So you most likely know that I’ve worked directly with Eric Cressey on the top-selling and highly regarded  Assess and Correct, so any review of his new Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better is going to contain some level of bias.  I admit this up front.

You’ve probably already seen a lot of the great info that Eric’s put out over the last week in these videos:

http://www.showandgotraining.com/simple-squat-fixes.html
http://showandgotraining.com/simple-squat-fixes.html
http://showandgotraining.com/mastering-the-squat.html

If you haven’t seen them I suggest you take the time to do so now.  They’re really great.

I haven’t reviewed Eric’s new Show and Go until now because I really haven’t had time to look over all the information until this past weekend, and I didn’t want to give an uninformed recommendation.

Let me start of by saying that if you’re looking for a program that’s been tested in the real world, in a real high end training facility, and with real results, you shouldn’t hesitate to follow the links and get this program for yourself (or if you’re a coach, get it for your athletes!).  I was out in Boston this past May and saw this program in action.  Based on what I saw, if you’re trying to get big, lean, and strong, you’re going to want this program.

Let’s talk about the 16-week program.

It’s built in 4 phases each building upon the previous.  Each phase has all the essential components you’ll find in an effectively designed program:  mobility and warm-ups, progressive program design, movement pattern balance, necessary bilateral and unilateral exercises, and fluctuating training stress (a key to progress).

There were two things I really like about the programming.  If you followed Eric’s program in his book Maximal Strength, then you know you had to follow a four day per week program.  This time Eric’s giving you options.   If you can’t hit the gym for the four day per week program in Show and Go, Eric’s giving you a kick-ass 3-day option (there’s also a bonus 2 times per week option that’s perfect for an in-season athlete).  The other thing I like about the programming, and by far the most powerful concept, is that the program is adaptable to your goals.  With most programs you’re pretty much stuck with whatever goal is intended by the programmer.  Eric’s done a great job of taking a effective base program and then giving you options to adapt the program to your goals.

If you’re an athlete, bodybuilder, powerlifter, or perform some other type of physical activity, there’s an option for you.  He’s even addressed issues for those who have limited availability to certain equipment or addressing specific mobility issues such as improving your squat depth.

To make this an even stronger program, Eric has included the following bonuses from some other top professionals.

1. Five Fantastic Finishers by Tony Gentilcore
These are some great ideas to “top off” your programming.  Some geared toward athletes and some for those looking to improve body composition.  I’ll be stealing, or, uh, borrowing these for our clients at IFAST.

2. The Top Five Glute Exercises by Bret Contreras
Bret’s become known as “the glute guy” and he offers up his top 5 most effective exercises.  Glutes are implicated in a variety of ailments from knee pain to lower back pain, so you’ll definitely find some use here.

3. Innovative Soft Tissue Strategies for Health and Performance  by Chris Howard
Hard training often results in an accumulation of undesirable soft-tissue adaptations that can ultimately limit performance.  Keep your shoulders, back, hips, knees, and ankles in great condition by keeping your soft-tissues in great condition with this info.  Chris includes detailed videos of each technique to help you apply each technique optimally.

4. The Show and Go Quick Exercise Reference Guide by Eric Cressey
This contains every link to each of 175+ videos of all the exercises included in the program.  You can even access these at the gym via your iPhone or Blackberry for a quick reference.

5. 2x/week Show and Go Training Programs for all four phases also from Eric Cressey
This is the programming bonus I mentioned before.  Use this program when you’re short on gym time (great for vacations) or if you’re an athlete in-season. 

Everything is inserted in the same template that Eric uses with his clients at Cressey Performance for easy management.  I really think that Eric has created a program that will impact a lot people looking the next step in their programming.

If you’ve got some training under your belt and are looking to take your training to the next level, Show and Go IS your next step.  You can get it starting at Midnight tonight.  Don’t wait.  Get it tonight!

Bill

Whether you have painful shoulders or just can’t perform chin-ups or pull-ups, you can still do your vertical pulling exericse.  After some experimenting with a few versions, we’re using this one with great success with clients who just can’t do an effective pull-up or chin-up.  Sure we still use bands to assist with vertical pulls, but this allows some variation.  Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Lower trapezius weakness is a common finding with many of the clients we assess at IFAST.  Even in our strongest athletes, we’ll find relative weakness that may affect their abilities to perform the heavier, maximal strength upper body exercises.

The now common scapular exercises such as I’s, L’s, Y’s, T’s, and W’s are good selections to start to resolve scapular muscle weakness.  This post will focus on the Y exercise, AKA, lower trap raise.

A few keys to success:

1.  The arms should come up to angle of about 135 degrees of abduction (45 degrees above the “T” position).

2.  Turn the thumb side of your hand  upward to externally rotate the shoulder.  The “Y” also promotes high levels of activity of the shoulder external rotators.

3.  Lead the movement with the scapula.  The arrow shown on the photo above shows the direction to drive the scapula.  Too often, clients will abbreviate the exercise due to a lack of scapular movement.  If you’re a trainer or coach, a simple tactile cue of a light fingertip touch on the lower trap and a verbal cue to “pull the shoulder blade to my finger” will go a long way to getting a much more complete movement.

Bill

A new study just came out in the Journal of Sports Rehabilitation that compared EMG activity of select lower extremity muscles in the performance of a two-leg squat (TLS) and what they called a modified single-leg squat (MSLS).  For most of us, we’d call it a Bulgarian split squat or rear foot elevated split squat.

Recently, there’s been some uproar in the strength and conditioning community in regard to some coaches choosing to remove traditional TLS from their programming.  While I think there are few if any contraindicated exercises, there are contraindicated people when it comes to certain exercises such as heavy back squats for athletes with back issues or overhead pressing for people with shoulder issues. 

So when I saw this study I thought it would be of interest.  Keep in mind that this study doesn’t address the issues as to why some coaches have decided to remove heavy TLS from their programs.  I also want to note that I’m not interested in starting another debate on whether athletes or general population fitness-enthusiasts should back squat.  It is merely a comparison of the TLS and the MSLS in regard to muscle activity.  Make your own choices as to what exercises you deem appropriate based on the needs of the individual.

A few things I liked about this study:  They used real (female) athletes, they made an effort to keep the kinematics the same for tibial anterior translation and trunk inclincation for each subject, and they used legitimate loading.  One of my pet peeves is research that only uses body weight or very light loads for strength training research.  In this study they used 85% of a tested 3 rep max for both the TLS and MSLS assuring the same relative intensity.

Something I didn’t like:  The MSLS was a new exercise for the athletes.  To the researcher’s credit, they did give them practice sessions with supervised instruction to assure accurate exercise performance.  Anyone who’s trained for a while knows that you can shift the demands of a squat from a “quad dominant” strategy to a “hip dominant” strategy by shifting the hips posteriorly, increasing trunk inclination, and keeping the tibia more vertical.  Farrokhi, et. al. showed that an increased forward lean during a lunge increased the demand on the hip extensors.  By making an effort to keep the kinematics the same for each subject from TLS to the MSLS, the researchers minimized this influence of tibia and trunk angle on the muscle activity.  One average, the subjects were able to maintain just over 85% of the total system weight (body weight + barbell load) on the front leg.

The Outcome

The MSLS produced increase demands on the gluteus medius and hamstrings and reduced demands on quadriceps, whereas the TLS produce greater demands on the quadriceps with reduced hamstring and gluteus medius activity.  There was a significant difference in trunk inclination angle between the TLS and MSLS (TLS inclination was higher), but it didn’t seem to affect the muscle activity.

The researchers also noted an increased valgus angle of the knee during MSLS.  This is not an uncommon finding in research involving females and exercises demanding greater stability.

A few thougths…

I don’t think the findings are a big surprise.  The MSLS has greater demands on stability compared to the TLS, therefore muscles responsible for stabilizing the hip and knee should show increased activity.

I also don’t think this study is support for the elimination of TLS and/or double leg strength work as the “you play on one leg, so you should train on one leg because it’s more specific” crowd may feel.  The reduced quadriceps activity may be indicative of reduced overall force output.  High-speed ground-based activities like change of direction require high levels of quadriceps activity.  According to Chiu, Garhammer, and Schilling, the TLS was found to be more specific to such activities because of the high force demands.  Training solely on a single leg certainly won’t provide for the demands of high force activities.

However, improving stabilizer fatigue resistance may be an important factor in helping to maintain those high force abilities.

So which is better, MSLS or TLS?  Neither.  We benefit from both two-leg and single-leg exercises strength and power exercises in an effective sports training program.

One other small note to keep in mind.  Research only applies to the population examined, so these results may not apply to male subjects.

 References:

Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 2010, 19, 57-70

J Orthop Sports Phys Ther., 2008, July 38(7), 403-9

We were showing the interns how to teach pulling exercises like the various forms of rows.  Thought it would be of interest.