Is Your Trainer Like This?

One of my biggest pet peeves is the trainer or coach who isn't fully present when training or coaching - let's call this person "Disinterested Daffy". "Disinterested Daffy" is more concerned with their cell phone, or laptop, or the music, or last week's game, or next week's line-up, or what happened on Mad Men, or what another group is doing than they are concerned with the people and content they're coaching.

If you're a trainer or coach, be present. If you are a client and/or an athlete, and you have "Disinterested Daffy" as a coach, find someone else.

30 DAYS OF SQUAT! in September

Yeah, I know. Boris, EVERY MONTH IS SQUAT MONTH! Of course that's true but, here at Squat Rx, we don't always talk about only squatting. That changes in September. September will be 30 DAYS OF SQUAT!

Tony Cardella squat pic from ironmind.com

Every day in September will be a different squat pic, squat vid, squat quote, squat nugget, or squat article. I hope you'll join us for 30 DAYS OF SQUAT! insight and inspiration in September.

Training Supplement Review #4 ("Runners")

Recently, I bought two 12 inch nylon "runners" from a local climbing shop for less than $10. These things are extremely handy in the weight room and can take the place of chain, carbiner, and cable attachments for some applications.

Minimum strength on these is 22Kn which, to you and I, means that you could hang 5000lbs off of them and probably be all right. You wouldn't want to test that, but it's nice to know that they're strong as hell.

18mm Nylon Runner 30cm (12 in.)

Black Diamond 18mm Nylon Runner 60cm (24in.)

Black Diamond Nylon Runner 120cm (48in.)

How am I using them? I use them with grenade balls (from elitefts) and smaller sized kettlebells for farmers walks. 60 centimeter nylon runners would probably be the most versatile length however it will depend on the size of the item(s) you are looping them around and through.

Related Squat Rx Posts:
Training Supplement Review #1
Training Supplement Review #2
Training Supplement Review #3

Ever Notice This?

Something to observe the next time you're in the break room, gym, or an internet forum...

(An amazingly insightful cartoon from xkcd)

About Recent Happenings In The RKC...

... I don't know - people don't tell me things. I have no "insider information". I have opinions, but they are only opinions and they are only my opinions as far as I know. If you are curious about my opinions on this matter, re-read the Lessons From DUNE and pay particular attention to Lesson #3 (Sustainable Growth) - although I was not writing specifically about any one organization, I think it's applicable here (in my opinion, of course). 

My Opinion of Others' Opinions - The Olympics

Thank God the Olympics are over so I don't have to hear every asinine comment about every action or tweet made by, to, about, or among Olympians. Don't get me wrong, I used to LOVE the Olympics, but I think that bloggers who know nothing about athletics, social media, and disgusting nationalism will ultimately ruin all enjoyment for me...

*Patriotism vs. Nationalism*
American Athlete Under Fire For Carrying Mexican Flag by Chris Chase

Leo Manzano, a Mexican immigrant who became the first American man to win a medal in the metric mile since 1968, draped himself in the flags of both his countries after his race at Olympic Stadium. That decision earned some cheers, but mostly jeers from Mexican-Americans. ...
Why would he carry a flag of the country his parents left when he was 4 years old? ...
I talked to a friend with a Mexican background and she was vehemently against Manzano's action. "It's fine to be proud of your roots," she said, "but not in this context."

"mostly jeers"... really? My guess is that if I were to walk up to 20 random Mexican-Americans on the street in my neighborhood, showed them the picture of Leo Manzano holding the U.S. and Mexican flags, not a one of them will think there's anything wrong with it. One Mexican-American CNN contributor and your "friend with a Mexican background" do not speak for all Mexican-Americans (or even 'most' of them).
Are you somehow dishonoring America by expressing love for the country of your birth? If your parents live separately, and you live with your father, is it a dishonor to your father to say you love your mother? Honestly, it puzzles me that anyone would care.

Personally, I'd be happy if all the medal counts and flag waving (outside of medal award ceremonies) disappeared. Never happen? Yeah, I know - it's an opinion.

*Drugs and Doping*
Unease, Anger as Chinese Swimmer Fights Doping Doubts by Mike Collett-White and Alan Baldwin

I thought the article above was pretty even-handed overall. There are reasons why China is scrutinized more than other countries. BUT, here's a thought (two actually): Maybe, just maybe, she's not the only one in the pool who could be using performance enhancing drugs. And, maybe, just maybe, she's THAT good.

Folks, John Q. Public knows almost nothing about drugs and sports. They think that if there's drug testing, and no one tests positive, then no one is using. That's essentially the same thing as saying that if a sport doesn't test at all, then there is no drug problem (and not that long ago, people thought that about baseball!!!!).

If you want to get drugs and doping out of sports, you have to test... frequently and for everything, AND with a zero-tolerance policy. One strike and you're out. A suspension is not enough. A suspension is not enough because the athlete has already gotten their scholarship, sponsors, endorsements, and pro contract. In the athlete's mind, if they are suspended after all of that, they have, essentially, already won.

For what it's worth, I don't have strong opinions about drug use in sport. I think that as long as there are high stakes, there will always be people who try to find an edge to exploit. When I was an athlete, it was a non-issue - my job was to do the best I could and let the chips fall where they may. If I won, great. If someone else won (who might have used drugs or doping to do so), well, I had some work to do. I didn't waste time wondering or worrying about who was and who wasn't. I still don't.

*Nature vs. Nurture*
What Make's a Great Olympian? Sometimes it's Genetics (and I wrote a book so it must be true!) by Jon Entine
This is so full of B.S. that I really don't know where to begin. The author says:

Running is the most egalitarian of sports, a natural laboratory. ...Theoretically, then, the medal podium for runners should resemble a rainbow of diversity.

...and so here, the author begins with a horribly false premise - that because everyone can run, then what happens on the track reflects genetic superiority of the finalists rather than their training, hard work, sacrifice, culture, and environment. He has fixated on a single characteristic and assigned causation from a very simple correlation without accounting for a multitude of other factors.

No one says that genetics don't matter - everyone, I think, knows that talent is necessary, but not sufficient. Talent is simply one of the many, many ingredients that go into a champion. It is the 21st Century and despite scientists debunking the myth of race, people keep trying to keep that artificial wall alive. 30 years ago, some people believed that blacks did not have "the genetics" to be champion swimmers, or football quarterbacks, or golfers... 20 years ago, a lot of people would have laughed at the idea of Asians in the NBA... Isn't it time people got away from assigning success or failure to a man-made construct like race?

Related Squat Rx Posts:
The Genius In All of Us
Commitment Follows Competence (and The Matthew Effect)
Do Your Heros Have To Be Heroic?

Time Is Running Out For T-Shirts!

This WILL BE the last t-shirt run until the holiday season. 

Sizes available are: Youth Medium, (Adult) Small, Medium, Large, and X-Large.

I still have 2 size Small SKWAT! t-shirts left in black - the rest are all royal blue. All shirts are 100% Cotton Gildan tees.

Shirts are $25 each (anywhere in the world, shipping included). For every t-shirt sold, $5 will go to the American Red Cross.

Please send me an email (boris_york@yahoo.com) to check availability and then we'll make payment arrangements through PayPal.

Thanks everyone! Hope to hear from you soon!

Survivorship Bias

A new fitness guru in the making!

If one puts an infinite number of monkeys in front of (strongly built) typewriters, and lets them clap away, there is a certainty that one of them would come out with an exact version of the Iliad. Upon examination, this may be less interesting a concept than it appears at first: Such probability is ridiculously low. But let us carry the reasoning one step beyond. Now that we have found that hero among monkeys, would any reader invest his life's savings on a bet that the monkey would write the Odyssey next?
In this thought experiment, it is the second step that is interesting. How much can past performance (here the typing of the Iliad) be relevant in forecasting future performance? The same applies to any decision based on past performance, merely relying on the attributes of the past time series. Think about the monkey showing up at your door with his impressive past performance. Hey, he wrote the Iliad.
The major problem with inference in general is that those whose profession is to derive conclusions from data often fall into the trap faster and more confidently than others. The more data we have, the more likely we are to drown in it...
...we tend to mistake one realization among all possible random histories as the most representative one, forgetting that there may be others. In a nutshell, the survivorship bias implies that the highest performing realization will be the most visible. Why? Because the losers do not show up. 

- Fooled By Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, pp. 135-146

One needs look no further than fitness-reality-TV, strength and fitness gurus, and even the "training template of the month", to see this "survivorship bias" play itself out. On the surface, contestants, clients, and athletes make dramatic progress. Gurus, systems, and templates parade their success stories as proof of their efficacy as trainers and coaches. We want to believe that their athletes are successful because of a combination of the coach's wisdom and the athletes' hard work - sometimes this may be true. It is important, however, to understand that what we see are only the "survivors" - those that fail to prosper are not in the spotlight. For every "I ADDED 100lbs TO MY SQUAT IN 8 WEEKS!" or "I Lost 50lbs in 2 Weeks!" there may be dozens of failures, aborted attempts, and even injuries left in the wake.
Yes, there are many qualified and competent coaches and trainers out there. There are also many barely competent enough to hold a clipboard and shout encouragement, let alone design a training program. Honestly, a monkey in a golf polo shirt could do as well much of the time. The question is, why do we keep flocking to monkeys hoping for the Illiad? And, how many of us are willing put our money and bodies on the line, betting on the monkey writing the Odyssey?

Deep Enough For Ya?

Hiromi Miyake Snatches 87kgs to Win The Silver Medal

Hiromi Miyake snatched 87 kilograms and clean and jerked 110 kilograms to win the Women's Weightlifting 48kg silver medal in London. Both her father and uncle were Olympic gold medalists.  This was her third Olympic appearance. Omedetou gozaimasu!!!

Hiromi Miyake Clean and Jerks 110kg to Win the Silver Medal

SKWAT! T-Shirts

I have an order of SKWAT! t-shirts in. This will be the last t-shirt run until the holiday season.

Sizes available are: Youth Medium, (Adult) Small, Medium, Large, and X-Large.

I only have 2 size Small SKWAT! t-shirts left in black - the rest are all royal blue. All shirts are 100% Cotton Gildan tees.

Shirts are $25 each (shipping included). For every t-shirt sold, $5 will go to the American Red Cross.

Please send me an email (boris_york@yahoo.com) to check availability and we'll make payment arrangements through PayPal.

Thanks everyone!

Monkey Mind

Anxiety comes in a lot of flavors; guilt, anger, regret, and shame are common synonyms. It can manifest itself as dread, jealousy, rumination, detachment, self-flagellation and loathing, and rage. Cognitive therapy and meditation are, in my opinion, key to getting out of those negative feedback loops. I know this to be true for myself. But, if you're like me, you mostly build walls to hold them back. For whatever reason, you rarely aggressively pursue those triggers or seek out the root issues. Maybe you're afraid that letting down the walls will release an unstoppable flood. So, avoiding the walls and the things beyond them, you search for mortar and release valves to keep the walls from caving in. If you're like me, the weight room is a release valve - the momentary solace of a comfortably numb place to hide from the monkey mind.

Remember Captain and Tennille? This monkey gave me nightmares!

Dear Dan,

You are sitting now in the Duomo - a Tintoretto here, a Pisano there, Jesus everywhere - and you are feeling down. What it is is something you've felt before when it seems as if life has placed you in a position in which you do not want to be. No, let's clarify: You have put yourself in a position in which you do not want to be. You are feeling (we're going to have to use that tapioca word quite a bit, I'm afraid) what you have learned to call "anxious," a term it's a little hard to define but that can include a number of psychopathological elements: fear, dread, self-loathing, homesickness, a desire to retreat into some place where the self-reflection can be total and you can luxuriate in self-abasement for hours (bed, e.g.), a tendency toward questioning your decisions both on the micro and macro scales (this one maybe should be moved to the top of the list)... let's see, what else? Ah yes: physical symptoms. These may include loss of appetite (in Tuscany! Sweet Moses!), nausea, a lump in the throat, lack of short-/long-term memory, lethargy, the icicle of course. No decreased libido. After all, you're twenty-three yrs. old. 

There's got to be more... did I mention self-loathing? Yes? Did I really put enough emphasis on taking every big and little decision and scrutinizing it as if it were literally a matter of life or death? I did? Well, then, how about the insatiable (because who would do it?) urge to call your mother and cry? 

Now, if all this is a disease, as I've been told, what is the cure? Is there a cure? No, probably there isn't. But there is a course of action. On the tortured decisions and catastrophizing and dwelling, always remember the following: IT IS MORE THAN LIKELY THAT THIS WILL NOT KILL YOU. Also: DANIEL, YOU MUST GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK. THIS IS NOT EASY. IT IS NOT FUN. BUT IT CAN BE IF YOU REPEAT AFTER ME: IT'S JUST LIFE. IT IS NOT PERFECT. THERE ARE NO ASSURANCES. NOT EVERYONE WILL LIKE YOU. NOT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE TO DO WILL BE ENJOYABLE.

Larger now:
YOU ARE HUMAN!

YOU ARE FALLIBLE!

YOU WILL ENJOY LIFE MUCH MORE IF YOU ACCEPT - NO, EMBRACE - THE FACT THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD DECISION AND A BAD DECISION.

THERE ARE ONLY DECISIONS.

MAKE THEM. FUCK UP, ENJOY, REPEAT.

This passage was written in the central cathedral in Lucca, in Northern Tuscany - the Cattedral di San Martino, named after Martin of Tours, the first saint to have the dubious honor of having to endure his biblically allotted threescore and ten rather than being burned, beheaded, stoned, crucified, or tortured to death in his prime. In the marble composition notebook in which it appears the passage bears the title, "Painfully Obvious Letter to Myself." It isn't dated, but I know it is written in April 2001, in the middle of a two-week trip to Rome, Florence, Lucca, Siena, and Venice that I took with my then live-in girlfriend, Joanna. That, it rattles the mind to realize, is the undesirable "position" to which the passage refers, the event of which it moans, "IT IS NOT FUN": a luxurious Italian tour with a lovely young woman, filled with food, wine, art, and lovemaking.
The trip took place two months after Joanna and I met, and was expected to further cement the relationship we had both believed was progressing steadily toward marriage. Instead it harnessed and distilled the years of mounting anxiety that preceded it and showed Joanna that the young man she'd fallen for was far too caught up in himself, too nervous, confused, and deluded - too selfish - to love anyone, and therefore to be loved in return.

(Monkey Mind, pp. 179-181)

Hip and Shoulder Dysfunction - Book Review

Corrective Exercise Solutions to Common Hip and Shoulder Dysfunction by Evan Osar

The hips and t-spine are hot topics in the fitness industry right now - and justifiably so; really, almost all of the issues I see in the gym, or even among friends and co-workers who don't go to the gym, come down to these two areas. 

In this wonderful textbook for the fitness professional looking to serve his/her clients better, Evan Osar has covered the common disfunctions and syndromes that will plague both their sedentary and athletic clientele. Evan begins by providing a framework for understanding movement function and development, then describes the issues and how they'll manifest themselves in common movements, postures, and compensations, and finally provides principles for (and possible contraindications of) the application of corrective exercises, movements, and patterns.

The following passage discusses functional anatomy - a subject that many coaches and trainers grossly oversimplify. It is not "light" reading (though the beautiful illustrations, pictures, and summary sections help), but it's extremely interesting for gym rats like myself that have been around long enough to see the pendulums swing from "weights will make you muscle-bound", to "getting strong is all that matters", back to the more reasonable "thought-less strength training could actually exacerbate or cause an issue..." 

Photo courtesy of this site

...adopted from the child development model, is the idea of using the upper extremities to drive trunk motion. During the crawling pattern, the child uses one arm to stabilize the upper extremity and spine as the opposite arm reaches forward. This patterning helps the child develop stability in the fixed arm and corresponding side of the thorax, while the free arm helps maintain thoracic mobility. There are two key points here to help in making sense of these actions.

1. The majority of scapular stabilizers - including the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids major and minor, as well as all three divisions of the trapezius - have spinal attachments. While these muscles have never been assigned a spinal function, their attachment to the spine suggests they play a role in spine function. The rhomboids, trapezius, and latissimus dorsi collectively function to rotate the spine towards the fixed upper limb. With elbow support, as in crawling or plank position, the triceps and biceps brachia can draw the scapula toward the fixed elbow...[see picture above] This function can be seen in the developing child - the prone elbow, support position stabilizes the child's upper extremity. As they reach with the contralateral arm, the scapular stabilizers of the supported arm help to rotate the spine.

2. As the child stabilizes on his left upper extremity and reaches with his right arm, the left scapular stabilizers aid rotation of the spine. The child stabilizes his trunk with his left arm, while the motion of the free arm helps mobilize the right side of their spine and thorax. This is an important consideration in exercise, as traditional resistance exercise can often create rigidity of the thorax. The main reason for this is that bilateral patterns require the arms be moved over a fixed thorax. In the developing child this patter rarely occurs and when it does, it is usually not performed with significant resistance or in a repetitive fashion.

Bilateral patterns such as chest presses, upright rows, and curls require the thorax to be used as the stable point, as the loaded extremities are moved around the thorax. Additionally, patterns such as barbell squats, deadliest, and farmer's walks can also drive thoracic stiffness because  the thorax is used as a stable point for lifting. While the thorax should be fixed during these types of patterns, perpetual use of these patterns can drive rigidity and stiffness of the thorax. Although this type of rigidity may be useful for muscle hypertrophy and certain athletic activities, hypertrophy of the muscles of the thorax can lead to stiffness of these muscles, and the resultant hypo mobility is often responsible for the onset of several of the more common dysfunctions of the movement system. Two examples are:

i. Rigidity of the thorax results in decreased motion and compensatory hyper mobility of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine. This is a common cause of spinal instability in these regions and resultant pathologies of the disc and tissue structures of the spine.

ii. Rigidity of the thorax decreases the client's ability to achieve three-dimensional expansion of the thorax during respiration. This leads to increased activity of the accessory muscles of respiration - mainly the scaliness, sternocleidomastoid, and pectorals minor - to assist elevation of the thorax during breathing. This causes global reactions in the body, including driving the forward head and shoulder positions, contributing to headaches and anxiety, poor overall levels of oxygenation, and rises in blood pressure.

If bilateral patterns will be performed or have to be performed as part of an athletic training program, they should be followed with patterns that help mobilize the thorax. Unilateral and alternating patterns can help restore thoracic mobility by using the free arm to drive rotation of the thorax while the free arm stabilizes the shoulder complex and ipsilateral of the thorax.

Is Corrective Exercise Solutions to Common Hip and Shoulder Dysfunction a "must-read"? If you are trainer or coach with athletes and clients who have shoulder and hip issues, then the answer is YES! 

Is it a "must-have"? If you are a head-trainer or strength coach, then the answer is YES.