Be Your Own Scientist: Things from my own training

The Professor in His Lab

What is a scientist?

A scientist is simply someone who tests things.

Do you need an advanced degree to do this?  Nope.  I would not recommend that people spend 16+ years in college to the tune of over $250,000 like I did just to test things.  Let me save a ton of money and time.

Don’t get me wrong.  Education is great, but if you want to talk about overkill, that is pretty much it if your goal is to test exercises on yourself.

Testing 101

You should find a way to test everything.

Do you want to build bigger muscles and increase strength?

Find a way to test it.

I have been using the testing as shown in the Grip n Rip DVDs for about 3.5 years now.  The system was not as refined when I started, so you have a huge head start.  Frankie was the first one to test it and then I was right after him.  Now you can go to www.twitter.com and type in “#PReveryday” and see hundreds of people using it.

If your goal is more muscle and less fat, then you progressive overload.  What is that?  Do more volume, density (volume/time) and intensity (weight on the bar).  Do a bit more in one of these 3 areas each time you enter the gym and score a PR (personal record).  Rinse and repeat.  I can be that simple.   Really.

What Have I Learned?

I recently went back through my training journal to look at the first year of training that I did using biofeedback.  This was starting about 2 years ago and I looked for about a 1 year time span.

Here is what I found

Deadlift- Volume work

I responded much better to more volume. I did volume work at a lower percentage of my max and still made progress. Even doing high rep work on the trap bar deadlift helped.

Bench Press – Intensity Work

For bench I responded better to more higher intensity work. My best gains were made when I was at a heavier body weight and working at about 90%+ percentage. For a 9 month period I was routinely doing 5-10 sets of singles at 90-98% of my 1 rep max once a week.

Squat – Nothing

This one did not test well at all, most likely to my spine issues. I could lunge and do deadlifts, but a standard barbell squat did not test well. Once I got my spine fixed up a bit, it started to test well again. More on that below.

Variety –  Great!

The more new exericses I did, the better I felt and could increase relatively fast. I found that this helped other things I did the most. I was much better kiteboarding, playing broomball and volleyball. I could kiteboard for 3 hours at a shot, just cranking it for most of the time with very little body fatigue. AWESOME! Nothing worse than going to some place new and finding out your body hates you and you are limited. Boo.

Wow, 2 of the best kiteboarding days I have ever had in Minnesota!

Vision+Scar Work

I have a scar of over a foot long on the middle of my torso from open heart surgery when I was about 4.5 years old. I was born with a cogenital issue called an “atrial septal defect” see the video below

What is an ASD?

My heart was enlarge and I went into heart failure at a very young age. Without surgery, I would be lucky to live to about age 18 due to the increased strain on my heart. They went in, took a bone saw and cut my sterum (chest), cut through the right atrium and repaired the hole. Even on x-ray now I still have the “twist ties” in my chest that they used to put me back together.

Scars are nothing more than areas of limited mobility, but in the skin/fascial layer.

I did some specific work taping my scar into a position with kinesiotape before my lifting sessions. I taped it in the direction that resulted in the greatest increase in my active range of motion.

I worked on specific exercises that would stress that area and cause it to remodel. During this time many lifts that I wanted to do did not test well. My performance on my “standard” lifts dropped.

This went on for about 6-9 months and then I needed to tape it less and less. Since then I have not had to do any taping at all and my structure is much better.

Keep in mind that loading (weight training) is a powerful stimulus to cause changes to

• bone
• skin
• fascia
• muscle
• tendons/ligaments

It is probably the best way we know to change our structure

Vision

I am currently stereoblind –  I don’t see in 3D.  I suppress the image from my right eye.  You have 2 eyes that your brain uses to construct a 3D view of the world since each eye is off just a bit from the other one, so it sees things just a bit differently.  Your brain uses this to allow you to see in 3D.  I can “see” from both eyes, but when I am giving specific tests to analyze 3D vision I fail them out right.  My right eye is set out and up a bit since I had a “lazy eye” as a kid.

Through help from Dr, Cobb of Z-Health, at the time, I found that my scar seemed to be linked to my ability to turn on and off (unsupress) my right eye by using a simple Brock string device.    As my movement got better, I did less scar taping as described above, my vision started to get better.   Currently I find that kettlebell juggling is a huge help.    My next step is that once I get a few things off my plate and bit more money I will start some more intensive visual therapy as my structure seems to have stabilized.

A Must Read For Anyone with Vision Issues

Sleep

I found that I need about 9-9.5 hours of quality sleep a night.
At first I was pissed about this and spent months and months trying many things to get by on less. I could operate on less, but my strength gains and the amount of volume and intensity I could do in the gym dropped off pretty fast. I learned to be a master of the nap and would drive around with a pillow in my car. I was known to slip out of the lab between sessions and catch a short nap in the back of my Jetta. If you do it right, a 6′3″ guy can find the back with the seat down. I used caffeine power naps too.

I have also been using an Earth Pulse Unit for a few years now.    I have not noticed as much strength gains as others have reported, nor could I cut back on sleep duration; but I noticed I don’t have to do much of any cardiovascular (conditioning) as I had to in the past to keep it at a decent level.  I don’t use it for a few days and CRF (cardiorespiratory fitness) drops quite fast.  It should be pointed out that I have never really had any issue with quality sleep, so others with sleep issues may respond differently.

Stress Sucks

Stress would kill my gains in the gym pretty fast.   While you may not be able to change what you are doing (maybe you can), if not, you need to change how you PERCEIVE it.   This is a bit beyond this post, but keep in mind that you are in control and that you make the decisions.  Are you getting better or worse?

No PRs = No Progress

Seems so obvious I know, but I did not get it at that time.  I did not think it was possible to make a PR every time you go to the gym.  It is possible and for the fastest progress you need to do it!

Summary

So I would encourage you to take a look at your training journal and see what trends you find.  Figure out a way to test it.  If you don’t have a training journal, get one now!  Just a standard notebook works great for me.     Probably the only thing I did correct when I started about 18 years ago was keeping a training journal.  I still have ever one of them too.    Study the past to help predict the future and test it.

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you want to know how to test your training for the fastest gains ever and not go through

years of trial and error, pick up Grip and Rip now!

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Tissue Turnover: The Key To Enhanced Performance and Injury Recovery?

New data we have now since this was published from Adam’s blog at
Data on tissue turnover

I filmed the above video quite some time ago, but thought I would put it up here again in light of some more data.

While ancedotal and a small number, here are a few comments from Adam’s blog.

Adam said

Mike, I am able to do more consecutive days of lifting than I have ever have before. At first I wondered if lots of reps at speed would wear me down…but I snatch, Jerk, and do LC everyday of training- 5 days a week. It is no joke. I am so rarely sore, and feel like I heal faster from bumps and bruises. Maybe, maybe not? Either way the first piece of info you gave me about this seems to be holding up under pressure.

David said

I’ve been wondering the same thing re: bumps and bruises.

I smashed my foot in a way that would take most people down for a week on Sunday. You saw me, I couldn’t walk on Sunday. Still trained on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and just ran 5k on it today.

Dave’s Foot

Logan’s Training

From my training log this week:

Monday
Trap Bar Deadlifts 405 x 5,7,6 in 8 minutes

Tuesday
KB Snatch 24kg x 277 in 10 minutes

Mike T Nelson says—-what the hell!

Wednesday – Off

Thursday
BB Deadlift worked up to 470lb x 1

Coincidence? I think not.

Summary

High volume and speed appears to be the ticket to increased strength and speed up injury recovery!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

What is one of the best ways to dramatically increase your lifting volume?  Find out HERE.

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Random Updates: How To Get Seriously Strong and Lesnar vs Carwin MMA Fight

Wanted to let you all know I have an article published at Faith and Fitness Magazine.

I need to thank my good buddy Jason Rhymer for the help on the article too.

Powerlifting: How to Get Seriously Strong

If you want to see how to get strong in record time while listening to YOUR body, check it out.

Lesnar vs Carwin MMA Fight

Wow, this is going to be a HUGE fight, quite literally.

My vote goes for Lesnar. I don’t think anyone can touch him when he is healthy.  I don’t think Carwin has a chance.

What do you think?

Comments
Let me know your thoughts on the article and who will win the big MMA fight!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Building Strength and Setting Personal Records with Gym Movement Biofeedback: An Interview with Chris Smith

Let’s get right to the point, you just recently did a powerlifting event and broke 2 state records, tell us about that.  You were even on the USAPL Powerlifting Watch.

First off Mike I want to thank you for contacting me for the interview!

I recently competed in the Orange County Powerlifting Championships in Pine Bush, NY. It was a USAPL meet and was my first powerlifting event. Everyone there was great and extremely helpful and I want to take this chance to say thanks one more time to everyone who took time to help me out. I competed in the Men’s Raw 148lb division and set two NY State Records: the squat with 303lbs and one in the bench press with 198lbs. Those were done at a weight of 137.4lbs. It was an amazing experience and I highly suggest that anyone thinking about competing give it a try. There is something truly awesome about going for a max lift and hearing people who you’ve never met before that day yelling for you.

Here is Smith’s 303 pound NY State Record Squat at 148

Here is Smith’s 198 pound NY State Record Bench Press

Here is Smith’s 402 pound deadlift

Awesome!  Are you doing another meet soon?

Yes and I can’t wait. I will almost certainly be doing another USAPL meet at the end of July, but nothing is 100% just yet. I’m training with that as a goal in mind.

What is your background and how did you get into powerlifting?

I’ve been working in health and fitness for about 5 years now, but I started working out and weight training when I was a freshman in high school. I was always the small kid and actually started training heavy right the start. I wanted to be as strong as possible and and that has always been my primary goal. Recently, I also started performing some feats of strength like nail bending and card and book tearing. I’m also a certified personal trainer with the American College of Sports Medicine and started Train Better Fitness in 2009.

With respect to powerlifting, I honestly just sort of landed on it. Like I said I have always trained heavy with strength and power as my primary objective, but never really with any competitive goal. It’s funny because I remember a while back a few people at my gym had suggested that I consider competing in powerlifting. At the time I didn’t even really consider it an option. Eventually it just ended up being something I decided I wanted to try.

I heard you were using some crazy biofeedback training as talked about in the Grip n Rip DVD, tell us about that.

I first heard about biofeedback training from Adam Glass when he posted his series of videos about it. I’ll be honest, I was really skeptical about it at first. But I trust Adam and believe that he would never promote something that didn’t work or that he didn’t firmly believe in. At first I just started playing around with testing ROM of different exercises, just to see if there really was a difference. I noticed other people I know say they were using the protocol and seeing some pretty good results so I figured I’d give it a try. I contacted a couple of people who I knew were following the protocol (such as yourself) for a little bit of help and started using it in different ways in my own training.

I’ve definitely noticed a correlation between exercises testing well with ROM and how well they feel while doing the movement. Recently I have been using my own intuition more and testing with ROM less. I remember hearing someone say that testing is a supplement to your intuition, not a replacement and I’ve found that to be true.

My favorite principles from the biofeedback protocol are the markers for terminating a movement. Stopping when you get excessive tension, posture shift, change in breathing pattern or when a rep becomes significantly more difficult than the one before it. I also watch for quality of movement and any speed changes. Those are great rules to follow, especially when looking to get stronger.

Nice!  Have you used biofeedback trainig on your clients?  What have been their results?

I have applied a lot of the biofeedback principles with my clients. When they first try the ROM testing most of them are really amazed at how different exercises can have such different results with respect to ROM. They’re even more amazed when I can tell them before they test whether the exercise will increase of decrease ROM. More than anything, just like with myself, I apply the markers for termination of a movement. They have been getting great results using it too. One of my female clients has recently gotten strong enough to do a few bodyweight pullups with no assistance at all. That’s something that a lot of guys in my gym even have a hard time with!

Thanks again for taking the time to chat with us today, how can the readers get ahold of you (shameless plug time, so plug away man).

No, thank you for having me here on the blog. If anyone wants to reach me they can check out my site at http://www.trainbetterfitness.com There is a contact form on the site that they can use to get in touch with me. While they’re there they can also sign up for my free newsletter. They can also follow me on Twitter@TrainBetterFit

Much appreciate your time Chris!

Comments!

Do you like these interviews?  What do you want to see here?  Let me know by placing a comment!

Rock on,
Mike T Nelson

PS

If you want to get the best gains of your life and reduce pain, you need to see THIS!!

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4 Stupid Fitness Things that Need To End

I have dream that the fitness world is under a revolution.   Time to stop living by all the rules of how to train based on their rules.

I WANNA LIVE IN A FEARLESS STATE
I WANNA LIVE WITHOUT THE HATE
I WANNA BE ABLE TO DECIDE MY FATE
I WANNA BREAK OUT OF THIS CAGE

LET’S TAKE IT BACK
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE

–Welcome to the Future by Left Spine Down

4 Stupid Fitness Things that Need To End

1) Seeking More Sensation During Training.

Trying to actively feel everything is a recipe for chronic pain.  I stole this idea from Frankie.   You don’t need to actively seek it.  If you screw up bad enough for your body, pain WILL find you.  Trust me on this.  I’ve done the experiments in my own lab.  If you don’t trust me, let me know if you find it not to be true.  I suggest you not test this one out.

Think of pain as an indicator light and your last line of defense.  If I don’t put oil in my car ever, and my Ford pinto burns oil like at the rate of sweat running off a fat man chasing a runaway M&M, I wil have damage.

You don’t listen to pain in your body, you too will have some damage.

When the oil light comes on, I better stop the car before I destroy it (unless someone hits me from behind and I blow up anyway)

No, I am still not convinced your body will lie to you.  If you can’t trust your own body, you are going to trust your body to someone else who does not trust their body either to tell you what is going on?  I am all for guidance and seeking help, but their goal is to help you interpret what is going on based on your feedback.

Ford Pinto: Source

2) Don’t Learn a New Exercise Until You Can Do It Correctly

Oh boy, don’t start those dangerous deadlifts since you may just suck at them since you have never done them.
Newsflash, of course you are going to suck, you have never done them!  With the exception of a few crazy athletes, you will NOT be very good at them on the first rep.

“The first rep is the worst rep!” -Frankie Faires

Did anyone not learn to play golf because they were afraid they were going to suck at it?   Or did you want to learn to play golf, took lessons, stuck with it and became pretty good (or at least better).

The first time I learned to kiteboard, I got my a$$ handed to me over and over and over, even during a lesson!  My buddy Rob had bruised his ribs earlier in the week and had to keep chasing the kite down as I floored it right into the ground.  After about 20 minutes of this I hear “You suck!”   The truth was I did suck, but over time, I got better.  I also got a free trip across the soccer fiedl on my butt, complete with sexy grass stains as the kite powered up.

If you want to learn to kiteboard, take a lesson, but don’t NOT try it.

Did I never start because I was afraid I would suck?  Nope.

Why would you not learn to do an exercise for fear you wil suck?  Stupid idea that has got to go the way of the DooDoo bird.

DooDoo bird: Source

For the new readers, I am NOT saying load a bar up to 400 lbs and go ape $hit crazy with it and send your spine across my gym.   I hate to clean up that kind of mess.

Test it, maybe you only do rack pulls. Maybe you can’t deadlift the standard way so you use a trap bar or even sumo style.  Work around it, test it (ala Grip n Rip) and get better.

My buddy Brad Nelson has the perfect line with new clients

Brad to client “Are you a perfectionist”
Client   “Yes”
Brad “Then today is not your day”

Love it.
Start today!

3) Perfect Nutrition 100% of the Time

How demotivating is that.  Sorry, you suck and you will have to eat chicken and broccoli the rest of your life, so start looking forward to that and please pay me more money so I can tell you how wonderful it is too.

I will then spend more time to tell you that broccoli has over 300 different phytonutritents and is really not the vile weed you think it is

Broccoli-A Vile Weed or Nutrient Powerhouse? Source

That is BS on a stick and you know it.

The goal of a long term program should be to eat as many “bad foods” as you can get away with WHILE keeping your body composition and health goals.

This gives the client some friggin hope.  Yes, it is going to suck for awhile as your metabolism changes, but we are working towards you enjoying food long term and not making anything off limits forever.

If 4 brownies on a Saturday afternoon destroys you for the rest of the week, there are some issues to fix.

Caveat.  I am not saying that you should mainline high fructose corn syrup, eat boxes of Twinkies for lunch and order more large slurpees with no ice from the 7-11 across the street that you rode your scooter to.

If your body composition and metabolism is a wreck, you have some work to do, but the body is amazingly adaptable and a vast majority of the time we can alters its ability to convert food into fuel with few “ill consequences”  Hint, you NEED to exercise.  This BS that exercise does not help obesity has got to stop also.    Studies has shown that with exercise we can change your metabolic flexibity in a rather short period of time (1), even those who are diabetic or borderline diabetic.

4) Isolated Exericse Cues

Why would I cue your lat muscle during a pressing movement?  Last time I checked, the lat pulls the humerous (upper arm) DOWN, which is the opposite of my goal to press the darn heavy weight up!  How about I cue you based on the movement I want you to do? Hmm, I see an experiment here.

Latissimus Dorsi Muscle: Source

Why can we cue isolated movement, but argue that compound movements are better?

This makes no sense.  Some rip on bodybuilders for doing “isolation work” (can we really isolate anything in the body?) and say compound movements are best; but in the same breath state that you need to work more on your VMO in your quads to stabilze your knee.

Or as above, you need to contract and pull your lat down while pressing.

How can you cue an isolated movement when you just stated isolation was bad?

How about we give ONE cue (yes ONE cue) at a time (no vomitting cues on them) on what movement we want the athlete to accomplish first.  Let’s start there and see how that goes.  Give their own brain a chance to fix it.  Their own brain is darn smart at running their own body (it has lots of reps).

How would you know the lat was the problem or maybe it was the lower trap since I just read an article that said the lower traps are really lazy bastards and don’t like to work.  Or maybe it is rhomboids, etc etc.  Or maybe we need more YTWLs and more corrective work.

If you are teaching better gross (large scale) movement, let’s start there by cueing gross movement.  Only get finer when needed.

Comments
What do you think on these?  Have I lost it completely?  Let me know either way!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Refernces
1) Diabetes. 2010 Mar;59(3):572-9. Epub 2009 Dec 22.
Restoration of muscle mitochondrial function and metabolic flexibility in type 2 diabetes by exercise training is paralleled by increased myocellular fat storage and improved insulin sensitivity.

Meex RC, Schrauwen-Hinderling VB, Moonen-Kornips E, Schaart G, Mensink M, Phielix E, van de Weijer T, Sels JP, Schrauwen P, Hesselink MK.

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Mitochondrial dysfunction and fat accumulation in skeletal muscle (increased intramyocellular lipid [IMCL]) have been linked to development of type 2 diabetes. We examined whether exercise training could restore mitochondrial function and insulin sensitivity in patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Eighteen male type 2 diabetic and 20 healthy male control subjects of comparable body weight, BMI, age, and VO2max participated in a 12-week combined progressive training program (three times per week and 45 min per session). In vivo mitochondrial function (assessed via magnetic resonance spectroscopy), insulin sensitivity (clamp), metabolic flexibility (indirect calorimetry), and IMCL content (histochemically) were measured before and after training. RESULTS: Mitochondrial function was lower in type 2 diabetic compared with control subjects (P = 0.03), improved by training in control subjects (28% increase; P = 0.02), and
restored to control values in type 2 diabetic subjects (48% increase; P < 0.01). Insulin sensitivity tended to improve in control subjects (delta Rd 8% increase; P = 0.08) and improved significantly in type 2 diabetic subjects (delta Rd 63% increase; P < 0.01). Suppression of insulin-stimulated endogenous glucose production improved in both groups (-64%; P < 0.01 in control subjects and -52% in diabetic subjects; P < 0.01). After training, metabolic flexibility in type 2 diabetic subjects was restored (delta respiratory exchange ratio 63% increase; P = 0.01) but was unchanged in control subjects (delta respiratory exchange ratio 7% increase; P = 0.22). Starting with comparable pretraining IMCL levels, training tended to increase IMCL content in type 2 diabetic subjects (27% increase; P = 0.10), especially in type 2 muscle fibers. CONCLUSIONS: Exercise training restored in vivo mitochondrial function in type 2 diabetic subjects. Insulin-mediated glucose
disposal and metabolic flexibility improved in type 2 diabetic subjects in the face of near-significantly increased IMCL content. This indicates that increased capacity to store IMCL and restoration of improved mitochondrial function contribute to improved muscle insulin sensitivity.

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Motivation Monday: Insane Raw Deadlift by Konstantin Konstantinovs!

Deadlift training 413kg (910lb) raw and not even a belt at a bodyweight of 132kg (291lb) by Konstantin Konstantinovs!

INSANE!

I will bet money that he will pass 1,000 lb deadlift as he is only 30 years old.

I love how he makes it look just stupid easy. Wow.

Only 2 people have pulled over 1,000 lbs in competition, with the current record holder being Andy Bolton.
True, that was done with a deadlift suit and it is debatable how much that will help a deadlifter. Most get around 50 lbs more (conventional deadlifters).

Time for me to go pull something heavy.  Well, heavy for me.

Comments!

What do you think of this?  Let me know as comments make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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15 Random Thoughts

Here we go again, a tip inside my brain as to what is rattling around in there.  Trust me, you have been warned!

1) Mushroomhead is a highly underrated metal band

Adam T Glass just found them and was blown away. Great stuff. I prefer their earlier work with J Mann, but the new upcoming CD still sounds pretty cool. Awesome live shows if you ever get the chance to see them–go!

2) One of my favorite quotes of all time

“The iron never lies to you..the iron will always kick you the real deal. The iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go, but two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.” – Henry Rollins

3) Axial loading is key for muscle hypertrophy

It seems that loading the body axially like squats and overhead pressing seems to have a greater trigger for muscle hypertrophy (bigger muscles).

There is not any direct research that I have seen on this looking at similar loads (volume), but adding squats and kettlebell clean and jerks into your routine can pack on some mass quite fast.

I added about 3-4 lbs in the past month by adding these in. I also increased my calories again and my stress level was a bit lower too. Make sure those movement test well though (ala Grip n Rip).

4) Corrective exercise

I think we are making it entirely too complicated. An exercise/movement either makes you better or worse. If it makes you worse, you are not doing it correctly for YOUR body, or it is not good for you at THAT time. We are either getting better or worse.  Is corrective exercise any more complicated than that?

5) Bad foods

We need to stop putting foods into categories as “good” or “bad.” Very few foods are really bad.  If something is really bad it will kill you fast.   That is bad.  A poorly prepared puffer fish will kill you very fast.  I say avoid it, but even eating twinkies for a week straight will probably not kill you.  You may look similar to a twinkie by the end of the week though.

Twinkies in their natural state

6) The goal of health

Along those lines our goal of health is backwards. People think they need to eat “clean” 100% of the time. Even the most strict, pre-competition bodybuilder types don’t need to do that 100% of the time and even then the pre contest period is short compared to the rest of their life.

Having people try to get to a goal of 100% is not realistic and will set them up for massive failure.

The goal should be to eat as “BAD” as possible WHILE maintaining health (blood tests) and body composition goals.

If you can do this at a 70% compliance vs a 90% compliance, 70% is better!

The ability to take in virtually any food item and convert it into fuel (termed Metabolic Flexibility) is key to health.

Do you want to have more freedom with your diet and eat the foods you love, or feel like you are boxed in and “never good enough”?

7) PhD programs are long, really friggin’ long

I knew when I start this, that it would be a long road.  I had other warn me about it.  I thought they were nuts.  No way I was going to be in school for another 5-7 years after the 11 years I had already done.  Screw that.

Well, fast forward to many years later and I am still plugging away at it.  Very few things have I started that I have though long and hard about quitting and this is at the top of the list.  The good part is that I am fully determined to finish, no matter how long it takes.  I have decided it will not rule my life and as long as each day I am making progress, the end will come.    And I can’t wait for that day.  Wow.  Once I graduate, all hell is going to break loose as my ability to output will go through the roof.  You have been warned.

8 ) Poor exercise form

Adam mentioned this on a conference call and some are now sooooo scared of not doing an exercise correctly that they will not even TRY.

How can you get better at say a kettlebell clean and press, without ever doing one? The answer is you CAN’T.

The first rep is always the worst rep.

I am NOT recommending that you go load up the bar with a max load and do your first deadlift attempt ever with it. That is just stupid. But starting with the bar and doing a few reps and measuring your range of motion (biofeedback) to see if it is good is an excellent start. Then work to make it better every time.  Not starting will not help you.  To get better, you can video your movements and keep testing or find a local qualified coach to help determine what is best for YOUR body; not what looks picture perfect.  The goal is better, not initial perfection.

9) I still love the TRX

Very fun to use and easy to travel with too!

10) You should train for falling and ill movements

I believe that if you may fall in life (which is all of us), you need to train for falling. Special thanks to Frankie for pointing this out and covering it in the Movement Certification.
Great discuss on this at Charlie Weingrofts blog.

11) Joint mobility is just one movement

Joint mobility,while it can have its place and does work, is only a handful of movement the human body can do.  Plus, we learn by performing large (gross) movements first and then work to refine them over time.   Why would we start with the smallest movements FIRST?

If you want to learn how to squat, I want to see you friggin squat first!  I don’t give a crap at that point about your ankle dorsiflexion or the ability of you to active control your pinky finger.   I don’t care.  If I can’t correct your squat movement, I will then start to go to more fine and fin movements.   I may end up with ankle work or even thumb mobility work, but I would not START there.

You must read this post on Joint Mobility from Frankie below.  It is a MUST read.

Pain Makes You Stupid:  Purposeful Joint Mobility

12) What I learned last year

I have changed how I look at things this year once again.  Here are the top things I learned in 2009 below.  Can you see how I do things differently now?  If so, place a comment below

The Top 15 Things I Learned in 2009: A Review

13) B-Stance Deadlifts are one of the most underrated versions

If you have a weakness in one leg (most of use do) and you want to bring up your deadlift, doing a B-Stance deadlift where once foot is closer to the bar than the other (think of a very mild or shallow lunge where one leg is about 4 inches back from the bar in an asymmetric stance).    Check it out at

Raising the Dead:  Deadlift Training and B Stance work

14) Modern shoes still suck

I am still not happy with modern shoes and we would all be better off training in a pair of Vibrams, flat shoes, or no shoes at all.

15) Joint Pain

I love GLC 2000 for joint issues.  I have been using it for several months now and it is great.  Others that recommended it to have tried it love it too.  I have tried similar supplements like it in the past and they did nothing for me.

While I don’t have many joint issues, they did get a bit achy after many weeks of increased volume.    I even tried to push it a bit more and still had no issues.   I stopped taking it and within a few days to weeks, they got a bit touchy again.

GLC 2000 has a very high form of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, which are natural substances found in and around the cells of cartilage (joints). Glucosamine is an amino sugar that the body produces and distributes in cartilage and other connective tissue, and chondroitin sulfate is a complex carbohydrate that helps cartilage retain water.

I have some other theories that this should help connective tissue health, which then should help maximal strength.

If you go to the link below, you can pick up 2 for the price of 1 from Carl at Super Human Radio (which you MUST listen to).

Super Human Radio GLC 2000 Special Offer

Not sure how long the offer lasts though, so it may be gone by the time you read this.

I get paid NOTHING to promote their product.

They did not ask me to mention it at all, but I feel that if I find something that works really well I need to share it with all of you.

Try it out and let me know how it goes for you.  If my theory is right, over a couple months you should see a nice strength increase too.

Summary

So there you have 10 things that have been running around in my head lately.  Let me know what you think by posting a comment below

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

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Extreme Human Performance of the Week: Amazing Hand Balancing by Encho Keryazo

WOW!!!!

AMAZING Movement here by Encho? Keryazov from Bulgaria

Notice how he makes the insane LOOK easy.

Notice that his physique is very proportioned and symmetrical, just like his movement.

A hat tip to Chris at Conditioning Research for this one!

Comments?

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

This may be a bit much for you to start with (smacks forehand), but check out the link below on how to do a perfect pullup

The Perfect Pullup and Chinup

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