The Power of Habit

I just finished listening the audio version of Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit (Many-a-audio book has helped me deal with evening traffic on our stretch of I-95), and there were some quality take home points that I will be applying myself and that are simple enough to pass on to clients that may need a little extra help towards reaching their goals.

All of us have, or have had, bad habits. Whether it’s wasting time at work, poor nutrition choices, skipping workouts, texting and using the phone while driving or procrastinating on things you generally don’t want to do. When it comes down to it, most of us are downright helpless if we say we want to give up a bad habit. That’s right…just quitting bad habits doesn’t work.

Just like a movement pattern, these choices become so natural to us that they eventually run on auto-pilot. The brain changes and it takes less energy and focus to continue doing whatever it is we shouldn’t be doing.

Sounds pretty crappy, I Know. So what can we do? 

With poor movement habits we also know someone can’t just choose to start moving better one day. In fact, Shirley Sahrmann estimates that it takes about 300-500 repetitions to learn a completely new pattern the right way but 3-5,000 repetitions to re-wire a pattern that is already poor. 

The same concept holds true for the choices we make. In order to give up a bad habit we need to do a couple of things. First we need to identify what cues lead us to our choices. What event, environment, person etc. do we associate with the poor habit? Do you spend time on Facebook as a means of putting off work that you might not want to do right now? Whatever it is you need to identify and acknowledge it. 

From here, we can make a decision to replace our poor habit with an alternative every time that cue presents itself. We can temporarily get away with quitting whatever it is we want to give up but eventually we just leave ourselves a void that will be filled again with whatever it was we were trying to get away from. We need a positive alternative that we choose ahead of time that will fill that gap. Repeating this process will eventually lead the brain to re-wire and a new, better habit will be created. 

One way to aid in this process is by changing your surrounding environment. From the time I was a teenager all the way through college I always had a TV in my bedroom. I became completely dependent on it to fall asleep. My sleep quality was awful and I never realized why. About 6 years ago I decided to get rid of it cold turkey. For probably three weeks I couldn’t sleep at all but eventually it got better and now it would be almost unbearable to try to sleep with any sort of electronic on.

One common habit we see here with clients is lack of a proper breakfast. Because we’re always on the go it becomes easy to grab a bagel or fast food on the way to work rather than getting a good source of protein. I admittedly struggle with this when I don’t plan ahead. I love to make breakfast, especially good scrambled eggs, but to do it right means getting up 30 minutes earlier which would put me in the 3 o’clock hour. I’ve been a morning person for years but I’m not completely crazy. So for me a recent choice as an alternative habit has got to be setting aside time on Sunday to get my (simple) breakfasts ready for the week so I can just grab and go and leave them at work. As an ectomorph I have trouble keeping weight on so getting a good caloric start to the day is really important.

What’s one habit that you would like to change before the end of the summer? What cue tends to lead to you acting out this habit? And what alternative activity can you fill that void with?

Thoughts from Providence Perform Better

Here are my initial thoughts from the Perform Better summit in Providence this weekend: 

-Perform Better manages to get better every year. Some organizations could learn a lot from them when it comes to putting on seminars. It's easy to see how great of a company they are when you see almost the same exact staff helping out with each seminar over the last 6 years. Turnover is next to nothing and that says a lot.

-The pre-conference (Thursday’s session) was worth the investment on its own. Great Strength Coach social after the lectures as well! Thanks to Anthony Renna for making that happen! 

-It’s amazing how hard it is to choose who to see each hour. I changed my mind 2 or 3 times at the last minute. It’s impossible to go wrong though with the quality of speakers on this tour.  

-Alwyn Cosgrove is still the most entertaining speaker on the Perform Better tour while at the same time being motivational, educational and flat out funny. 

-Overall, the rules of training haven’t changed much but some tools and application continue to evolve. The principles that Lee Taft instilled in me out of grad school still hold incredibly true to this day and maybe even more so with the movement towards more primal, natural movement (“don’t train kids like they are little adults; train adults like they are big kids”) 

-There still seems to be a misunderstanding in some circles of what the Functional Movement Screen is and what it is used for. It is not a performance test. It is not a fitness test. Judging it as one is like saying blood pressure is useless as a predictor of hair color. I’m pretty sure one isn’t related to the other. 

-It’s important to find specific performance goals for people who may not have a body composition goal to reach. “General Fitness” seems to be out if you’re trying to create a culture and motivate people to stick around your gym. There’s a market for training the “general fitness” client towards event-goals like mud runs, Spartan races, 5-10k races, etc. (Cosgrove). 

-I heard Bill Knowles speak for the first time. He had a great approach to getting an awesome training effect in the stages that are typically reserved for “physical therapy”. This is very applicable to my setting right now and falls in line with the “focus on what someone can” do belief system. This is great for increasing the amount of prep time before returning to “performance” to avoid rushing back. 

-Al Vermeil can play for my team any day.  

 

 

-A common theme from the weekend focused on the importance of proper breathing to not only enhance core stability but to allow improvement in mobility as well. Stretching doesn’t work to increase length in muscles (if it’s even needed). Proper strength training through full range of motion is more effective at lengthening a muscle than stretching, since stretching takes over 30 minutes one position to have an effect (adding sarcomeres in series to increase length). The combination of Charlie Weingroff and Art Horne really drove this point home (I hear Brandon Marcello’s hands on was great also). 

Rob Lewis on stage with Charlie

 



-Nick Winkelman is an incredible coach from Athletes Performance. I saw his hands on and heard great buzz from his talk on cueing and almost regret not seeing it. I still disagree with some ways that AP teaches multidirectional speed (shuffling specifically, from this hands on) but it’s impossible to argue with Nick’s effectiveness as a coach and motivator.  

-The reason I say I almost regret missing Nick’s lecture was because I was lucky enough to see Greg Rose’s hands on, focusing on developing rotary power in athletes.  I’ve seen Greg speak 3 or 4 times now and he always gives you simple and applicable take home points. 

This year, he went over his 4 tests used to reveal a power deficit were genius in their simplicity to administer and understand. For rotary athletes it’s expected that a seated medicine ball chest pass (upper body pressing power) and a supine overhead medicine ball throw (chopping motion) will be close to equal (in feet). The number in feet should mirror the athlete’s vertical jump in inches (lower body power).  The final test was a standing rotary “shot put” that allows for an explosive step as part of the throw. In a well-balanced athlete this number, in feet, should be 1 ½ times the distance of the first three. One of these numbers off? Now you know what area to address with training. Pretty cool! 

-Art Horne gave some great cues (verbal and tactile) for coaching breathing. “Fill up the Canister” is one I will be using immediately. His explanation of filling up the balloon in the front of the core with a breath to counter the pressure created from the back and sides (erectors and obliques) was a gem as well. We need 360 degrees of pressure when breathing – creating pressure outward is not enough 

-It’s funny to see young coaches (myself included-we’re going with the relative definition of “young” in this case) when they meet their biggest professional influences. And what might be funnier is meeting an attendee who is not in the profession and has no idea who these people are. Yes, there was one of these here. He decided it’d be a fun guy’s weekend to go a seminar with his trainer and attend a few workouts in Providence. Classic.

 

There is so much more that is left out of this wordy write-up but I wanted to get a few thoughts on paper before I forgot them! The networking that goes on at these things is unbelievable as well. Being able to meet and talk shop or at least interact with other coaches and presenters is what makes these things great. Can’t wait for the next one!

Nutrition Tip for the Day: Stay Local!

After taking a few days off early last week I spent the past four days in Providence for the most recent Perform Better Performance Training Summit. These events are always amazing for the content, energy, networking, socials and hands-on learning experience.

I've been rifling through my notes to try to avoid the normal post-conference effects of forgetting almost everything I thought I had learned. While I do this I thought I'd share a quick note from Chris Mohr who gave a talk geared towards dispelling some basic myths of nutrition.

One focus of the lecture was clearing up the debate of Organic vs. Non-Organic eating. Which is better?

Dr. Mohr's approach was great in that it focused on the big picture. In other words, don't get bogged down by minutiae when trying to make nutrition changes for the better.

He made a lot of good points but one that is easy to remember is that it's much better (from a nutrition standpoint) to eat locally grown produce as opposed to food items that had to spend time in shipping. If you can get food that was picked yesterday instead of last week , the nutrient profile will be much more favorable. Your body will make much better use of the locally grown food vs. the preserved item.

Was organic better? In some cases. But when in doubt keep it simple and go local!

Hierarchy of Fat Loss

Just a quick link for everyone today since I'm on vacation and on the way to the golf course :)!

Most of my clients' goals are centered around 1) avoiding further injury and 2) general fat loss goals. I wanted to address #2, and I could try to articulate the information as well as possible, the fact is Alwyn Cosgrove did it better than anyone several years ago and the content is still top-notch. Take a look!

Hierarchy of Fat Loss by Alwyn Cosgrove

Enjoy and have a great rest of the week,
Jon

Finding a Neutral Spine

Quick Tip: Finding Neutral

One of the first “exercises” I have almost all clients do is demonstrate to me what they think a neutral spine is. Generally we’ll do this in a quadruped position (on all fours) but the goal is to understand what a proper spine position feels like so it becomes easier to apply to almost every exercise we do. My goal is to get an immediate correction when I cue someone to “find neutral”. For most people this won’t come naturally so here’s a quick tip to help you understand what it should feel like.




This picture is of a person doing a “cat-camel” exercise which you may or may not have seen before. The middle picture is a good demonstration of a neutral spine. This is the exact method I use to teach core positioning. Here’s how it’s done:

1. In a kneeling position, round your back over as far as you possibly can (camel)

2. Next, create as much of an arch as you can so your belly button is as close to the ground as you can get it

3. Finally, find the middle!

That’s it! By finding the middle of these two extreme positions you are going to be very close to your neutral spine position. Pay attention to what it feels like…now try to recreate this feeling with each exercise you do!

Progressing Sets & Reps

Will Sets and Reps get more challenging?

I was emailed this question from a client a few weeks back and just wanted to address it here.

Each client that starts training with me has a different background, but I can generally place them in one of a few categories. First, there are those that have a lot of experience training under a high-intensity, high-volume program that has contributed in some way to an injury. Their visit to physical therapy is what puts them in front of me in the first place. These can be split into a couple of subgroups; one group that moves effectively and has a solid training background and a second group who has very inefficient movement patterns but pushed through these workouts without knowing any better.

Second, I may get a client who has next to no experience from a training standpoint. They are literally at square 1 and are eager to make changes (I love all my clients but these are some of my favorites!).

In any case, I am a big believer in the MED method to programming (Minimal Effective Dose). In other words, I want to see how little I can give someone and still make positive changes.

At the beginning of a training program, the volume and intensity are so low that someone might even be a little bored during the first week or two. We do this for a couple of reasons. One, I want to introduce new movements the right way to each athlete or client. If I ask too much of them, their form will be sacrificed and we’ll also be hindering results down the road.

Second, I use this time as an extended assessment period. By watching them move multiple times and seeing how each person responds in the 1-2 days following a workout I will have a good sense of how to safely progress them moving forward.

If they move well, don’t break a sweat and are not the least bit sore the day after a training session, it might be OK to progress the volume a bit quicker.

Whether this is the case or not, each person needs to demonstrate movement competency and earn the right to either do more volume (if the goal warrants this) or increase in the intensity.

Another reason we do it this way is for the psychological implications. Let’s say we start with too much volume or intensity and as a coach I know the best thing is to back them off. Many people will take this as a failure as they were unable to do what was asked of them (even though this isn’t the case – this is the coach’s fault). By starting with exercises that are easier, with lower intensity and low volume I am setting the person up for success early on. By mastering these exercises first without putting the athletes out of commission with muscle soreness, we’ve made it easier to progress moving forward. Even though we may end up at the same spot down the road, the feeling of taking steps forward is definitely preferred over pushing too fast, too early and then stepping back.

The goal as a coach is to make things as challenging as they need to be – and no more!

There are fairly complex ways to implement more challenging sets and reps but for the inexperienced trainee we can make a great deal of progress with low volume, simple progressions that ask a little more of you each week.

Part 2 Core Stabilization – What to do?

In the first part of this short summary for training the core, we reviewed the very basics of what makes up your core. Hopefully the difference in function between the inner and outer core (timing mechanisms) was clear. If the inner core muscles aren’t functioning at the right time, other muscles will try to fill in that stabilizing role – pretty cool adaptive capabilities of the body but not a good long term strategy as these compensations will lead to pain or other movement dysfunctions.

The main takeaway is that the core musculature is designed to function as stabilizers of the spine as opposed to prime movers. This distinction is what drives the exercise selection that we’ll go over here.

Before we get into actual exercises it’s a good idea to know what a strong and stable core looks like. To me, a person with a good functioning core is one who is able to hold a relatively neutral spine (from the low back all the way to the neck) while performing other activities. This should happen without thinking about “using your core”. A good inner core will work reflexively.

Here are some cues (other than “turn on your core”) that you can think about:

1. Stay Long through your head/spine
2. Keep your ears in line with your shoulders; Keep a “packed neck”
3. Brace like you’re about to take a punch
4. Breathe deep while staying as still as you possibly can

These apply to most, if not all, core exercises (as well as most strength exercises) that you will (should?) be doing.

When designing programs it’s a good idea to categorize each movement or exercise to help develop a somewhat balanced approach. In other words, we don’t want to have too much of one movement and not enough of another. It’s common to see routines with 10 pushing exercises and only 1 or 2 pulling, for example. If you just pick exercises from a list it’s easy to let this happen…if we pick the movement patterns in a balanced fashion first it then becomes easier to decide the best exercise to use. So for an upper body workout you might decide you are going to do 2 pulling exercises and 2 pushing exercises (we actually like to include more pulling than pushing but for the sake of balancing things out we’re going with 2 and 2). Now we pick 2 different exercises in each category and we’re good to go.

For the core we can break it down into 3 or 4 simple categories. We have 3 planes of motion; Transverse (Rotational - think twisting), Saggital (straight ahead – flexion and extension), or Frontal/Coronal (lateral flexion; think side bends, jumping jacks, etc.).



Since we decided that stabilizing is the best way to train the core though, how do we work these movement patterns without actually moving?

What we need to do is use exercises that create forces that need to be resisted by the same muscles used to create the motions we just identified. We train the core this way by “tricking” the muscles into reflexively stabilizing when they need to.

We have 4 categories of movements that we use for this based on each plane of motion (saggital gets 2):

1. Anti-Rotation (Transverse) – Think obliques
2. Anti-Flexion (Saggital) – Think back/glutes
3. Anti-Extension (Saggital) – think Abs
4. Anti-Lateral Flexion (Frontal) – Think sides

Here’s a couple videos of exercises in each pattern that you can use on your own if you’re new to the game. Refer to the cues above for execution:

Anti-Rotation

1. Tall Kneeling Anti-Rotation Press. The band or cable is producing a rotational force on your back and your job is to resist that rotation. 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps each side OR 3 reps each side with longer holds (10 seconds) are a good start. The narrower your knees, the harder this will be. It won’t take much resistance.



2. Bird-Dogs (Quadruped diagonals). Go slow. The goal is NO movement of the low back. You’ve got a full drink on your back that you can’t spill! 2 sets 6-10 reps each side is plenty in a single workout.



Anti-Extension

1. Front Plank. Hold for 10 second reps and slowly increase the number of reps you do. Keep your nose over your thumbs.



2. Stability Ball Rollout. Slow tempo, 2 sets for 6-10 reps. The further the ball is from you at the start the harder this movement will be.



Anti-Flexion

1. 2 Leg Glute Bridge. 2-3 sets of 10 reps



2. 2 Leg RDL/Hip Hinging Pattern. This is also one of our basic strength moves but the muscles that keep the back extended (actually preventing flexion) are hard at work here.



Anti-Lateral Flexion

1. Side Plank. Similar to the front plank you’ll want to work towards 10 seconds hold if you’re a beginner. Work up to where you can do 4-5 reps of 10 seconds on each side, in each set, before adding time.



2. 1 Arm Farmer’s Walk. Maybe my favorite exercise to program due to its short learning curve, functional carryover to real life, and the challenge it can impose on beginners and advanced lifters alike. Like the others, stay long and focus on keeping the shoulder blades locked down and back. Crush the handle!!!


I got yelled at by the ATC for not having my brace on before filming this

If you hit each movement pattern 2-3 times per week and 2-3 sets of each you’ll be ahead of most gym-goers when it comes to core function. Would love to hear your thoughts, questions, or suggestions on core exercise you like to do at the gym!

Have a great Thursday,
Jon