style circuits and call it a  'gymnastic core conditioning pole' and you got yourself a trend.

10. Everything will continue as before.

The biggest trend of 2011 will be inertia. Commercial chains will do what they've always done, offer their members one to one service in the sales blurb and then ignore them. Rely on an underpaid, undervalued and minimally qualified workforce. And continue to sell memberships like you're buying some double glazing off of a guy in 1983. Keep investment low, and have facilities over reliant on cardio machines and resistance machines that they have had for years. And a whole group of personal trainers with spikey hair and shaved legs will continue to say 'awesome' too much and will become bootcamp & crossfit experts as well.

If only Rollerball was going to be one of the fitness trends of 2011

Trends that will continue.

Zumba

Already popular. I didn't realise until I recently sent some staff on a zumba course, that it is a 2 day certification that anyone can do. No fitness qualification needed. They show you a few moves and then encourage you to free style and add in your own moves. Like most fitness courses, everyone passes regardless of how bad they are (remember the ACSM number 1 trend). Which means, you could go to class taught by someone who is a trained dancer and it will be great and inspiring or you could go to a class taught by someone who dances like you Nan at a wedding. Either way, expect there to be more zumba instructors than participants by the end of the year. Kerching!


Kettlebells

Popularity will grow because they work when done properly.

It goes without saying, if your instructor can't do a clean or snatch or turkish get up and doesn't know what a hip hinge is, go somewhere else.

Excuse for another crossfit woman picture

Boxing/ MMA

Either in small group format or as part of the bootcamp. Either way 'tap out' have got a lot of clothing they need to sell.

Suspension training, TRX, fitkit

Becoming part of mainstream gyms at last. Gymnastic rings are the cheaper option.

Wrap Up

Well those are my predictions, lets see if I'm right.