Training for the Circus

Stability balls and BOSU balls have become a pet peeve of mine lately. You'd be hard pressed to come into the gym at my university on any given day and avoid seeing some moron squatting with their feet up on a BOSU ball, or trying to stand on a stability ball while doing their bicep curls. I was about to write up a long winded post about how dangerous and pointless these activities were, but Charles Poliquin summed up my thoughts nicely in today's T-Nation article:

About 70% of Swiss ball exercises are worthless. It's just one of those things where people are taking an idea too far. There's some value to it, but it's not a cure-all.

Most personal trainers and strength coaches just don't know how to get people strong. I remember talking to this one trainer who uses all these stability gizmos. I asked him why he used all that shit and he said, "I'm not good, so I have to do these weird things so people will come to see me."

I call it "entertainment training," not strength training. And any time I see that horseshit, I want to kick the personal trainer in the head with a pair of steel-toe construction boots.

— Charles Poliquin

If you don't know who Charles Poliquin is, and question the validity of this statement, maybe it's you who needs a kick in the head with a pair of steel-toe construction boots. 

I'll leave you with one final thought: Let's take two twins and put one of them on a strait-line mission to take his squat from 225 lbs up to 405 lbs. Let's give the other one a steady dose of squats with 45 lbs standing on a BOSU ball. At the end of the year, which twin do you think will be jumping higher? Running faster? Looking better naked? The answer should be obvious. 

And when the hell does the ground move under your feet in the real world anyway? 

I will make an exception to this rule, however, and say that if the instability is above the waist, then the movement is fine. This means unstable pushups and things of that nature are fine, and can actually be very productive movements. Eric Cressey goes into detail on this topic in his product The Truth About Unstable Surface Training. 

Until next time, stay off the damn BOSU ball and train hard!

- T

What I'm doing in the gym and in the kitchen right now.

I've had lots of questions on what I'm doing in the weightroom right now, and what my days of eating look like. Right now I am in the pre-season of university basketball, so my volume of activity outside the weightroom is very high. This means I have to lower the volume of weightroom work, and keep my sets short of failure. This is different for me because I've always tended to take every set to clean failure - it's really the only way I know how to train. Also, I just recently re-tested my Metabolic type, and I came out as Balance Dominant this time, meaning that I needed to adjust my diet. 

My weightroom plan is very simple. I rotate through two very simple workouts and simply lift on whatever days I don't feel rundown from basketball. I always lift at least twice per week, though, and most of the time I hit three workouts. 

The two workouts look like this: 

Day 1: Back Squat, Bench Press off pins (no spotter), DB Rows

Day 2: Deadlift, Military Press, Pullups

I simply hit 2-5 sets of each movement not to failure. The reps tend to vary, but I generally hit 1-3 reps on deadlifts, 3-5 on squats, 4-6 for upper body presses and pullups with one higher rep set of 8-10, and generally 8-12 for rows. I really train according to how my body feels that day. I don't usually recommend an approach like this for new trainees, but for people who have been training for a while, a "cybernetic" approach to training can often work well. To make it work, it really requires strict attention to your logbook to ensure that you are making consistent progress over time. 

In terms of my diet, as I mentioned before I recently re-tested as a balanced type meaning I need roughly 50% carbohydrate, 30% protien, and 20% fat. Each day I have one source of protien, one carbohydrate, one of a few choices of vegetables and one fat. I cook it all up and split it into 5 meals, then eat the same meal all day long. The next day I rotate to new sources for each macronutrient. 

My days look like this: 

Day 1: Red meat, pumpkin, broccoli/cucumber/bell peppers, organic raw butter

Day 2: White meat, sweet potato, spinach/carrot/cauliflower, olive oil

Day 3: Fish, winter squash, broccoli/cucumber/bell peppers (different choice than day 1), coconut oil

This approach allows me to avoid developing any food intolerances, and stay strictly to the foods that are right for my metabolic type. I have also only selected foods that I am tolerant to, and have no IgG reaction. 

I truly am able to eat meals that are perfect for my body every time. It may seem boring, but it is well worth it judging by my recovery ability and energy and mood as of late. I have also noticed an extreme leaning out/detoxification affect, and I feel like I am carrying very little fat compared to where I was before (~9% bodyfat). 

August 3, 09

September 9, 09

I don't eat or train at all for leaning out, so this was a surprise to me. It just goes to show how powerful Metabolic Typing is as an eating plan. 

Anyway, hopefully that will shed some light on my current plans for all those interested. If there are any questions, comments, thoughts or suggestions I'd love to hear them below. 

Train hard. 

- T

Training Partners and Atmosphere

"You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with."

- Jim Rohn

Set up a roundtable with the most experienced experts in the strength game. Ask them, across the board, what is the most important aspect in building an incredible gym. Without a doubt, the answer always comes down to training partners and atmosphere. 

When you train in a pussy gym, you get pussy results. What qualifies as a pussy gym? Probably the gym you are in right now. Do you think Dorian Yates trained in a gym full of smith machines, mirrors, and old ladies on stepmills? What about Ronnie Coleman? Matt Zroczaleski? 

That's what I thought. 

The common theme between all the best gyms and all of the strongest men in the world is the atmosphere of the gym they train in. They don't complain about the chalk in the air, it's a mainstay. They love the smell of ammonia tablets, and don't shy away from blood on the floors. Yelling, spitting, swearing and puking are all daily occurrences. 

But behind the atmosphere of any great gym is a group or a pair of incredible training partners. These men compete every day, and are always out to get the next man in line. However, they are all striving towards the same goal, and understand that they are only as strong as the gym they train in, and that the gym they train in is only as strong as it's weakest link. So while they are always on a mission to beat the next man in line, they take pride in improving the other lifters around them.

Great training partners don't bring their cell phones into the gym. They are too busy giving cues, coaching other lifters, spotting attempts and loading plates. Great training partners don't forget to spot you because they are too busy talking to the treadmill bunny in the spandex shorts. Great training partners are always willing to pick each other up for workouts because they understand that training alone is never the same as training in a group. Great training partners don't ask endless numbers of questions during workouts, they come in and hit their workouts hard, then ask questions after the workout or go home and research the answer themselves. 

Great training partners spend hours of their free time building extra equipment for the gym with their bare hands: 

Our brand new Chest Supported Row, courtesy of Brad Doyle

I have been blessed with an incredible training partner. It takes a while to find the right group of guys, and some of the strongest guys in the world take pride in making sure the "new guy" doesn't make it through his first squat workout. But when you find that guy who claws his way through and comes back ready for more, you have found a teammate for life.