Found this video over at 70’s Big.  It adds to the point I was making in my Clean and Jerk for the Shot Put article.

Hat Tip: Ryland

Bret Contreras, inventor of a glute-bridge variation he calls the “hip thrust”, and author of an exceptional book on glute strengthening, has finally made a video explaining his flagship exercise (see below).

After reading his book a little while ago I started having some of my lifters try doing a bodyweight version for higher reps to simply get the form down. 

I assumed that given that most of these lifters are serious competitive Olympic weightlifters (with ever growing butts!), that the body weight version would be very easy, and once they got their form down, we’d be moving up in weight rather quickly … I was wrong.

Yes, some of them are ready to add weight, but a surprising number still find the simple 2 legged body weight version VERY hard.  (It doesn’t help that I have them do it after doing the Oly lifts and our “normal” strength moves like Front Squats and RDL’s.)

I’ve found that doing it one-legged is a great way to add resistance without adding resistance (sort of speak).  But, once even that is getting too easy – and you’ve mastered proper form! – then it’s time to move up to Bret’s full version.

Take a look at this:

Check out this article on the physics of the shot put.  (The original paper can be found on the Arxiv, if you want to see the actual math – I promise it’s fun!)

For more than 30 years, sports scientists have puzzled over why the optimum angle of release for a shot put is not 45 degrees.

One of the stranger Olympic sports is the shot put, an event in which an athlete throws a grapefruit-sized sphere of metal as far as possible, using a strange throwing motion specified by the rules.

Now here’s a curious puzzle of biomechanics: at what angle should the shot be released to maximize the distance of throw?

I’ll just overlook the “one of the stranger Olympic sports” comment, for now. 

The Basic Physics

The article does bring up some interesting ideas that a shot putter (or “rock putter” for all you Highland lads and lassies out there) may want to pay attention to. 

The first is one everyone who engages in the sport already knows:  the height of the thrower matters.  I’m only 5’6’’ and am at a distinct disadvantage vs my lifter Chris who is over 6 feet.  If we each applied identical force, at an identical angle, his would go farther simply because it started higher.  (Think of the extreme case of a guy throwing from the ground or from the top of a 30 story building.)

But, that isn’t all.  Additional arm length also matters.  There are likely a few reasons for this.  The first is simply that a longer arm increases the time the weight is under force before released.

The second reason is that the point at which you let go of the weight is the real height of release – not the shoulder.  If we have two people with identical shoulder heights, identical technique, and identical ability to put force on the implement, but with the first having an arm that is 2 inches longer; then the first person will be releasing the weight at a different height than the second.  The longer armed thrower will release just a touch higher – and therefore throw it farther.  All it takes is half an inch to win.

However, it turns out that the real height is determined by the angle of release and the velocity squared.  The velocity is basically the force you put onto it during your driving phase right before release.  That is, it’s all the work you did.  Since this parameter is squared, then you’re getting more “bang for your buck”. 

This is probably the reason the shot put technique has evolved the way it has over time – with shorter athletes preferring the spin technique which increases the time under tension, adds centrifugal force, and gives you a longer amount of time to accelerate.  They are compensating for a lack of release height by increasing velocity on the weight.

[By “shorter” athlete I mean under 6’ 5’’.  Seriously, these folks are monsters.]

The down side of increasing the force on the implement is that it tends to lower the angle of release. But, again, since you have velocity being squared, it’s a worthwhile trade off – especially if you don’t have the natural height.

Lack of Experience Showing

Now … this is where things in the article get ugly, and silly. 

Finally, Lenz and Rappl say it has long been known that world records in bench-pressing are significantly higher than for the clean and jerk. This implies that athletes have greater power at their disposal when the angle of release is 0 degrees compared to other angles. This effect also means that a smaller angle of release could send the shot further.

The bold is mine.  That implication is false.  This isn’t to say that a lower angle of release doesn’t provide more power.  But, if true, their “implication” isn’t the reason.

It’s paragraphs like this that cause so many coaches and athletes to outright dismiss research and theory all together.  It shows an obvious lack of understanding of the very basics of shot put technique, bench technique, and what is happening in a clean and jerk.  And that is a shame, as there is a lot coaches and athletes can learn from well-designed research.  Practice and Science should be complementary.  Imagine if doctors just ignored science … it’d be the middle ages all over again (leeches!).

You DON’T drive with your arms and upper body in the shot put as your primary generator of force!  It’s a leg exercise.  Your upper body is in a purely supportive role.  Yes, upper body strength and power is very important, but not nearly as important as leg power.  Not even close.  

This is the reason throwers have long known that if you had to pick between only doing bench, or only doing clean and jerks, you’d pick the clean and jerks.  Why?  Because the bench is an upper body exercise while the clean and jerk is fundamentally a leg exercise that (just like the shot) uses the upper body only in a supportive role.  More over, like the shot, the clean and jerk is an explosive exercise that builds and develops power, where the bench is a slower pure strength move.  (Every coach knows the difference between strength and power.  Sports scientists should too.)

The reason bench press numbers are so far above that of clean and jerks isn’t because of the “angle”.  It’s because of bench shirts and a drastically lowered range of motion via arching. 

Those 1000 pound benches you see are ALL shirted. 

Raw (no shirt) bench presses are about 700 pounds.  Top clean and jerks are about 250 kilo’s or 550 pounds. 

But, again, the bench technique used in contests has a massive arch in it which dramatically reduces the range of motion.  How much?  Well, one of my own lifters holds world records in the bench press and has a range of motion in that exercise of less than 2 inches … yes, 2 inches! 

I’m not against that.  That’s the sport.  That’s the technique.  And that’s fine. 

But, let’s not pretend that the numbers seen in competitive bench presses are related – in any way – to the way one goes about throwing a shot. 

And by the way, by adding in an arch like that to the bench you decrease the angle to as far as –45 degrees from the shoulder (less than zero degrees)! Imagine throwing the shot with a negative angle! 

But, fundamentally, the technique of the two exercises with regard to angle is beside the point.  What is important is that benching is an upper body exercise – and shot put isn’t.

When you shot put, you are driving at maximum speed with your legs, ending in a full triple extension of the hips, knees, and ankles (especially for shot putters who use the “glide” style – see videos below).  Your upper body is held tight so that you don’t absorb any of the force generated by your legs and it is instead transferred into the weight, and your arm is used only at the last moment (just like a jerk) at the very top of the movement to give it a little extra push. 

Think of pushing a car.  You can’t possibly push-start a car by only pressing with your arms.  In fact, most people will keep their arms stationary and drive hard with their legs to get the car going.  Only once the car is up to speed do the arms start to move – giving that little extra “nudge”. 

The jerk is the same.  You drive with your legs like you would in a powerful vertical jump, and only at the top, when the arms are already 1/2 to 3/4 extended do you drive with the arms.

If the authors had ever done these three exercises – bench, shot put, and clean and jerk – they would never have said something so ridiculous.  And their article might get read by people who DO do these exercises.

They’re lucky I have a math degree and like research.  The truth is, the original paper is good, very interesting, and applicable.  But, by showing their glaring lack of real-world knowledge and experience they are turning off a large potential audience – the very people who would benefit most from the information.

Spinners

Take a look at this video of shot put “spinners” and tell me why the bench makes sooo much sense for them:

Gliders

And here are the “gliders”:

[Hat tip: Beth]

Have you ever noticed how freakishly strong we all remember our fathers being?   Dads are the ones in the family who have to push-start the car, haul gravel, and open up a can of whoop-ass.  I even know guys who have stories of their dads lifting a cars engine block out with their bare hands – seriously! 

I’m sure some of it is just the perception of a kid, but the fact is, for a lot of us, our first introductions to what it meant to be big and strong were the examples set by our fathers.

This was certainly true for me. 

I grew up a tiny kid.  I was both short and skinny … very short, and very skinny.  My “little” brother is three years younger than I am, but the entire time we were growing up we were the exact same height.  I always looked like a girl who was three years younger than I was.  Not the poster-child for macho!

But, my Mom always told me that someday, if I was simply patient (and ate my broccoli), I would grow up to be just as big as my dad.

Hey, that sounded pretty good!  My dad is just under 6 feet tall, he’s athletic, strong – you know, all the stuff a hobbit-sized boy wants to be. 

Interestingly, like me, he wasn’t born with big muscles.  He was a naturally thin guy, but he lifted weights, went running, and built up his muscles the hard way.  By the time I was in high school he was getting pretty big. 

I remember in high school some friends and I were playing video games in the living room, and my dad was outside doing some gardening.  At some point one of my friends looked out the window and saw my dad tearing a tree out of the ground with his bare hands!

“Holy shit, your dad has big arms!” he said.  Seriously, veins popping out, muscles all over the place, tree branches cracklin’ … OK, memory is a tough thing.  Maybe it wasn’t a tree.  But, the dude looked huge and he was doing something I couldn’t have done.  I was impressed.

It’s now more than a few years later, and I’ve built up some big arms of my own.  I’m not a dad, I’ve never tried to pull a tree out of the ground,  but I have tried hard to build up that crazy “Dad strength” we all remember.

What is Dad strength anyway?

If I had to break it down, I’d say that Dad strength is the kind of strength that is highly functional, and is able to impress people when they least expect it.  This is the kind of strength you need to rip a tree out of the ground, move an engine block, or just open a sealed tight peanut butter jar for your lazy children.

You need total-body strength to lift very heavy stuff.  You need it to look pretty for the wife.  And, you also need to have the endurance to chase down those mangy kids when they’re trying to get out of a beatin’.

The TOP 5 Exercises for Dad Strength

Let’s get serious.  If you’re ever going to be big and strong, you’re going to have to work at it.

My brother and I, when we went camping, liked to find heavy logs and rocks to lift and throw around.  We used to fight for the front seat of the car by arm wrestling.  We’d have push up and sprinting contests.  In short (unlike the pesky kids of today), we actually played outside. 

It turns out that we were doing what we might term today as strongman training, without thinking about.  We’d go out and find random stuff to throw around and test ourselves on.  This is a great way to train for strength and power. 

Realistically, though, most gyms don’t come equipped with logs and rocks. (A shame, I tell ye!)  So, instead you can use the following five exercises to build up your own dad strength.

• Power Cleans.  If you are not an Olympic weightlifter, then do these from the hang position.  Cleans (of all kinds) will do wonders for building the kind of explosive power in your hips and legs required to kick the ass of an unruly kid.  (They are also unparalleled in their ability to bulk up the upper back muscles.)
• Front Squats.  As most of you know, I prefer front squats to back squats.  Front squats are not only safer, and easier to do correctly, but they more accurately mimic the movement you’re going to have to do when you lift that engine block out of the car!
• Deadlifts.  If you can’t lift heavy stuff off the ground, you ain’t much of a dad.  Guys should strive for a double bodyweight deadlift for 1 rep, and 20 reps with bodyweight.
• Push Press.  It’s like a press, but you cheat it up with your legs.  This means you can use A LOT of weight.  And you should.  Someday, that cute son of yours is gonna grow up into a pain-in-the-butt teenager and you’re gonna have to throw him out of the house … physically.  Holding heavy weights above your head is a must.
• Chin Ups.  In addition to making your arms look all pretty for the wife, chins will keep your shoulders healthy and your back strong.  I don’t care who you are, if you’re a man and you can’t do at least a few chin ups, we got problems.

There you have it, people.  For fathers day, get strong and make him proud.  And every time you feel like quitting, just remember those immortal words, “Don’t make me take this belt off, boy!”

OK, the title of this post is a bit misleading.  But, it seems as though many people believe that “Diet vs Exercise” is a valid question with an obvious answer: Diet. 

They may not believe it consciously.  But, in their actions this is what happens.  In truth, of course, there is not an exclusive “or” separating diet and exercise – you need both.  If you want to change your body composition; if you want to increase performance; if you want to live healthier; then you have to pay attention to both.

That said, there is an ordering of the two. 

I can sum up my entire fitness-philosophy with two phrases:

1. Exercise before Diet.
2. Weightlifting before Cardio

These two phrases imply an ordering of the list {diet, weightlifting, cardio}.  My ordering is

1. Weightlifting
2. Cardio
3. Diet

What is amazing is that my ordering is precisely to opposite of the order in which most people go about getting “in shape”.  When someone first decides they want to make a change, the first thing they do is go on a diet.  After they’ve gotten that down, they add in some cardio.  And if by some miracle they haven’t given up yet, they finally throw in some half-ass weightlifting. 

I’m here to tell you to do the opposite. 

If you want to get any benefit at all related to fitness (fat loss, muscle gain, strength gain, etc) then you must begin with weightlifting.  Slowly add in cardio (but not the kind most people think).  And finally get a diet plan that makes sense.

Why? You ask.

Dieting by itself doesn’t work long term.  If you’re goal has anything to do with performance or muscle gaining, then you know this. But, people looking to lose fat seem to delude themselves into thinking that they can solve their physical problems with a “magic” diet.   I’m not even talking strictly of “fad” diets.  Even a well-designed diet is worthless in the long run without exercise.

When you go an a calorie restricted diet you put your body in a catabolic state.  This lowers many of your bodies “good” hormones, and increases many of the “bad” ones like cortisol. (OK, strictly speaking there are no good or bad hormones, but some are better for your fitness goals than others.)  The negative hormones will decrease muscle mass, lower metabolism, and make it harder for you to lose fat. (Ironic, ain’t it!)

This hormone change is a negative byproduct of dieting that you have to deal with. However you need to mitigate it.  Exercise increases the positive hormones and decreases the negative ones.  It helps preserve muscle mass, and increases both metabolism and fat loss. 

Yes, if you want to make fitness progress you have to have a diet in place. But, you can’t rely on it by itself.

OK, so exercise first, diet second. Got it. But, why not start with cardio?  There are 2 reasons.

One, even when we’re talking about interval training (like sprinting) we’re only hitting part of your body. 

Let’s be honest, however.  When most people start their programs with cardio, they are not doing hard sprints (or metabolic circuits which involve weights), they are using steady-state cardio (jogging and its ilk).  Steady-state forms of cardio just don’t confer the same metabolic effects that interval training or weight training do.  While both intervals and weight training (done with intensity) raise your metabolism for up to 36 hours after exercise (called the EPOC effect), steady-state doesn’t.

In addition, steady-state cardio will cause your body to become more efficient at fat burning.  While that may sound good, it is very bad.  A more efficient car uses less gas to go the same distance.  You want your body to be a gas-hog.  You want it to burn tons of fat with little time – not tiny amounts of fat with massive time!  Weightlifting makes you the Hummer of fat-loss.

Two, starting with cardio can increase injury rates.  Weight training is very controlled.  You only lift the amount of weight you can safely in a controlled pattern of movement.  Cardio is not as controlled – even on a treadmill or other machine.  Think about how many “repetitions” your legs do every time you go jogging, or when on on the stair stepper.  It’s in the hundreds to thousands.  That is a lot of potential damage.  Each impact is worth many multiples of your bodyweight, slamming down on your joints. 

Conclusion

When you start with weightlifting, you increase the positive hormones you body needs to reach its goals, you increase metabolism, you lose fat, you gain muscle, and you decrease injury rates.  No other one thing can do all of that.

Once you are comfortable in your weight training routine, you can add in some cardio work.  I strongly suggest some kind of intervals over steady-state (the only exceptions are distance athletes – like marathon runners, tri-athletes – and strength athletes, as odd as that sounds).

And finally, when you have a solid weightlifting routine and a cardio routine, THEN you can start worrying about your diet. 

Alwyn Cosgrove discusses the difference between mobility and stability, and how to spot them.  Notably, he looks at two pics of an overhead squat, one where the dude has decent form, and another where the dude doesn’t.  It LOOKS like a mobility problem, but when they get into the same position while lying on the ground, they can both mimic the overhead squat form. 

So the difference in squat form and depth was not a mobility issue – it was a stability
issue. Essentially the body is shutting down the range of motion – not
because of tightness or a restriction – but because it perceives a
threat due to the lack of stability.

…

Conclusion – a range of motion deficit or asymmetry may not be related
to tissue length or tension at all. It could be related to core
stability.

The fact is, not everyone succeeds at sticking to a new fitness plan.  In fact, most don’t.  They might stick to it for a while, and even see some nice results.  But, at some point, the ball drops.

I think about this a lot, of course, since when a client of mine lets their fitness fall through the floor they stop coming in to see me!  I have a solid retention rate that I’m quite proud of, but no matter what I do, no matter how encouraging I try to be, I can’t keep them all.  That’s life.  You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves.

Top 7 Reasons People Fail at Fitness

• Unwillingness – I like to say often that Life is about Trade Offs.  You never get to have something without paying a price.  Sometimes the price low, in which case the choice is easy.  But, other times the price is high.   When it comes to fitness, many people see a steep price tag.  You have to watch your diet, consistently come into the gym, and work HARD when you’re in the gym.   That’s the price.  And if you aren’t willing to pay it, you will never succeed. 
• Self Esteem Issues – There are so many ways a coach can hear the words, “I can’t”.  Sometimes it’s simply a whiny sounding sigh.  Other times, it’s explicit, “I can’t do that, I mean it, there is no way that is going to happen.  Not if my LIFE depended on it.”  Truth is, when a client tells me they can’t, they usually can.  But they honestly don’t know it.  I know it, I’ve been doing this long enough to have a pretty good idea about what a person can and can’t take.  But, they don’t.  They have NO experience pushing themselves beyond their comfort zones.  As such, they are convinced they are less than they are.  This goes to more than just lifting in the gym, or doing their interval training.  It is a permeating force of “I can’t” that rules their life.  They’ll be doing something well, get right up near the end … and quit.  You ARE able to do this.  ANYONE can do this.  But, until you truly believe it:  Fake it till you make it.
• Blame-Game – This one is related to the lack of self-esteem.  If you find yourself failing, and your first response is to blame someone else, or some external object or situation, then you’re playing the blame-game.  OK, I know there are always those times in life when things honestly aren’t your fault (like getting hit by a car).  But, most of the time, at least part of the blame is squarely on you.  Take that to heart, don’t let it get you down, learn from it, and do something different the next time.  We all fail in the short term.  But, the people who succeed in the long term OWN their failures. 
• Sheepin’ It Up – This may seem ironic, given the nature of this article, but beware of advice-givers.  Obviously, you need to take advice.  But, make sure it’s good advice given by people who are in a good position to give advice.  For instance, if you are having relationship problems and you need advice, don’t ask your friend who has never been in a relationship that lasted longer than 6 months!  They don’t know what they are talking about.  (I always find it amazing when people hire out-of-shape trainers who clearly don’t practice what they preach.)  You don’t have to spend your life as a sheep.  You have a good brain – use it.  Good advice is education, bad advice is poison.
• Execute – All the good advice in the world is worthless if you don’t put it into action.  A famous coach, Dan John, once said, “Plan the work, work the plan.”  A coach can plan the work, but eventually only you can work the plan.  How many projects around your house do you “plan to get to?”  How often have you told yourself that you were going to start going to the gym.  “This year, man, this is it. This is the year I’m gonna go to the gym and eat right and take back my life!”  Well … that’s the plan, now do it!
• Closed mind – Sometimes you’ll get great advice, but you’re too closed-minded to take it (or even recognize it as good advice).  When I tell people that lifting weights will help them lose fat, I often get quizzical looks.  It goes against the grain (cardio is for fat loss, weight lifting is for muscle building … right?).  When I say that long and slow cardio won’t help them lose fat, I get rolled eyes.  The fact that they’ve been doing long slow cardio with no results for years doesn’t (oddly) occur to them as strange. 
• Over-competitive – This comes in two kinds: competition with others; and competition with yourself.  Both can be great motivators.  But, they can also be major motivation killers!  If you are constantly worried about what others are doing (and doing better than you) then you’ll end up paralyzed by irrational fears like, “I’m not as good as them, so I’ll NEVER be as good as them.”  The other is over-competition with your own self.   Setting unrealistic goals for yourself is a guaranteed way to set yourself up for failure.  Like, “I’m gonna lose 20 pounds in 10 days!” … come on.  A little competition is good, too much is childish.

Take a good hard look at the above 7 problems and ask yourself if you’re suffering from any of them.  I’m sure you are.  We ALL are.  But, the good news is that admitting a behavior is a problem is the first step toward changing that behavior.

If you’re ready to take yourself to the next level, make sure to contact me to get started on a new strength and fitness program today!

Two new studies add points to the Superset corner.   For most of my non-Olympic Weightlifters, I vastly prefer supersets to straight sets. [a super set is: do one exercise, rest a bit, do the second, rest a bit, go back to the first and repeat.  A straight set is: do one set of an exercise, rest, repeat.]  These studies just confirm it for me:

Reciprocal supersets produced greater exercise kJ.min, blood lactate, and EPOC than did [traditional weight training].

EPOC stands for Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption.  This is the system that causes your body to continue to burn calories long after you’ve stopped your workout (from 12 to 48 hours depending on how hard your workout session was – imagine how intense the EPOC is for Guergui Gardev in the above pic!  That’s intensity!). 

1. Kelleher et al. The Metabolic Costs of Reciprocal Supersets vs. Traditional Resistance Exercise in Young Recreationally Active Adults. JSCR 2010 Mar 17. [Epub ahead of print]

2. Paoli et al. Effects of three distinct protocols of fitness training on body composition, strength and blood lactate. JSMPF. 2010 Mar;50(1):43-51

[hat tip: A.C.]

The great British comedian just ran 43 marathons in only 51 days!  He had nearly no experience leading up to it.  He’s 47 years old.  And he is more accostomed to spiked heels than running shoes.

He’s raised over 200,000 British pounds for sport relief, in the process.  He had this to say before he finished:

“It’s been hell, 26 miles a day is a lot. Try that six times a week. At first the last six miles were pure agony. Then it changed to the first six miles. Then it was the middle chunk. But now it’s pretty much all the same. My feet are disintegrating, the small toes have lost their nails and they look like alien monsters but I’m told they will grow back. But I’ll make it; my body isn’t really determined but my brain is.”

[hat tip: Ross Enamait]