Being a strength and conditioning coach or a personal trainer requires many qualities.  One of them is the ability to pay attention to details.  When coaching exercises, there are many different body positions and subtleties in movements that one needs to be aware of.  Just demoing the exercises and throwing a couple coaching cues up in the air is usually not enough to get the result we want from our athletes and clients.

A coach (or trainer) needs to be able to identify and understand the subtleties in the different movement patterns to be able to coach the exercises in the most optimal way possible.  Here are some of the subtleties that a coach needs to be able to distinguish and correct (in no specific order):

1. Thoracic Spine Extension vs Thoraco-Lumbar (T-L) Junction Extension

I covered that in a previous blog post, but the “chest up” cue is not always interpreted the right way by the athlete or client.  Basically what we want to see when calling “chest up” is an extension at the thoracic spine so that the athlete maintains a more neutral spine.  Often times, the extension will come from the T-L junction which will put more stress on the lower back, will cause the anterior lower ribs to flare out and put the diaphragm in a less than optimal position.  That pretty subtle substitution will too often go unnoticed if the athlete is wearing a loose shirt.

Barely noticeable T-L junction hyperextension because of a loose shirt

2. Hip Flexion Compensation

In most athletes the psoas ends up being the weakest hip flexor.  The reason being that it is the only hip flexor effective above 90 degrees of hip flexion.  In most athletic endeavors the hip ends up being flexed above 90 degrees rarely, if ever; that in turn causes a higher recruitment of the 2 other main hip flexors, the TFL and the rectus femoris, and the psoas ends up weak.  It is a good idea to include psoas activation exercises in a training program to re-establish hip flexor strength in the end range of motion.  When doing these drills, athletes will be tempted to compensate because they are pretty weak in that position.  The seated psoas lift is one of my favorite psoas activation drill, but can be cheated pretty easily if not coached properly.

Often times, athletes will either lean back or hunch over to try to get the knee up as high as possible.  But in both situations, you’re really avoiding the above 90 degrees end range of motion; the angle of the hip flexion will be less than 90, and therefore you’re not getting that psoas activation you’re going after.

Bad Form- Leaning back will prevent your hip flexion to be above 90 degrees

Bad Form- Rounding of the lower back will also avoid that end range of motion

The same problem can occur if you perform a standing psoas hold, or any other type of exercise of that nature.

3. Full Hip Extension Compensation

The complete hip extension is definitely something important in many different exercises that are part of a training program.  An incomplete hip extension can expose some pretty serious problem going on around the hips.  Whether the problem is caused by a hip flexor restriction, a lack of glute activation or just poor coaching, this is a problem that a coach needs to be aware of to be  able to prevent injuries with his athletes.  This is another movement that can be very subtle and if you don’t pay attention to it can be missed altogether.  The incomplete hip extension can present in a wide variety of different movements, with posterior chain exercises (deadlift variations, pullthrough, slideboard hamstring curls, etc) being some of the most important ones.  An athlete not being able to finish his movement at the top with full hip extension will usually compensate with a hyperextension at the lower back.

Again, if no attention to details are paid during a deadlift (or just from coaching from different angle) this is something that can easily be missed.

4. Scapular Protraction vs Elbow Extension

This is something even more subtle.  The correct technique for pressing exercises is to keep the scapulae packed back together.  If unable to get a full elbow extension, the athlete might compensate by protracting the shoulder blades to get the end range of motion at the top.

Good Form- The shoulder blades stay packed back while getting full elbow extension

Bad Form- Protracted shoulders compensating for incomplete elbow extension

The biggest problem I see with this compensation pattern is for the following reps; if you’ve lost your packed scapulae position, when going for the next rep your shoulders are not going to be in a stable position to press a heavy weight anymore.  That can in turn have deleterious effects on the shoulders.

5. Feet Position

This is one that will go unnoticed more often than not.  One  of the main reasons is that the shoes your athletes are wearing might simply hide what’s going on at the foot and ankle.  During lower body exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges and the like a lot can happen at the foot that might be detrimental to an athlete’s health because it will either cause problems further up the chain, or it might be in itself the result of a problem going on somewhere else.  An overpronation, or a loss of the arch of the foot are good examples.

Relatively neutral feet in the bottom of the squat

Feet overpronating at the bottom of the squat

In this last picture, it is easy to realize that it is something that be completely missed when the athlete is wearing shoes. (As a side note, I am not necessarily recommending that people squat without shoes on, but it clearly reveals a problem that might have otherwise been missed.)

This is really just a quick list of some of the most subtle body positions and compensated movement patterns you can see in athletes and clients.  Paying careful attention to details is such an important part of a coach or a trainer’s job because in the end, it plays an extremely important part of the injury prevention component of an effective training program.

Today’s post, which I’m pretty pumped up about, is an interview I did recently with fellow strength coach Bret Contreras.  For those of you who don’t already know Bret, he’s a very smart and well read coach who has been in the research field quite a while.  He is now a well established strength coach, training clients in his own gym. He’s also been under the bar for quite a while himself.  Bret is actually moving to New Zealand in the next couple of months to pursue his PhD, so that will make him even smarter! Bret was kind enough to let me pick his brain for a couple of questions on how he views strength and conditioning.  So without further ado, here it is:

DL: Bret, your name has been around for quite a while now in the strength and conditioning world. You have been writing for T-Nation and on your own blog, but most importantly you have actually been training clients and been under the bar yourself for quite a while now, which I think are two very important things to do in order to become a successful coach.  You have mentioned to me that you think coaches and trainers should possess a variety of skills to better serve clients and athletes alike.  Would you mind naming a few and telling us how they impact the way we deal with clients and athletes?

BC: First off David, I’d like to thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate the fact that you’re interviewing me. Here are some of the skills that will help coaches and trainers be more successful:

-Critical thinking: Strength training is an art and a science – an arta scienza.

Training really IS an art

Coaches should put a ton of thought into their athletes’ and clients’ programs, and each program should differ based on a myriad of factors:

-Knowledge of autoregulation: Coaches should never completely stick to a pre-set plan with their athletes and clients. Coaches should adapt their programming on the fly based on their verbal feedback as well as their biofeedback.

-Psychology: Coaches should try to be good motivators, to “believe” in their athletes and clients, to have high expectations, to figure out what makes their athletes tick and adapt their approach accordingly, and to push them hard while still having fun.

-Knowledge of the history of strength & conditioning: Coaches should try to develop an appreciation for the evolution of the iron game and should be able to rattle off the training philosophies of many different experts.

-Ability to discern the truth: Coaches should possess a sound understanding of the workings of the human body so they will intuitively know what works and what doesn’t.

DL: That is definitely why it’s so important to have a good educational background in this field.  I know you have been involved quite a bit in the research world and in particular with muscle EMG for a variety of muscles in different movements, especially with the glutes (and on a related note you’ve been named The Glute Guy, which is probably the coolest nickname ever for a strength coach!).  That being said, for the glutes, do you find any difference between open chain and closed chain glute exercises as they correlate to performance in different sports and activities?

BC: I won’t pretend to know the answer to this, but I will tell you that the more I research the more I realize that I don’t know everything I once thought I knew. There’s so much we don’t know about strength training, and our understanding about what transfers best to sport performance is seriously lacking.

I will tell you this – open chain glute exercises render surprisingly high EMG levels. When the thigh can move freely with no ground-communication the glutes seem to contract very hard. Some individuals have trouble activating their glutes in a closed chain environment, but if you put them in an open chain environment they do much better in terms of glute activation. I think it’s wise to make the focus of lower body training on closed-chain movements – squats, deads, lunges, Oly lifts, hip thrusts, ghr’s, back extensions, and hip rotational work. But I also think it’s wise to supplement with open chain hip isolation work – band or cable adduction, abduction, and flexion, reverse hypers, and quadruped hip extensions.

DL: What I really like about your blog and your articles is that you always bring up new ideas and you think outside the box, which I think many coaches and trainers (including myself!) are not very good at.  One of the new concepts you brought up that I really like are the ‘Load Vectors’.  I find it very interesting and I don’t think many people understand this concept yet.  Could you elaborate a little bit on what Load Vectors are and tell us what their practical applications are in strength and conditioning.

BC: The best coaches were already incorporating load vector training into their programming long before I came around. I just came up with a naming system. I’m absolutely amazed that no one came up with this model before I did. The model, which involves axial, anteroposterior, lateromedial, and torsional components, ensures:

-optimal multi-directional strength development

-optimal multi-directional power development, and

-optimal structural balance

This way, the client performs better and stays healthy. Coaches and trainers need to understand the various exercises that can be performed for each vector and which are best for various portions of the force-velocity curve.

DL: A topic that’s hot right now in the training world is core training. I think core training will probably always be a controversial topic as as we understand the core more and more from a functional standpoint, and (thank God) begin to move away from the “just do 100s of crunches mentality” that was so typical of the past.  What is your take on core training? And what are you doing differently in that regard?

BC: My take is that we still don’t have it all figured out. Here are some questions that coaches should be thinking about in regards to core training:

-what are the different categories of core exercises?

-is there an optimal amount of volume for the core?

-should the core be trained specifically or does it get worked just fine from compound movements?

-should the core be trained for strength, power, endurance, or all three?

-what rep ranges work best for the core, and are those rep ranges uniform for all types of movements?

-should we train the core for movement, stability, or both?

-are there any advantages and disadvantages to training with dynamic spinal movements?

-are there any advantages and disadvantages to training with static-based stability movements?

-should specific core training be placed before or after the strength component of the workout?

I won’t pretend to know all the answers to these questions either, but I will tell you that the research gives us incredible clues as to how we should train the core. To understand the answer to these questions, you really have to have a sound understanding of spinal biomechanics.

DL: I know you train a lot of female clients; the way we train females has been another hot topic lately.  What do you think we should do differently with females clients and athletes compared to males, and also, what should we NOT do differently?

BC: I love training women, and I believe that I’m one of the best in the biz at getting women to look good. Of course, getting clients to look good has more to do with coercing and motivating them to be strict on their diets than it does with sound training. However, in terms of training there are some important considerations. Women are weaker – especially in the upper body, less powerful, and have a tenth of the testosterone that a man has.

As to what we should do differently, women have a higher ratio of type I to type II hypertrophy than men. In fact, their type I fibers are often larger than their type II fibers. This means that higher rep training should be interwoven with lower rep and medium rep training. Furthermore, women recover in strength quicker than men. This means that increasing the frequency with your female clients is a wise strategy. Finally, women often have different goals than men. Listen to their goals and plan accordingly. Most really appreciate a routine that includes tons of targeted glute-work.

What doesn’t change, assuming that the woman has a goal to improve the shape over her entire body, is the emphasis on progressive overload for the big basic compound movements from the primary movement patterns – quad dominant, hip dominant, horizontal press, horizontal pull, vertical press, vertical pull.

DL: Good stuff! Bret, thanks a lot for your time!

This is it folks.  Make sure you check Bret’s blog, as he has some great content each and every week!  It is definitely one of my favorite websites to visit to get good information on strength and conditioning.