My training progress

As I stated in an earlier post, I've been using Power to the People for over two years now, to date the most I've ever deadlifted is 570# and the most I've ever side pressed is 100# on both left & right side. A progress update...

I lost some weight (and strength) during a fast I did earlier in the year. So I'm in the process of rebuilding that strength. On Friday, I tested my 1RM for the deadlift, and I was able to pull up 550#. So my strength is coming along. Today's workout


410# x 5 reps from a 4" deficit deadlift
370# x 5 reps from a 4" deficit deadlift

70# x 3 reps barbell military press
70# x 2 reps barbell military press
65# x 4 reps " " "
65# x 1 rep " " "

Shame on me for not having a stronger military press. To be honest, it's a very hard lift, but I will continue to work on it.

Glute activation screens/ exercises

A gym member asked me to work on her legs and glutes yesterday. Now, I did not totally screen her to check to see if she had proper movement patterns, but I didn't have to because I made her do the box squat as my 'screen' at a previous session and she had problems pushing her hips back. Now, if you have problems with that, I'm not letting you do anything else...box squats until you can get your hips back and down.

So I started off with box squats with her. Now, she continued having problems, but then I realized it was a mental problem. She was afraid of losing balance and falling back. So I just let her put her hands out and hold on to a weight as a counterbalance. After this, box squats was no problem, as a matter of fact, she was able to squat down to the floor with no problems. One problem solved.

Next, what I did, under the guise of glute exercises, was screen her using some of the the screens in the DVD, Secrets of Core Training: the Backside



Let's just say she has some serious glute amnesia problems. However, I'm thinking of using the screens as corrective exercises so that when I put her to do deadlifts, she would be firing the glutes as she should be. I've got some questions to ask.

My exploits....as a gym trainer and box squats

As I stated earlier, I got a job as a gym trainer. As a gym trainer, I have to make sure that users return their weights to their original place, spot members when they are doing their 'squats', continuously tell people that if their diet is not up to snuff, they would not get the results that they are looking for.....oh yeah, and I train a few people.

I expounded on the advantages of the face-the-wall squat. I may have to back-track a little bit. Now, the advantages of the face the wall squat are still there, just one minor disadvantage. It's difficult for some people. I've did a few sessions over the past three weeks with a couple of people, and I've come to the realization, thatsome people have such poor movement patterns that pushing their hips back is more difficult than it should be. Given that dilemma, I had to dust out part of my brain and teach an even simpler exercise called the box squat.

Now, the box squat is an exercise which teaches the movement pattern of pushing your hips back. This pattern is VERY IMPORTANT, especially if you want to do compound exercises like squatting and deadlifting. If you have this movement pattern down, the muscles which are supposed to be taking the bulk of the load (namely glutes and posterior chain) will do what it is supposed to do. I've found this video to be very helpful in teaching the box squat:

Controversy, controversy

Well, well well. Have we really gone from the human element to the ridiculous element? If you have been living under a rock, you probably don't know what the videos above me are about. It has to be a pretty large rock because these 'goals' have been in the airwaves from since Sunday afternoon. Now, these are clear gaffes by the match officals and it brings the beautiful game of football into disrepute. Thus, I am all in favour of the use of technology so that the correct calls can be made.

However, the executives of FIFA want to go caveman on us by saying that 'we don't want to lose the human element of the game.' This makes no sense. This means that games are continually going to be spoilt by dodgy calls and a team's hard work and fair play will all go to nought by someone else's 'brain fart'. The technology is there, let's use it and let the game be fair and beautiful once again

What I've been up to lately - Face the wall squat

Ok, quite a bit has happened since my last blog entry. Good news, I got a job, part-time job as a gym instructor at the gym that I usually train in. Doesn't pay much but a job is a job, once I'm getting $$.

I've been at the job for just about a week and already I've noticed some things of interest. 80-90% of the people who do exercises in the gym do them on machines, and when using free weights or bodyweight exercises, do them with poor form or cannot do them at all.

This brings me to the topic I want to touch on in this post. Many people cannot do exercises with proper form because of poor mobility. Mobility is something that we were BORN with, however, because most of us did not practise moving, we lost that mobility ability. To emphasize my point, this is how any child 1-3 years old would squat:



There may be quite a few of us older heads who cannot get into this position properly and some of us are loading external weight onto this movement dysfunction. No wonder why people say squats hurt their knees and damage their backs:

Head jutting forward, chest not spread, causing back to round. Not good form

However, by practise, we can get ourselves back to the level of mobility that we once had, or close to it. In terms of the squat, there is an easy exercise that you can do at home, work, gym, wherever you are that has a wall, to find out that is wrong with your squat form and correct it easily. It's called the face-the-wall squat:



Here is a video that shows you the face the wall squat by Yoana Snideman:



I've taught this exercise to one person in the gym, and she immediately got perfect form in the squat.

Do this every day, throughout the day, and your mobility in the squat would improve. Until next time.

A little Aha moment

On Thursday, I was doing a cycle of deadlifts a la Power to the People. I was trying to do 5 reps of 480 # and 5 reps of 435# from a 4" deficit. I was only able to barely squeeze up 2 reps. 2 reps????!!!! This was a weight that I was able to pick up with ease even on my worst days. Worse yet, I was able to finish with 2 reps of 510# for 2 reps last cycle. Was I getting weaker? True I lost some weight but only ~ 10 #. Out of frustration, I abandoned my work out that day.







I went over in my mind that night what was I possibly doing wrong, going over the movement in my mind. Then it occured to me: I was supposed to 'get tight' before I began the lift, as in tense my abs, my glutes, grip the bar as hard as I can and tense my........lats?!!! That was it. I wasn't tensing my lats before I began the lift. So I went back and attacked the 480# loaded bar with pre-tensed lats and sure enough, I was able to pull all 5 reps with much more ease.

Tense these to increase your strength

So, long and short, if you are missing deadlifts, it doesn't hurt to check if you are tensing all the right areas to get maximum strength out of your body.

Life can be full of surprises sometimes

Surprise!!! At least for football (read: soccer) fans following the FIFA World Cup over the past 12 hours or so. For those that witnessed it, here is a picture that would bring dreams of ecstasy or nightmares of anguish depending on whichever side of the coin you stand on:

On the CCN TV6 "Waka waka" show, Joel Villafana said that the Spanish Revolution has become the Spanish inquisition: What happened? It think Terry Fenwick hit the nail on the head where he said that the X factor in this game was the centre-forward position. Spain was dominating the possession in the midfield, making all the right plays, but there was nobody there to go after the ball when the ball was being played in the box to ensure that the ball goes in. However, for Switzerland, Derdiyok was the man who was willing to take the attack to the Spanish defense and that was the difference between the two sides. Well played Switzerland. Hopefully Spain can improve on their performance in their next game.