Lessons from the USA

To summarise, 9 weeks, 6 seminars, 9 gyms, 17 beds, 3 sofas, 8 states, 4 ghettos, 9 coaches, 6 planes and a serious amount of walking:

Freakin’ awesome – one of the best decisions I could have ever made.

Now that I’m settled back comfortably home, tearing things up at Strength London and the London Broncos, I’ve decided to write a final blog post concluding this series (although I will continue to write a blog once I have a website up and running in the very near future).

It has been enjoyable to write, and always nice to hear when people told me they’d been following, especially when a stranger I was sitting next to at the seminar in Connecticut told me he’d read it.

I now know what it’s like to be famous.

I’ve learnt more in those 9 weeks than I have done in the past 2 years and to take the opportunity to see some of the industry leaders talk and visit their facilities is one I will recommend to anyone.

Since I’ve been back, a couple of people have asked me about anything key that I’ve learnt. 4 things that immediately stand out are: 

1) No longer using the foam roller as part of the warm up (unless it will decrease pain in an exercise) -instead, I’ll use it at the end of the session or as a separate session all together.

Apparently, it’s better to use the foam roller when you’ve been thoroughly warmed up as the fascia is more responsive. Furthermore, nothing kills enthusiasm for a huge deadlift/squat session more than relaxing on a foam roller trying to remove a trigger point.

So far so good.

2) Ditching barefoot training and investing in a pair of weightlifting shoes. I thought Mark Rippetoe was going to have a coronary when I asked him if it was ok to deadlift barefoot. He kindly explained to me that if I want to destroy the arches of my feet, then I should continue to train barefoot, otherwise get some decent shoes.

At the PICP 2, Andre Benoit further added that he didn’t believe in barefoot training either. Since both of these guys have performed impressive feats of strength and coached others to do so, I’ll take their word for it. Plus weightlifting shoes make you look like you know what you’re doing.

3) Keep warm ups briefer. Get the client warm, address any key areas and then move on. I’m not a physical therapist, so no need to waste time with mountains of corrective exercise prior to training.

       Any additional corrective exercise can be integrated into the rest periods, which will be better because they’ll get more exposure to that exercise than just performing one set in the warm-up.  

4) Using tempo. I never liked using tempo with clients until I used it myself. Firstly, if a client can’t stick to a tempo, then it is likely that A) the weight is too heavy and/or B) the exercise may be too advanced. It also means you get the desired training effect.

Just last week, I timed an over ambitious client performing the seated row for 15 reps. I can’t remember the exact prescribed tempo, but it definitely included a pause at the end of the concentric and a 2 second eccentric, therefore, assuming it was a 2011, at 4 seconds a rep, it should have been a 60 second set. Well, the client smashed it in 18 seconds – not even approaching the hypertrophy threshold (the training goal).

By using tempo, you can ensure that every set looks the same and if you work in a facility where trainers share clients then there will be no difference between sessions. You’ll also train for the goal of the programme.

Writing this particular blog post has also given me the opportunity to go over a load of notes I’d taken, think about conversations I’d had and to have a look back over the blog and see if there was anything that really stood out.

So, on doing that, I’ve listed a load of key lessons that I learnt from the USA, with reference to who said it (some of which have been slightly paraphrased from their original context):

Tried, tested and fairly challenging nutritional methods for gaining mass:

1 gallon of milk a day (Mark Rippetoe) and 28 potatoes a week (Tyler Simmons)

Whilst a great tool, you need to adapt the FMS to the client (Nick Tumminello & Ed Williams) and it is also beneficial to add length-tension/joint ROM tests to it (Brendon Rearick)

Touching your toes is a fundamental human movement pattern and if you’ve lost your ability to do it, get it back (Eric Cressey)

The physios that blame the gluteus medius for the knee caving in are barking up the wrong tree as it is more likely to be a weak VMO causing the femur to re-position itself in order to get the correct line of pull from the vastus lateralis during single leg work (Andre Benoit)

In this industry, the idea of a 4 hour work weeks is bullshit. Don’t even think about trying it (Mike Boyle)

Phosphatidylserine is one of the very few supplements to have a 'qualified health claim' from the FDA (actually it has 2) in preventing cognitive decline, which essentially means it’s the balls (Mark Schauss)

Never ever become complacent with your methods; constantly strive to improve yourself as a coach (Chris West)

There’s a lot of information out there and much of it is conflicting. You absolutely must develop a filter system to separate what you truly believe is good from bad (Ed Williams)

You need to do finger extension work to balance yourself if you do a lot of crushing work (Derek Woodske)

Regularly test your clients’ endurance capabilities for the low back as that it what correlates with back pain and not maximal strength (Ryan Faehnle quoting Stuart McGill)

The power clean may be the best exercise for bridging the gap between weight room strength and on the field explosiveness (Mark Rippetoe)

Sleep is ridiculously under rated – make it a priority (Martin Rooney)

Although deadlifts and squats do strengthen the core, it’s no good for a client with a history of back pain. Get them healthy first (or refer them) and then start working on the big lifts. (Mike Robertson)

The endorphin response from long distance running is a natural tranquiliser to prepare for an inevitable death, because in caveman times, you would never run for that long unless you were running from something that was about to kill you (Alwyn Cosgrove)

Sprinting increases leptin. Keeping leptin high helps to keep the body using fat for fuel (Alwyn Cosgrove)

If mobility is given, it must be enforced with stability (Gray Cook).

Using a skipping rope is self-limiting – most people can’t skip long enough to get shin splits. It’s easy to get shin splints, however, when you go jogging (Gray Cook).

A self-limiting exercise is one you can’t fuck up (Alwyn Cosgrove)

The most important exercise is the one you’re doing now (Martin Rooney)

You HAVE to be comfortable being uncomfortable (Martin Rooney)

If you use undulating periodization, ideally the weekly sessions would be power, strength and hypertrophy and should be performed in that order (Nick Winkleman)

Dehydration = stress (Robert Yang)

A lot of people don’t know this and will argue against it but pain during Olympic lifting is more often than not an ibuprofen deficiency (Charles Staley)

If you don’t eat breakfast, then you’ll have poor glucose control after lunch (Robert Yang)

Unless you’re dealing with a very skinny person, you won’t see the desired arch in the lower back during a squat or deadlift. That’s fine as long as the back is straight. The arch in the lumbar spine is there, but the space around in is filled in with muscle, which ‘hides’ the arch (Mark Rippetoe)

You’re still a beginner until you can squat 405 (Mark Rippetoe)

Having a coach to train you is more powerful than a training programme alone (Rachel Cosgrove)

The lima bean is a great source of potassium (Mark Schauss)

The more stress you’re under, the more protein you need to eat (Mark Schauss)

Test the squat first, if the client can’t even squat properly, there’s no way they’ll be able to overhead squat (Nick Tumminello & Ed Williams).

Hayley Atwell is the currently the hottest British actress and I should be ashamed of myself for not knowing who she was (Tony Gentilcore)

It’s been a pleasure folks.

Big love

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