Featured Exercise: Plank Progression

Here is a nice progression for the plank exercise. Like always, spend time mastering the first exercise before moving on to the next. It's about what you CAN do, not what you CAN'T do.



1. Kneeling Plank - This is a good entry level plank exercise for those who not yet have a strength base.

2. Plank - This is where most athletes will start.

3. Feet Elevated - This is a good progression from a regular plank. A 12" to 14" box works best.

4. Marching - Anytime you take a limb (arm or leg) off of the ground during a plank, it now becomes an anti-rotation exercise. Make sure you don't bring the leg to high. You should only move from the hip - not the spine.

DN

A Strong Neck

Q: I am an MMA fighter and was wondering what you think of wrestling neck bridges for building strength in the neck?

A: A strong neck is VERY important for MMA and grappling sports but I would never use the traditional bridges that you see in wrestling. They place tremendous stress on the joints. Instead, we perform the following for 15-20 sec holds. If you don't have a matted wall, just use a stability ball to put your head on.




DN

Efficient Ways To Get Fat And Stay Fat (re-post)

I posted this sometime last year as somewhat of a sarcastic, yet educational look at fat loss. Unexpectedly, it was big hit with people. I had a very large and positive response from it. So I am re-posting it and putting it up on the IPT website as an article.

Losing fat isn't all that tricky. There are exercise methods that yield better results than others (interval training vs. aerobics), along with nutritional methods that yield better results than others (getting your carbs from fruits and veggies vs. processed breads and pastas). If people do MOST of these things right MOST of the time (meaning like 90% of the time), THEY WILL LOSE BODY FAT.

I find it interesting when someone comes to me and says they CAN'T lose body fat. So I ask them some basic questions. Questions that must be answered as "YES" in order to lose body fat:

Are you lifting weights at least 3 days per week?
Are you doing interval training?
Do you eat breakfast everyday?
Do you eat 5-6 mini meals per day?
Do you eat 1-2 servings of veggies and fruits at every meal?
Do you consume about 1 gram of protein per lbs. of body weight?
Do you change your workout program every 3-4 weeks?
And do you do all of these things about 90% of the time?

Generally people answer NO to many of these questions.

If they say that they are doing all of these things and still cannot lose body fat, they are lying. They are not ready to change.

So here you go.... Efficient Ways To Get Fat And Stay Fat. Enjoy!!

DN

The Draw in Maneuver vs. The Abdominal Brace

The draw-in maneuver (hollowing) is commonly taught as a technique to activate the abdominals in order to stabilize the spine. In reality, this not a very effective technique for achieving spinal stiffness for a few reasons.

First, drawing in the abdominal wall (belly button towards the spine) activates the transverse abdominis in isolation. In order to draw-in, the abdominals must be nearly inactive. Weakening of the abdominal muscles certainly cannot support stability for the spine. This is one of the reasons pilates is NOT the best choice for exercise.

Second, isolating any one abnominal muscle could never yield more stiffness than activating the entire abdominal wall. This is why "bracing" is a much better technique to enhance stability.

"Bracing" is achieved not by drawing in or pushing out but rather my a simple co-contraction of the abdominals. We will commonly cue, "brace the abs as if you were getting ready to get punched". With MMA guys, we need to be careful of this cueing because they may get into "fighting posture". Fighting posture is bad posture for exercise (hunch back).

Bracing also activates the extensor muscles which acts as a "natural" weightlifting belt to offer more support. Along with the "natural belt", the obliques and rectus abnominas offer stability as supporting "guys wires".

Stuart Mcgill has crushed more spines in his lab than anyone in the world. He has proven over and over again that drawing in the abs under significant load will result in buckling of the spine. I'm on Stu's side :-)

DN

A Tip For The Trainers

Today we have a special "Guest Blogger", Mike Robertson. First let me start of with a big thanks to Mike for letting me post this up.

If you are a trainer, you already know who Mike is...... if not, shame on you. Mike really hit the nail on the head with this. Most trainers (especially new trainers) focus solely on "how to make more money" and become a good salesman. Mike reveals the secret below:

A TIP FOR THE TRAINERS:



I'm always amused by people who tells others how to make more money.

So by giving you money, you're going to tell me how to make more money?

It's intriguing, at the very least.

And that's not to say there aren't some great examples out there. I think Pat Rigsby is one of the most knowledgeable business guys I've talked to. EVER. He really helped Bill and I solidify the mindset and operations behind I-FAST.

Some of the others out there, though, aren't nearly as adept at their craft.

I don't know about you, but I got into this industry because I had a genuine interest in helping people achieve their performance-related goals. Over the years, that interest has spread - it's not just about sports now, but also rehab, fat loss, etc. Basically, my goal is to learn as much about this industry as possible, and to be able to deliver consistent results time and again.

It doesn't always work out perfectly, but more times than not we're getting great results. Any trainer who tells you the get results 100% of the time is either delusional, a liar, or both.

So if you're a trainer, and you're reading this blog, take this post to heart. Are you serious about making more money? If so, there's one consistently sure-fire way to do it....

Are you ready for it?

Get really good.

Not just kind of good. Better than the average Schmuck trainer good. I'm talking really good.

People seek you out good.

People consistently refer their friends and family to you good.

If you can do this, you will never have a shortage of clients. You will never have to worry about making ends meet (unless you're just a total momo when it comes to running your business and spending money, which I can't really help you with).

I guess the thing that really irks me is that no one mentions this. Everyone wants to talk about making more money and all these great business ideas, which are absolutely fine. But where did we forget about putting people first?

When we put our clients and their needs first, we always win.

When we combine that with the skills necessary to deliver results, we have a truly lethal combination.

So there's my tip. It's not sexy. It doesn't occur overnight. But if you are serious about making more money, forget about making more money.

Get really good at your craft first. When you do, the money will follow.

Stay strong

MR

Commonly Ignored Soft-Tissue Work For The Mixed Martial Artist

This is for the MMA folks who are being "good boys and girls" and are all ready doing soft-tissue work on themselves.

Typically, the areas of focus tend to be the larger muscles like the quads, hip rotators and lats. But their are a few areas that MMA guys are commonly tight and bound up in that get completely ignored.

1. The forearms - This is even more important for BJJ guys training in a gi. I am telling you from personal experience. When my massage therapist digs into my forearms, it feels like I have chucks of thick rope in them.



2. TFL - When playing the guard position, the hip constantly flexes, abducts and medially rotates. This is the action of the tensor fascia lata (TFL) so it makes sense why it is constantly tight in BJJ athletes. The IT band also has attachments to the TFL. Being that the IT band is basically non-contractile, one would probably release IT band "tightness" better by addressing the TFL. A ball that is larger in diameter than a tennis ball tends to work the best for this (a soft ball works great but it is very hard..... be careful). "Warning": If you play a lot of guard this may bring tears to your eyes :-)



3. Traps - Neck cranks, guillotines and just MMA in general can wreak havoc on your neck. How many times have you gotten up in the morning after a hard training session and you are doing the full body turn to look to your right and left because your neck can't move (in our gym we jokingly call this Jiu-jitsu neck)? All of these things add up to tightness in the traps. Use a soft-ball on the corner of a wall and apply pressure to the trap. It has to be the corner of a wall so that you can apply more pressure and your head doesn't run into the wall.



4. Posterior Shoulder - This is more of a problem for bigger MMA athletes and bigger athletes in general. They tend to be much tighter in the shoulder complex. Because of "fighting posture" (hunch back/rounded/elevated shoulders), there is going to be a lot of barnacles growing in the posterior shoulder. I prefer to use ART (active release technique) on this area. Simply place a tennis or lacrosse ball on the posterior shoulder (find a bad spot) while going through internal and external rotation.



It's amazing to me that for how rough the sport of MMA is, there are athletes out there doing "zero" soft-tissue work on themselves. Remember, if you get injured you are going to be sitting on your couch. And the less time you are on the mat, the longer it will take you to improve your skills. Take the time to invest in your body. It will thank you for it.

DN

Featured Gimmick: The Bender Ball and The Bender Method

I am sure you have seen this infomercial on tv. This is from Master Trainer (please don't ask me what a Master Trainer is..... I have no idea) Leslee Bender. Apparently she has found a way to jack up you spine more than Pilates. Instead of herniating your discs from doing crunches, she suggests jamming a small ball into your back to increase the range of motion during crunching. Being a Master Trainer (I am actually beginning to giggle at that title), I am sure she realizes that doing this will cause a disc to herniate quicker. And also, since she is a Master Trainer, I am sure she is aware of this study:

Callaghan JP, McGill SM.
Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2001 Jan;16(1):28-37.

I am also sure that she has read pages 68-70 in Stuart McGill's book "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance".

Let me be serious for a second. Their are quite a few products out there like this where they shove something in your lumbar and give some crazy sales pitch like the one in the video. You will see these products on tv, in magazines and even at gyms. Stay away! Crunching sucks! Crunching on junk like this sucks more.

DN

Single Leg Squat: A better way

For those of you using the single leg squat, I am about to show you a much better way to train it that I learned from Mike Boyle a while back. Fist, take a second to look at the anatomy of the single leg squat as pictured below and in the last post. Pay attention to the non-working leg. What you will see is the hip of the non-working leg is having to isometrically contract for the entire duration of the set. The Psoas (hip flexor) originates and attaches at the transverse processes of L1-L5. So what you will commonly get from people with past or present back pain is a complaint of low back pain during or after the set. This is one of the reasons Stuart Mcgill chooses the "bowler squat" for his single leg squat training.

Here is how we train our single leg squat (notice the hip no longer has to flex as it is able to now stay relaxed):



Another thing to point out is that the athlete in the video is squatting to a depth of 14" with an additional 60 lbs load. Let's also add that he was unable to do a single leg body weight squat on his right leg to a 22" box when he first started :-) Hard work = PROGRESS!!

DN

Training Lower Body: Unilateral vs. Bilateral

First off, if you are not training single leg movements for the lower body, you are crazy. Life and sport is on one leg. You don't run two legs at a time..... rabbits do. Actually the reason for this post is not to state that single leg training is great for athletic performance or that it activates more stabilizers but rather to show that it is safer for most.

Here is what I want you to think about. If I were to have a 200 lbs person barbell squat (bilateral) 300 lbs, that would be a 300 lbs load on their back right? So that would be 300 lbs of spinal load. If I took the same person and performed a single leg squat variation (split squat, RFE split squat, SL squat) with 100 lbs, we would essentially have the same load on the lower body with FAR less load on the spine.

200 lbs person + 100 lbs load = 300 lbs (100 lbs would actually be a much, much larger load in a SL squat because the 300 lbs total would be on ONE leg. I am using the #'s to simplify)

Bodyweight really doesn't matter that much when squatting or deadlifting bilaterally but it definitely plays a HUGE part in unilateral exercises. I can't say that it is 100% of their bodyweight they are lifting but I would say it is a high percentage.

The thing is, many people have present or past low back issues. Single leg training is a great way to avoid exacberating or reintroducing back pain. I am not saying don't train the lower body bilaterally. I am just suggesting that most athletes and regular people don't need to train bilateral movements heavy if they can get it through single leg training.

I find myself using bilateral lower body training less and less with my clients and athletes. Everybody is getting so strong in the single leg exercises that I really don't miss the bilateral stuff.

For those of you using single leg squats, I will show you a better way to single leg squat in the next post.

DN