Being a strength and conditioning coach is a cool job, I’m not going to lie; it’s a great environment to work in, you’re surrounded by people who share the same passion, it’s easy to stay fit and it’s rewarding to know that you can have such a big impact on an young person’s development as an athlete, but also as a person. Some, more than others and I guess it all depends on the age group of your clientele.
During the hockey season, most of the athletes I work with are high school and middle school kids. When you work with kids that age I think it’s especially important to realize the impact you can have on how they develop. Sure you’re gonna help them move better and improve their athletic ability, and it’s gonna lay a solid foundation for their future athletic success, but a huge part of doing this job is about more than just the training we provide them. It’s way too easy to forget the impact we can have on other aspect of their lives.
A comment that keeps coming back from parents of the kids we train is how much their confidence on the field or on the ice has improved since they started training at Endeavor. I am a believer that confidence on the field translates to confidence in other aspects of life, and that can be very helpful to most of them. A lot of kids don’t know what they’re capable of, and as strength coaches it’s our job to make them realize their potential and help them fully take advantage of it. This doesn’t seem like much for us, but it can be a game changer in an athlete’s career.
I also believe we have a huge impact on an athlete’s lifestyle habits. A lot of young athletes don’t realize the importance work ethic, nutrition, sleep and recovery can have on their performance. And it’s our job to teach them that! With our lifestyle in 2011, with both parents working, always being in a rush and not having time to prepare meals, it’s tough if not impossible for a kid to develop good eating habits. Admittedly, it’s an up-hill battle for us because the kids don’t always have control on what their parents are buying at the grocery store. But teaching the kids what’s good for them and how much it can impact their performance might translate into them telling their parents “my coach said I should eat more vegetable”, and that can go a long way into having a whole family making positive changes in their eating habits.
“My strength coach said my bench press would go up 40 pounds if I ate my vegetables”
And when kids don’t eat breakfast altogether because they get up 5 minutes before leaving for school, it’s pretty easy for us to tell them to get up 10-15 minutes earlier to throw 2 eggs between two slices of toast or make a smoothie. Are they automatically going to do it? Maybe not, but it’s part of our job to find a way to tell them so in the end they make a change. And eating breakfast or not is totally under their control; it’s something they can change by themselves (I don’t know of any parents who will forbid their kids to eat breakfast) even when their parents don’t do it.
It’s a little bit of the same story when it comes to sleep patterns; parents won’t forbid their kids to go to bed earlier. And you would be surprised at how many kids don’t sleep enough! I never really realized it myself until I started asking kids what time they were going to bed and what time they got up; amazing how many kids don’t even get 8 hours of sleep per night! It’s not like they’re adults who can get away with 7 hours of sleep; they’re kids growing, developing and trying to become high level athletes, they need 8 to 9 solid hours per night and even more! If we can make kids understand the importance of sleep and the impact it’s gonna have on their performance, we have succeeded in making a positive change in their lives.
No wonder why so many of them sleep in class
Some athletes will have work ethic problems and just be flat out lazy. And most of the time they don’t even understand that it’s affecting their development as an athlete. But once again, it’s part of our job to try and change those habits. Sometimes you might need to dig deep to understand what the underlying cause of the problem is, and why an athlete is not responsive or won’t comply to what you’re telling him.
The bottom line is that it’s definitely not easy to change habits, and it’s not all athletes that are going to be willing to start eating breakfast just because we told them to. Many times, simply telling them what to do or what they should change is not gonna be enough. In a way it’s just like psychology. Sometimes even though you know that something is good for you, or that you should do it doesn’t mean that you’re actually gonna take the necessary steps to make the change. It’s just like anything else in life: start exercising, lose weight, stop smoking, stop eating going to McDonald’s for lunch, etc. You know that it’s the right thing to do, but you rarely do it. Kids are no different (but with different concerns). It’s about finding ways to deliver a message in way that will make the person make a change, and THAT is the real challenge . It’s not easy that’s for sure, and we’re not always going to be successful, but it’s our job to try to do it.
It’s when you have a positive effect on a kid’s life that you realize how big of a difference you can make. Being a strength and conditioning coach means much more than improving strength and conditioning; it’s about teaching and changing lives.
I’m in the middle of Joel Jamieson’s book Ultimate MMA Conditioning, and I have to say that (even being only 1/4 of the way through it) this book is about to be one that’s a COMPLETE game changer for me. Even though the title says ‘MMA Conditioning’, the book is not so much about specific MMA conditioning as it is about developing the different energy systems the right way. It’s making me rethink all of the conditioning I program for my athletes. And I’ll have more on the subject very soon.
While reading it though, I’ve come to a couple realizations about my job as a strength and conditioning coach that go beyond just conditioning stuff. As a professional who’s concerned about constantly thriving to get better and always do what’s best for his athletes, it’s quite important to reach out to new resources that will help you get better at what you do, especially in an ever-evolving industry like ours. In our quest to learn new information and get better, the internet has been more than helpful. It’s giving us free information everywhere in the form of blogs, articles, videos, webinars, podcasts, you name it. Of course there will always be information that’s of low quality and it makes it very easy for anyone to put information out there without any guarantees that it’s any good. But with a minimum of educational background and critical judgment, one can pretty easily judge of the quality of information he’s reading.
What we see happening with the age of the internet though, is some trends spreading virally, which can end up changing our perspective on things. One such trend has been pre-hab and corrective training. There is a LOT of great information out there on injury prevention, corrective exercises, and the like. It seems to be the cool thing to write about these days, and I am guilty as charged, like a lot of people. And don’t get me wrong, I do not think there is anything wrong with using injury prevention strategies or trying to learn more about how the body moves. But is this overwhelming amount of information about injury prevention been shifting the pendulum too far? Having all of this information available to you, and being aware of the importance of limiting injuries can make you obsessed with it…when in reality it’s only one part of the puzzle. Continuing education is not just about learning more about functional anatomy and new corrective exercise strategies. It’s about getting better at what you do. And I say this because I’m starting to realize that it’s one big mistake I’ve been making in the last couple of years. Functional anatomy is a very complex thing and it’s easy to get caught in just wanting to learn more and more about that only.
But there are a lot more components to our job that we need to consider and get better at. Conditioning is one of those areas. One of my bosses at a former job once said in a meeting: “the problem with you, personal trainers, is that you’re too good with the lifting part of the programs you write. Programing for cardio is by far your weakest link.” And if you’re wondering, yes, he did indeed used the word ‘cardio’. But when he said that, I didn’t listen for a couple of reason:
He started by critiquing us, which is never a good way to open the lines of communication
I was obsessed with strength at that point in my career, and thought nothing else really mattered
Conditioning was a very simple concept in my head, and if you wanted to improve it you just had to do intervals
He wasn’t really good at his job anyway
He was shaped like a pear and his training consisted of squats on a wobble board, Russian twists and machine chest press
“You should listen to me ’cause I know how to train right!”
Thinking back about what he said, he probably was right. But it’s unfortunate that he was such a close-minded indiviual because I probably could’ve learned a thing or two from him, but I was completely shut off because of his attitude in general.
What I’m trying to say here is that I’m not saying that injury prevention strategies (or any other component of a training program) are not important, but we need to take a step back and realize what our job is. We need to get better at what we do in a more general sense. We want to get better at preventing injuries, but we also need to get better at maximizing hypertrophy, developing speed, improving range of motion, and of course improving conditioning, which I think is too often overlooked in a training program.
Never forget that your clients are looking for a training effect. Let me say that again: your clients are looking for a training effect. Working AROUND limitation is as much our job (if not more) than working ON limitations. Your clients are not looking to do miniband exercises for an hour and half let you tell them how bad they move. They want to reach their fitness goal. They don’t want you to tell them what their goal is.
Not sure this is what your clients are expecting
Think about how you would feel if you were to go in store restaurant, order a pizza and 15 minutes later your waitress would bring you a salad telling you that it’s better for you to eat a salad! This might be a stupid example, but it’s just to make you realize that what we do is still in big part customer service (unless you’re working in a college or a pro team setting). Clients and athletes come to us to get results, whether it’s improved performance, fat loss, muscle gain or whatever else; they expect to get results because they’re giving you their hard-earned money! I think it’s important to always ask your clients what THEY expect out of your services. It doesn’t mean we can’t help them move and feel better along the way, but I think it’s important to always keep the client’s expectations in mind and do what you need to meet them.
Getting better at what we do is not only preventing injuries better. It’s making them lose fat faster, getting them bigger and stronger, maximizing their conditioning, and more than anything else listening to their needs and meeting (or should I say exceeding) their expectations.
I recently came across the Baby GetUp through my good friend Dr. Perry Nickelston. When I heard him talk about it, what he used it for and the benefits from this exercise I was thinking to myself: “Hey I’m gonna give it a shot; it sounds like a nice corrective exercise to include in a training program to help develop proper muscle sequencing and reinforce a good fundamental movement pattern”. The Baby GetUp can indeed help you in that regard, but HOLLY SH*T I wasn’t expecting what I was about to experience! I wouldn’t even say it was hard; I literally couldn’t even do it!!
As someone who takes care about how my body moves and with the time I spend on corrective exercises I wasn’t expecting to be slapped in the face by the Baby GetUp like I did! The name of the exercise itself suggest an easier version of the Turkish GetUp. A ‘regression’ of the Turkish GetUp would be a better term, because it might look simpler, but it doesn’t mean it’s easier. This is the video from Dr. Perry that demonstrate the Baby GetUp:
You’re probably telling yourself it really doesn’t look that hard. And you’ll most likely be able to perform it more easily than I did, but I’m sure you’ll be surprised by the level of difficulty of the exercise on AT LEAST one side of your body.
In fact, this is a great way to identify asymmetries from side to side in inner core muscle sequencing. When trying the Baby GetUp, make sure that you’re not cheating by reaching with your neck, getting your top leg off the floor and holding your breathe in. This should be a movement pattern that feels (or becomes) ‘nice and smooth’ to perform. It is a fundamental movement pattern, and if you don’t own it, your setting yourself up for compensation movement patterns, and injury in the long run.
I know what I’m gonna be working on in the next couple of weeks!
For an in depth look at the Baby GetUp, check out Perry’s original article on his website HERE.
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Believe it or not, Christmas is already less than 2 week away! Crazy isn’t it?! But that doesn’t mean I’m not happy about it; au contraire! Christmas is by far my favorite time of year because I usually get some time off from work and that allows me to spend some time with my family and friends. The only problem with Christmas is that I always end up being late on Christmas shopping and finding presents for my loved ones. That being said, if you have a fitness or strength and conditioning enthusiast in your life, here’s a couple of gift ideas that are well worth it if you ask me!
Hearte Rate Monitor
With what the research tells us about heart rate variability (HRV) and the feedback our heart rate can give us about our training, intensity, recovery, etc. it only makes sense to keep track of your heart rate. Most monitors are very convenient to use and not very expensive (you can get a really good one for less than 100$!). I recommend the Polar RS-100. If you’re looking for the best quality/price ratio, you can’t get much better than that one. Also, with Joel Jamieson’s new HRV product coming out soon, it will be 100% compatible with the RS-100, so you’re killing 2 birds with one stone! Ultimate Hockey Training
Kevin Neeld’s new book is a great gift idea for any hockey player, parent or coach. It highlights every component of a hockey player development from the youth level to the professional level as well as going into details on the training program itself and all that should be included (foam rolling, warm up, strength and power work, conditioning, etc). It really is the most complete hockey development resource out there, and very up-to-date as well (compared to other hockey training resources I’ve read before). I’ve been spreading the word about Kevin’s book for the last 2 months for a reason. And for less than 30$, it makes for a very cheap gift idea! You can get Ultimate Hockey Training HERE.
Metabolic Cooking Cookbook
It’s no big news that nutrition is a HUGE part of the results you get from your training. Who says nutrition also says planning. If you don’t plan your meals ahead you’re setting yourself up for failure. Period. Metabolic Cooking is a great, healthy cookbook with over 250 delicious recipes that will help you achieve your health and performance goals. You’ll be taking a huge step toward planning your meals better with this resource, as there is also different sections for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks! For less than 50$, it was way worth it to me, and I’m sure it’ll be for you as well!
Show and Go
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I’m a big fan of Show and Go, as I tried it myself and gained almost 15 pounds of muscle while boosting my Deadlift and my Bench Press by 20-30 pounds; all of this in less than 4 months! It’s the best system out there of any non-athlete gym enthusiast who wants to pack on muscle, gain strength and lose bodyfat. You get a 16-week program based on your goals and the number of times per week you hit the gym. And on top of that you have full video support for all the exercises that are included in the program and Eric throws a bunch of cool bonuses with it. It takes the guess work out of writing your own program and quite frankly, the results speak for themselves. It’s the perfect gift for the fitness enthusiast in your life!
TheraCane Massager
Doing soft-tissue work is now widely accepted as part of a complete training program. I’ve raved about the benefits of foam rolling and other similar tools to promote tissue quality. A foam roller doesn’t work quite as well on the upper body as it does on the lower body, though. The theracane massager is probably the best “upper body” tool I’ve come across for soft-tissue work. I own one and I have to say that it works wonders on areas like the pecs, upper traps, rhomboids as well as the posterior neck muscles. It’s the next best thing to getting a massage! Training = Rehab, Rehab = Training
This last gift idea might be more for people who are serious about strength and conditioning and are looking for a great continuing education resource. Charlie Weingroff has a way of explaining things and giving people a different perspective on things that will make every penny you spend on this DVD set worth it. I’m not going to lie though, it’s not for everyone. The material on the DVDs is pretty advanced stuff, and I’ll even admit that I was scratching my head a couple of times while watching Charlie speaks. But it makes for a great Christmas present for any up-and-comer strength and conditioning coach; and trust me, they will appreciate it (it was my Christmas present last year, and I certainly did!). You ca get Training = Rehab, Rehab = Training on Charlie’s website HERE.
Buuuuuut, the best Christmas present of them all remains a subscription to DavidLasnier.com’s newsletter! And the best part is that it’s totally FREE!!! All you have to do is enter the contact info below, and you’ll even get 3 FREE reports on sports performance training!
It’s not a breaking news if I tell you that baseball players, and especially pitchers need to address rotator cuff strength in their training program. There are many different ways to go about it beyond the traditional external rotation variations that will give you some added benefits on top of the strength you’ll gain in your cuff muscles from performing these exercises. Here are the different options you have and the benefits from using each of them.
1. External Rotation Using External Resistance. This is the category that I just mentioned above; it’s pretty much the ‘typical’ way of strenghtening the rotator cuff. It’s usually done either with an abducted or adducted arm, and can be done using different types of resistance like dumbbells, cables or bands. External rotation with external resistance helps strengthen the rotator cuff muscles concentrically and eccentrically in an external rotation pattern. These muscles are important because they help decelerate the arm in the pitching motion.
Side-lying DB external rotation
2. Internal Rotation Exercises. The reason why I put this one in a separate category than the previous one is because I think internal rotation based exercises serve a completely different purpose than external rotation exercises for baseball players. For one, internal rotation exercises will strengthen the subscapularis, a very important internal rotator that won’t get much work from the external rotation exercises. The subscapularis, located under the shoulder blade, prevents anterior migration of the humeral head during horizontal adduction or internal rotation of the humerus. This can cause impingement in the shoulder, which usually happens when the pec major and the latissimus dorsi (both internal rotators) take over. There are different ways to go about strengthening the subscapularis, but the most effective way is in a prone position with the arm abducted at 90 degrees.
3. Manual Dynamic Stabilziation. I’ve talked about this type of exercise on different occasions before. If you understand anatomy well, you should know that the first role of the rotator cuff muscles, even before internal and external rotation, is to stabilize the humeral head in the glenoid fossa. So it only makes sense to stabilize these muscles in their purest function to avoid impingement. There are many ways to go about it, and you can certainly play around with the body position (supine, quadruped, kneeling, etc), and the arm position as well.
4. Dynamic Stabilization with Unstable Surfaces. Similar to the previous category, it challenges the rotator cuff muscles in a stabilization role. Instead of having a manual resistance when you don’t have a coach or a training partner around, the use of unstable surfaces can definitely be convenient. Again the positions and implements can vary.
5. External Rotation with Manual Resistance. Similar to the first category, it will strengthen the rotator cuff muscles in the external rotation pattern. There are 2 major differences from the ‘typical’ external rotation exercises with external loads. First, there are less chances of your athletes cheating the movement and trying to compensate with the scapular muscles, and second, if done the right way it will put an emphasis on the eccentric part of the movement (which is more specific to the pitching motion).
6. Dynamic Stabilization with Unstable Surface and Perturbation. This is basically a combination of categories 3 and 4. This pushes the stabilization demand on the cuff muscles a little further. Progressions from this category would not be used with novice lifters, as they need to master the different types of stabilization exercises separately before combining them.
There are many more factors that contribute to shoulder health and injury prevention. To learn more about those factors, enter your info below and get my FREE report on Injury Prevention Strategies for the Shoulder!
I write about smart program design, appropriate injury prevention strategies, the importance of strength development in attaining your athletic goals, but achieving a goal goes far beyond just the method you’re using…
Even if I’m not a fan of any of those trends, there’s gotta be a reason why so many people by Crossfit, P90X, bodybuilding training, or unstable surface training. Why is there so many people out there giving so much credit to all of those training methods? Which one is really more efficient? Which one really gives you the best results? If we put an advocate of each different methods in the same ring, it would make for a pretty interesting Royal Rumble. But are they missing the boat?
The same could be said about diets. Why are there so many people raving about so many different diets? Atkins, Weight Watchers, the Paleo diet, low-fat diets, low-carb diets, whatever! Are they all that magical even if they all contradict each other? Wait, but why are they all working??
People are quick to praise the diet or exercise program they’re following. But they don’t give much credit to the thing that matters most, the thing that made their diet or training program successful: their EFFORT! If there is one thing those people who praise those diets and training methods have in common is usually that they follow it to a T and put a lot of effort into reaching their goals. Sometimes it’s not so much which road you’re taking, but simply where you’re going.
There’s an old saying about that…..
I’ll be the first to admit that there are faster ways than others to attain goals, and certainly safer and more healthy ways than others to do it, but if you keep putting the effort in and never look back until your goal is reached, it probably won’t matter to you which road you took to get there. And I truly believe it’s not just limited to diet and exercise; it works the same way for everything in life.
We should be proud of the goals we reach, and more often than not we give too much credit to the road we took to get there. What about we stop giving all the credit to the method, and start giving ourselves the credit for all the blood, sweat and time we put in achieving our goals?
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As I’ve said many times before, random thoughts posts are probably my favorite type of posts to write and also my favorite types of posts to read on other people’s websites. So here we go again! …I obviously just made up the number 137.
Whatever Pam.
1. As much as I’ve written about breathing patterns in the past and the importance it has on your whole body, I never really posted anything about breathing drills or exercises specifically. My colleague Patrick Ward, from Optimum Sports Performance did a great job of explaining a simple, yet extremely effective breathing drill you can use with your clients and athletes. Check it out:
2. I have bashed aerobic training in previous blog posts and articles, and guess what? I’m starting to think that I was wrong. As I’m learning more about how to manage training stress and training loads, I’m realizing that doing high intensity strength and power work on top of high intensity conditioning sessions that are strictly interval-based might be too taxing on the nervous system. Also, aerobic training improves your recovery rate between bouts of effort as well as between sessions, so I’m starting to think that aerobic work might actually have its place in a training program. I’m still not a fan of repetitive low amplitude movements for people who are already pretty restricted mobility-wise, and I still don’t think it’s sports-specific AT ALL (unless you’re a marathon runner), but I’m gonna have to play around with it a little bit in my own training and the ones of my athlete because I’m starting to believe there are some benefits to it. Keep an eye open for an entire blog post or article on the subject in the next couple of months.
3. My friend and colleague Kevin Neeld wrote a very interesting blog post on Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI) yesterday. If you’re not already familiar with FAI and you’re training high level athletes (especially hockey players) you NEED to get that piece of the puzzle figured out, as FAI should be taken into consideration when writing programs for your athletes. And according to Kevin, there is about 1 in 3-4 male in the general population that has some sort of hip abnormality and probably even more among high level hockey players! Kevin is so freakin’ smart, you need to check out his stuff; this particular blog post on FAI highlights the most recent research on the subject and Kevin makes it sooo easy for anyone to understand. His blog is a valuable resource for me on a weekly basis.
Different types of FAI
4. Speaking of Kevin; if you’re training hockey players or are a hockey player yourself you NEED to pick up a copy of his book Ultimate Hockey Training. It’s the best hockey training resource I’ve ever read and it’s under 35$! If you don’t read it you’re missing out big time. Enough said.
5. I talked about HRV in Tuesday’s blog post, and I mentioned that I think the future of periodization and managing training loads resides there. Monday morning, a fellow strength coach from the area came in to Endeavor to run our training staff through the Omega Wave, a HRV measuring tool. I was really impressed with that tool and all the information it gives you on CNS fatigue, sympathetic and parasympathetic state, and your overall readiness to train. We are really fortunate at Endeavor that the guy took time from his schedule to come over, explain to us the way the OmegaWave works and put all of us through it. A big thanks to him!
The OmegaWave. That’s pretty much how it goes.
6. Today is December 1st, which means one thing: Christmas is right around the corner! To say that I’m really excited would be an understatement. Christmas is probably my favorite time of year for a couple of reasons, especially to spend some time with my family. This year I’m especially excited for a couple of reasons:
I get a full week off!
I get to go back home to Montreal to spend the Holidays with my family and see my friends (I couldn’t make it last year)
I’m flying there, which means that I won’t have to spend a whole day in my car to get there, and another full day to come back
My girlfriend will meet my family for the first time!
“My strength coach said my bench press would go up 40 pounds if I ate my vegetables”
No wonder why so many of them sleep in class
