Diary of a Fasting Man

So, summer is almost here, and I have a little more jiggle around my waistline than I'd like. However, I'm also training to enter an weightlifting competition. In my experience, I cannot get stronger, at least to any significant degree, while going on an effective diet to lose weight. A caloric deficit just seems to ruin my workouts.

My solution: intermittent fasting. It's a way of eating that has become really popular with fitness professionals recently. I didn't say "diet", because you're eating normal, healthy foods, but only eat them certain times and fast the rest.

Despite it being simple, I don't feel like explaining it because shut up. Here's an infographic that does a better job than I ever could.

To stick my toe in the water, I'm going the one-day approach: Don't eat for 24 hours. From 10 pm on Saturday, May 18, to 10 pm on Sunday, May 19, I can drink water and coffee and green tea to my heart's content, but no food. Indeed, nothing with any calories whatsoever.

This is the log of my experience.


Saturday, 10 pm- Okay, just finished up my last meal for 24 hours.

Liver and Onions.

Liver is supposed to be like..the best food ever for you. It's also, however, a liver. I kind of tastes like squishy pennies, and the whole time I was eating it I couldn't not  think about punching into a cow and ripping out its liver (one of its livers? I don't know cow anatomy) and throwing it in a skillet.

Anyway, fasting isn't looking as bad now.

Sunday, 11: 30 am- This is when I for real sat down to write this blog entry. I have a cup of coffee in hand, and so far no appetite to speak of. Googling "liver and onions" helped. 

However, I've tried not eating a whole day before, back when I was a teenager. I vowed not to eat during the weekends so I could lose weight (because shut up, you weren't a rocket scientist either). I made it 6 hours. 

Today, I'm going to remind myself of why I'm doing this by sitting without a shirt on and looking down at how my fat rolls bunch up and grabbing them while calling myself names before seriously considering whether or not I have medically significant body issues. Huh. 

2:12 pm - Okay, so the first hunger pangs are finally starting to hit. I'm used to eating right as I wake up, so four hours later... yeah, I can feel it. So far, it's manageable. I'll just drink some water and play Xbox to keep myself occupied.


3:51 pm - Starting to feel it now. That sort of weak feeling you get when you're really hungry. Coffee should help. Yeah. gonna drink some more coffee. That'll clear up the jitters. I'm I skinny yet?

Darren kind of looks like a turkey leg.


4:41 pm- coffee has not made me less jittery. Water now.


5:39 pm - Feeling great, actually. Hunger is gonOH GOD NOW THAT I'M WRITING ABOUT IT THE HUNGER IS BACK WHAT HAVE I DONE

So yeah, I don't know if its actually hunger, or appetite. I've found that I'm pretty much surrounded by food, all day, all the time. It makes me wonder how much I would crave food if it wasn't always immediately available.

Something to think about; brain food, if you wTHAT WAS STUPID I DID IT AGAIN


6:27 pm - This is where it starts getting tough. All I can think about is that I know in 3.5 hours I can eat again, and it's going to be a protein shake and a big pizza and breadsticks and a PB&J because shut up, I'll do what I want, no it's not negating any benefits I got from fasting, shut up. Oh my....pizza... it's going to be amazing.


6:50 pm - I'm going to watch how i met your mother and hope they don't talk about food they wouldnt do that would they why would they be mean like that


7:28 pm - Friends are over. They want to play Magic. They don't know my pain. They don't know what I'm going through. So I'm making a point to bring it up every 9 seconds. My pain will be their pain.


8:12 pm -  That pizza is going to be amazing. I'm going to eat it so hard. I'm going to savor it and let it swim in my mouth and whisper sweet nothings to my taste buds before gracefully sliding to its rightful place in my gullet.


8:13 pm - Food is better than sex. I know that now. I know that because I've decided that I'm not actually all that hungry. But the thought of eating something delicious after not eating anything at all for .... 22 hours and 13 minutes is at the forefront of my mind and it isn't leaving.


8: 19 pm - Still there. Yup.


8: 27 pm - There's only an hour and a half left to go. I can't tell if that makes it easier or harder. But I'm going to make it , and I'm not even going to pretend it was all that hard. There are starving kids in the world who have been three days without food and they're thankful when they get a bowl of under cooked white rice for their one meal before the next three days without food.

On a side note, I don't know if I feel good about myself forcing a fast to look better when so many people do it because there is no food to eat.


8:59 pm - Game of Thrones time.


9: 10 pm - Also Game of Thrones time.


9:31 pm - Ordering that pizza online while still trying to watch Game of Thrones. OH HELL YEAH YOU TELL HIM TYRION.


10:00 pm - 

10:20 pm - Ughl....stomach may have shrank a bit during the past 24 hours....normal pizza load not well received...no touch me now.....Am I pretty yet?



The Next Day: 

So, it's done. And you know what? I'm going to do it again. I don't feel weak today, and I don't feel like I need to eat two days worth of food to make up for yesterday. FYI, I normally overeat pizza when it's available to me, so last night wasn't out of the ordinary....except for the fact I got full quicker than normal.

One of the primary benefits cited by intermittent fasting is appetite control, and I can definitely see it. One bowl of oatmeal this morning, and I feel like I could go hours without eating, which is normal for normal people, not normal for me.

The effects? I couldn't tell you. It's been one day. What I'm going for here is a hormonal change, which could take weeks to take effect, especially if I'm only doing one day a week. The most popular methods involve fasting 16 hours every day, eating good food (which apparently isn't pizza) during the 8 hour window. I might progress to that, because 8 hours sounds like a long time to eat. It means you skip breakfast, but that just means I'm eating eggs, turkey bacon, and wheat toast for lunch instead.

All in all, I can see how this works for people. Everything works. There are tons of success stories of people using intermittent fasting, and tons of success stories from almost every other diet ever written. The key is finding something you can do that won't kill you or compromise your health.

I'll try it again next Sunday, if that's any indication.

Flexibility vs. Mobility

These are two fitness terms often used in conjunction with each other, so I'll try to clear up some confusion right off the bat: flexibility and mobility are two different things.

Flexibility refers to the range of motion you can stretch, passively or actively, a muscle before it snaps off the bone and hits you in the eye. More or less.

Mobility refers to the range of motion you can use a muscle effectively.

Here is side-by-side comparison of a female yogi demonstrating flexibility, and a ridiculously photogenic weightlifter demonstrating mobility:

Side note: a google image search for "flexibility" is the closest thing to porn you will see with safesearch still on.

Both of these girls have great hip, knee, and shoulder range of motion. The one on the right, however, is going to stand up with a big weight at the bottom of her position. She is demonstrating mobility. The girl on the left has "gotten into position" by pulling her hip past the point where it ceased being strong for the sake of a stretch. She exhibits great flexibility.

Think of flexibility as a bucket, and mobility as the water you have available to fill that bucket.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I think flexibility and mobility work are both hella-boring. I'll also admit that I get jacked up something fierce when I stop stretching and mobilizing, so I understand that these are the raw broccoli to my weightlifting's tender juicy steak.

And while the two are not the same thing, they are both, unfortunately, important.

Increasing your flexibility changes the resting length of the muscle and makes them less resistant to being pulled to the end of its range of motion. This is usually touted as a great means of injury prevention. And it is....but not by itself. In fact, flexibility without mobility may increase the likelihood of injury by making it easier to get into positions in which you are not stable. 5 gallons of water in a 10 gallon bucket is just a lot of wasted bucket.

Increasing your mobility, on the other hand, makes you more capable of moving effectively through a large range of motion. Look again at the ridiculously photogenic weightlifting lady above: she's not only showing better flexibility throughout her shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles than most people, but she's supporting a heavy weight in a fairly stable manner at the "edges" of her range of motion. That is good mobility.

I know it sounds like I'm trumpeting mobility over flexibility... and I am. But mobility is certainly enhanced by flexibility, and the latter can aid in releasing chronically tight muscles that are the cause of a pantheon of non-weight training related injuries.

So when should you be working on these qualities?

Mobility work should be a staple in your warm up, and not just limited to what muscle groups you plan on working out that session. Hip, knee, ankle, and shoulder mobility work can and should be a daily occurrence. Don't know how? Why, here's a video, free of charge!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L5KVw2Pwic

Flexibility work can be done literally anytime, ever. Before your workout, after your workout, or my recommendation, on a completely separate day from weight training as part of a recovery protocol. Taking a yoga class has become my favorite way to incorporate stretching into my fitness routine. The common myths about stretching before workouts decreasing strength, or stretching after workouts to take advantage of pliability, are largely untrue. But that's another article.

Hopefully you know just a little bit more about these terms than you did before.As always, if you have any questions about this article or any other, please leave a comment or send me a message on Facebook. And if you haven't liked our page at Skape Fitness yet, we're totally not friends anymore.

Go forth, mobilize, and lift heavy things.

Introducing Skape Fitness!

So, remember a few months back, when Darren Powers and myself had an epic contest of mass-itude challenging the very notion of what could be done with the mound of organic clay that is the human body?

You know, when we had a contest of who could look better in a month?

Well, we've set aside our differences (for the time being because I totally won and I don't think his psyche can take it much longer) and started a business venture together.

What business, you ask? Did you not read the title of this blog post?

Skape Fitness is part of a new movement in the fitness industry. I know that sounds cliche to the point of losing all meaning, but it's actually true. You see, we're finally starting to realize that the internet is a pretty neat thing, on account of its ability to share information and pictures and videos, sometimes of things that are not cats.

Online personal training is a growing industry, and for good reason. It combines the personalized workouts and instruction of an in-person personal trainer with the affordability of something you can afford. It works like this:

1. You check out our website, realize how awesome and worth it we are, and contact us.

2. We'll create your Trainerize profile for you. Trainerize is the software we use to send you workouts, and it contains a host of videos and charts to instruct you on exercise form as well as keep track of your progress. Through this software,we send you an online consultation form that lets us get to know you and your goals, you fill it out and send it back, and we give you a basic layout of a program we'd write for you.

3. If it sounds good to you (and it will), you pay for a month's worth of workouts for the price of a single in-person training session with a trainer.

4. We send you your first week's worth of workouts through the software. Please do them, this is actually the important part. Record your progress, either by printing out the workout and writing it down, or by downloading the app on your phone and recording it there. We'll be able to see your numbers like this, and it'll help us both keep track of how you're coming and what we need to adjust.

5. With this software, you'll have access to videos and written instructions of all the exercises, as well as instruction regarding sets, reps, rest, what have you. If you have any questions, you can throw them over the internet at us, and we'll throw answers back at you.

6. (Optional) You get a modeling contract with Hot Bodies That are Sexy, LLC and break the world record in the horse toss and the 400m backflip dash, two events you had to invent because you're too in-shape to do normal things.

Like this, but with the horse still attached. 

All of this, the training, instruction, and nutritional guidance that I forgot to mention, is set up to be tailored to your schedule and equipment options. If you have 8 days a week to work out in the biggest gym in Kentucky, we'll give you the absolute best program to take advantage of your options. If you have 40 minutes a week to work out in the corner of your kid's toy room using only old milk jugs and your body, we got you covered there too.

And, of course, this business is the base of operations for my personal training business at Wildcat Fitness, so you'll find all the information you want about training with me in personal on the website as well. Since in-personal training still trumps the admittedly awesome online option because of the immediate feedback and seeing my face, the ideal setup would be training with me once or twice a week, and on your own using our online services the rest of the time. It's like having a tutor and the best study guide ever and a magic potion that makes you sexier all in one.

Since I'm pretty sure it's now required by law, we are now also doing internets on Facebook and Twitter, and you should totally watch us do that. Here are the things:

Twitter Handle: @SkapeFitness

Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Skape-Fitness

We're just starting out, so we could really use the support of awesome people, and since you're reading this blog, you've passed the Awesome Litmus Test. For our first official week of business (from today until April 30, 2013) if you like, share, or scream from the rooftops our name, we will give you a free week of workouts  through our new online training program. Yes, you can do pushups and squats and one-legged Romainian Dumbbell Deadlifts the way we tell you to free for a week! How cool does that sound?

We've given you the means, now go forth and pick up heavy things, the Skape Fitness way!

The New Generation (Also Ninja Unicorns)

The #1 cause of gymtimidation backed by no study whatsoever is the perceived adherence to gym culture required to be successful.

In order to feel like you belong at the gym, you must do the following things if you're a guy:

1. Call people "bro".
2. Wear either a skintight Under Armour compression shirt (regardless of belly size) or cut the sleeves off a regular shirt (regardless of arm size).
3. Grunt like it's your second language when picking up anything heavier than the gallon jug of water you are currently drinking from.
4. Do two sets of bicep curls for every set of any exercise that's not the bench press.

If you're a girl, you must:

1. Wear shorts a size too short or those skintight yoga leggings. Over-sized tank tops are your go-to top.
2. Avoid any weight not coated in neoprene.
3. Do every ab and butt machine in the gym at least twice.
4. Perform no less than twenty variations of crunches.

There is a new generation currently invading the clique that used to be the gym.

We're among this new generation.

 We grew up watching Digimon and playing Yu-Gi-Oh! and marching in the marching band. 

We geek out over Game of Thrones and laugh at Grumpy Cat memes on the internet. 

We were the ones who got picked on by people who are supposed to go to the gym. 

And we're more awesome than you. Just check out these guys: 

If "To be a Rainbow Ninja riding a Unicorn" isn't enough of a reason to get you working out, then I just don't think I am able to help you. 

We also have iron guru Ben Bruno rocking a Batman shirt while finding ways to make deadlifts harder:

And here is a girl half your size lifting heavier weights with better form than you:

These guys and girls didn't exist a few years ago. In order to be a fan of the weight room, you had to have a certain personality, you had to like the right things outside the gym, and you definitely could not be a Rainbow Ninja riding a Unicorn.

They were dark times. 

We're not done though. Let's get some more geeks and nerds and tiny girls and shy guys picking up heavy things like the jocks of old think only they can. The gym has done well thus far in accepting us, but until we're embraced like we should be there is still work to do.

Now join me, no matter who you are, and find something heavy to lift. 

Going to the Gym (When You Really Don't Want To)

I am a personal trainer by trade. I spent four years going to school with the intent of doing this for the rest of my life.

I read articles and books on strength and conditioning for at least half an hour every day.

I have, more often than I like to admit, been that jerk who chastises people who find excuses not to work out.

And damn it, I did not want to work out last week.

The first week of April was a rough one for me. I decided to leave my old job at LIFT Fitness and was lucky enough to find work at Wildcat Fitness within two days, but as anyone who has gone through transitioning to another phase in their professional career can tell you, it's one of the most stressful things you can put yourself through. There was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of work put in for little tangible gain. And while I'm not exactly starting over, I know that the next few months will be spent building up a new client base, and there is a lot more stress to come.

Working out seemed like the least important thing I could have been doing.

A friend of mine has a pretty nice home gym setup, complete with a squat rack and adjustable dumbbells, and he was gracious enough to let me use his equipment while I was between gyms. Even with his generosity, it took just about all the willpower I had left over from my job search to put on a pair of shorts and squat. I did six sets with a weight I thought was kind of heavy, and quit.

Sometimes that's good enough.

Even for someone who more or less does it for a living, I know that working out should not be the most important thing in your life. That does not, however, mean it's not worth doing even during the most stressful times of your life. Here are some tips to get you to the gym when it's the last thing you want to do.

1. Get in and do something.

Not every workout needs to leave you drenched in sweat with jelly legs that can barely get you back to the car. Sometimes just getting to the gym and moving around is enough to keep you from losing the progress you have made with such workouts in the past. Do a set or two of goblet squats, some pullups, your favorite machine and ab exercise, and go home. Don't think ten minutes in the gym is a waste of time.

2. Have someone else write your workout.

I've mentioned it before, but this can do wonders for your work ethic. I was surprised at just how much willpower it took for me to write an honest workout for myself, until I bought Dan Trink's arm program and, more recently, started following the Olympic lifting workouts on Central Kentucky Weightlifting's blog. There's no more, "should I do another exercise for my shoulders?". Instead, you look at what's written, and do it.

3. Work out with someone who needs it.

There is no shame in getting out of shape. Life happens. But sometimes it gets to the point where it puts you at risk for losing your quality of life, and going to the gym becomes a literal life-saving endeavor. Maybe you have a coworker who has constant back and neck pain from her office job, maybe your mother is becoming at risk for type II diabetes, maybe your friend is clinically obese. Work out with them. Hold them accountable for making this important change. If you miss a workout, they might miss a workout. When it's someone else's health at risk, getting to the gym makes a big jump on your priority list. And hey- they might end up being your inspiration instead. 

These are just some ideas to get you through a rough patch. My goal is to make everyone I train love the gym as much as I do, and to make those patches as short as possible. As for me, all it took was a new facility and a new pair of Olympic lifting shoes to get me back on track.

Despite matching absolutely nothing I own

Go forth, fight through it, and pick up heavy things.

Why Smart Trainers Believe Stupid Things

Below is a blog post that I really enjoyed by Nick Tumminello over at Performance U Fitness.

"I don't care what the science says, I've seen it work for myself."

This is the attitude of many trainers (and many other professionals, come to think of it) and a prime reason why many people are rightfully distrustful of us.

Once again, this is not my work, but I really enjoyed it and thought I'd post it here. Here is a link to the original article.

Why Smart Trainers Believe Stupid Things (Part 1): Bias Toward Positive Evidence

By nick On March 21, 2013 · Add Comment · In Strength Training

I recently did a facebook post, which stated, “Topics such as spinal rehabilitation and biomechanics have such grey areas and so much conflicting information that we really don’t “know” anything!  For example, research has continually failed to show how postural, structural or bio-mechanical factors are linked (if at all) to pain and dysfunction, or if  ”compensations” are simply a normal variation in human function. Not to mention, we still have no idea (based on research evidence) as to what causes things like non-specific back pain, or what’s the “best” approach to avoid it and treat it, except for, “if it hurts, don’t do it.” Yet, the various human motion assessment “experts” pontificate their hypothesis with great confidence and certainty, and sell it as fact.  As the saying goes, “where facts are few, experts are many.” –  ”The truth is: when it comes to pain and human movement, anyone who expresses anything with absolute certainty is basically WRONG, because the evidence for cause and effect in this area is almost always weak and circumstantial.”

In addition to being skeptical common claims associate with Corrective exercise, I also strongly encourage everyone (fitness pros, rehab pros and fitness enthusiasts) to be highly skeptical of the common claims associated with Complimentary and Alternative Medicine practices, as by definition “Alternative Medicine”  means ” treatment interventions that have NOT been proven by (i.e. failed) scientific controlled trials.”

Note: When a given treatment intervention proves itself in scientific testing, it becomes “Medicine.” In other words, in reality, there really is no “alternative medicine”, there’s just medicine and there’s everything else.

Now, this brings us to the reasons that inspired me to write this Why Smart Trainers (and smart people in general) Believe Stupid Things series, which is…

Anytime I talk to smart Personal Trainers and Rehabilitation professionals about why they should be highly skeptical of the claims commonly associated with Motion Assessment Procedures, Corrective Exercise Interventions and Alternative Medicine Practices, they always come back with statements like:

“I’ve seen it work.” ”I don’t care what the science says, it works for me and it helps my clients/ patients”.

“I’m convinced acupuncture works because I know plenty of people who’ve used it to cure all kinds of stuff.”

“I know these corrective exercise techniques work because I see it all the time. That’s all the evidence I need.”

Sometimes statements like the above are offered as justifications for the person’s own beliefs; at other times they are designed to “convince”  the listener of some important truth. In either case, these statements represent a strong conviction that a particular belief is warranted in light of the evidence presented. Unfortunately, such evidence is hardly sufficient to warrant such beliefs because social psychology research has proven (beyond a shadow of a doubt) that we’re all very bad at judging the evidence of our own experience due to imperfections in our capacities to process information and draw accurate conclusions.

Put simply, just because something works in your experience in no way means that it actually does work in reality. My goal with this “Why Smart Trainers Believe Stupid Things” series is to  prove that to you by (systematically) increasing your understanding of how questionable beliefs and self-delusions are formed and how they are maintained. Along with shedding some light on the study of human judgment and reasoning (i.e. social psychology).

False beliefs plauge both experienced professionals and less informed people alike.

 ”From the greatest scientist to the humble artisan, every brain within every body is infested with preconceived notions and patterns of thought that lead it astray without the brain knowing it. So you’re in good company. No matter who your idols and mentors are, they too are prone to spurious speculation, erroneous beliefs and self-delusions.” David McRaney

Contrary to popular misconception, people do NOT hold questionable beliefs simply because they are stupid or gullible. As you’ll soon discover from this ”Why Smart Trainers Believe Stupid Things” series; false beliefs are NOT the products of irrationality, but of flawed rationality.

To kick off this unique series, we’re exploring the Bias Toward Positive Evidence.

The Bias Toward Positive Evidence

Put simply, the Bias Toward Positive Evidence is our innate tendency to “detect” relationships (between two variables) that are not there because we overvalue evidence that only confirms a given hypothesis.

Here’s the proof – Take this quick test: The Watson Selection Task

Imagine a table with four cards on it, marked “A,” “D,” “4,” and “7.” Each card has a letter on one side and number on the other. Your task is to determine whether all cards with a vowel on one side have an even number on the other.

Which two cards would you turn over? (I encourage you to take a moment to consider which cards should be turned over.)

As a game of logic, this should be a cinch for you to figure out. When psychologist Peter Watson conducted this experiment in 1977, less than 10% of the people he asked got the correct answer.

So what was your answer? If you choose the “A” card and choose to turn over the “4” card as well, you are among the 90% of people who’s minds get boggled by this task.  That’s because these (the “A” and the “4″) are the cards that would only produce information consistent with the hypothesis you are supposed to be testing. But in fact, the cards you need to flip are the “A” and the “7,” because finding a vowel on the back of the “4” would tell you nothing about “all cards,” it would just confirm “some cards,” whereas finding of vowel on the back of “7″ would comprehensively disprove your hypothesis.

This modest brainteaser clearly demonstrates that you don’t always appreciate the distinction between necessary and sufficient evidence, and have the tendency to be overly impressed by data that, at best, only suggests that a belief may be true.

“Because people often fail to recognize that a particular belief rests on inadequate information, the beliefs enjoys an illusion of validity and is considered, not a matter of opinion or values, but a logical conclusion from objective evidence.” Prof. Thomas Gilovich

In other words, you have a willingness to base your conclusions on incomplete information, which makes you highly vulnerable to developing false beliefs.

It should also be noted, as Prof. Thomas Gilovich points out, “this experiment is particularly informative because it makes it abundantly clear that the tendency to seek out information consistent with a hypothesis need not stem from any desire (i.e. emotional attachment to a given training/ treatment method) for the hypothesis to be true. In this case, the people (and you) surely did not care whether all cards with vowels on one side and even numbers on the other;  they sought information consistent with the hypothesis simply because it seemed to be the most relevant to the task at hand.”

The tendency (of our unchecked intuition) that positive instances are somehow more informative than disconfirmations can also been seen in the (below) quotation by John Holt:

 “I was thinking of a number between 1 and 10,000. They still cling stubbornly to the idea that the only good answer is a ‘yes’ answer. If they say, ‘Is the number between 5,000 and 10,000?’ and I say yes, they cheer; if I say no, they groan, even though they get exactly the same amount of information in either case.”

The same bias in seeking out confirmatory information has been demonstrated in a number of investigations into the hypothesis-testing strategies people use in everyday social life.

In the most common procedure used in these social psychology experiments like this study, participants are asked to determine if someone is an “extrovert” by selecting a set of questions to ask the target from a list of questions provided by the experimenter. Much of this research shows that most of subjects asked questions for which a positive answer would confirm the hypothesis (i.e. “do you like going to parties?”) rather than refute it.

According to Thomas Gilovich, a professor of psychology at Cornell University, ”When trying to determine if a person is an extrovert, for example, people prefer to ask about the ways in which the target person is outgoing;  when trying to determine if a person is introvert, people are more inclined to ask about the ways in which the target is socially inert.”

Professor Gilovich goes on to state that “Although a tendency to ask such one-sided questions does not guarantee that the hypothesis will be confirmed, it can produce an erroneous sense of confirmation for a couple of reasons. First, the specific questions asked can sometimes be so constraining that only information consistent with the hypothesis is likely to be elicited. For example, in one widely-cited study, one of the questions that the participants were fond of asking when trying to determine if a person was an extrovert was: “what would you do if you wanted to liven things up at a party?”  A question such as this one is clearly biased against disconfirmation:  even the most inner directed individual has been to a party or two and can at least discuss how to liven one up explicitly asked to do so. By asking such constraining questions, it is difficult for anyone, includingintroverts, not to sound extroverted.” – “Furthermore,  even if such constraining questions are not asked, a tendency to ask confirmatory questions can still produce spurious sense of confirmation if the likelihood of a positive response to the question is high whether or not the hypothesis is true. Suppose, for example, that you want to determine if an individual isintroverted, and so you ask about a characteristic that might confirm your hypothesis: “do you sometimes feel that it is hard for you to really let yourself go at a party?”  The person’s response is unlikely to be truly informative because most people,  extroverts as well as introverts, would answer the same way – “yes,  sometimes it is hard to really let go.”

Wait! There’s more…

We show a similar tendency to seek out hypothesis-confirming evidence when we interrogate information from our own memories for relevant evidence.

In this study, subjects first read a story about a women who exemplified various introverted and extroverted behaviors and then were divided into two groups. One group was asked to consider the woman’s suitability for a job as a librarian (a job thought to demand introversion), while the other group was asked to consider her suitability for a job as a real estate agent (a job thought to demand extroversion). As part of their assessment, the participants were asked to recall examples of the woman’s introversion and extroversion. The particular job the woman was seeking strongly affected the evidence that the participants could recall:  those asked to assess the woman’s suitability for an extroverted job recalled more examples of the woman’s extroversion, while the group considering her for the librarian job cited more examples of the woman’s introversion.

The Take Away Lessons for Fitness Professionals and Rehab Professionals:

- We have the tendency to draw firm (complete) conclusions from incomplete information because we seek out and overvalue confirmatory information for any given hypothesis.

- If 90% of people fail to understand the evidence required to truly prove the hypothesis in The Watson Selection Task, which gets the same results every time the experiment is performed,  then it’s highly likely that 90% of fitness professionals and  rehabilitation professionals are basing their beliefs about how well a given corrective exercise or treatment practice “works” onincomplete and insufficient evidence. This means that there’s a 90% chance that YOU are one of these individuals who’s currently being misled by the evidence of your own experience. And, that’s okay! Because only by becoming aware of the (proven) fallibility in our everyday reasoning - like the bias toward positive evidence along the other flaws in judgement, which I’ll cover in future installments of this WSTBST series –  can these undeniable psychology facts be embraced and overcome.

- We do not adequately assess the validity of our hypotheses or beliefs because we do not fully utilize all of the information available to us. If we just seek to confirm that our chosen methods are working and neglect to attempt to disconfirm them (i.e. provide other explanations for why our clients/ patients saw improvements. Ex: Rest),  any conclusions we make in regards to cause-and-effect of our chosen corrective exercise/ treatment methods rests on very shaky ground.

- The relationship one perceives between two variables (like a particular pain and an intervention method) can vary with the precise form of the question that is asked. We tend to ask our clients and patients “leading” questions that elicit information (i.e. an answer) that’s likely to confirm our hypothesis, often giving us an erroneous sense of confirmation for the need to use our chosen corrective exercise/ treatment methods.

- We tend to pay more attention to the ways in which the issues our clients and patients present with that are similar to (i.e. fit well within) our chosen corrective/ treatment methodologies than to the ways in which they differ.  When testing a hypothesis of similarity, we look for evidence of similarity rather than dissimilarity, and when testing a hypothesis of dissimilarity, we do the opposite.

We’re Just Getting Started!

As I’ve just shown you, the bias toward positive evidence is one (of many) undeniable psychological reasons, which proves that just because “you’ve seen” a given corrective exercise or treatment intervention “work” “in your experience,” in no way guarantees that it actually does.

In each installment to this series – as I did with this one - I will address one of the many different cognitive illusions, failings of intuition, and inherent biases in the data upon which we base our beliefs, so you can recognize these psychological realities and overcome them in order to arrive at sound judgments and valid beliefs about training/ treatment practices.

Coach Nick Tumminello has built a reputation as the ‘Trainer of trainers” through his workshops at conferences and fitness club around the world. And, for his consulting work with pro/college sports teams and with exercise equipment/ clothing manufactures.

He’s the owner of Performance University international, which provides hybrid strength training & conditioning for athletes and educational programs for fitness professionals. Based in South Florida, Nick is a Fort Lauderdale personal trainer who works with a select group of athletes and exercise enthusiasts.

You can check out Coach Nick’s articles, DVDs, seminars schedule, mentorship program and very popular hybrid fitness training blog at http://nicktumminello.com/

A Plea for Depth

"Go through a full range of motion" is the exercise equivalent of "eat your vegetables"; we've been told by our trainers/mothers that it's important, but we don't like to do it and will find every excuse we can not to. There are many different reasons to only go through a partial range of motion on any exercise -you can put more weight on the bar, you can get more reps, it seems safer- and they all have one thing in common:

With very, very rare exceptions, a full range of motion (ROM) is a requirement for optimal progress and safety. And in no exercise is the more important -or more widely ignored- than the squat. 

The squat is a scary but misunderstood beast. When broken down in to all of it's separate components, it's one of the most technically complex movements of the human body. I have textbooks with literally entire chapters  devoted to this one lift, and for good reason. However, when done correctly, the squat is perhaps the most effective, efficient, and safest exercises you can do in the gym.

Unfortunately, "correctly" means "to full depth", and this is where most people fall short (pun absolutely intended). "Full depth" means that your femur is parallel to the ground, and the crease of the hips is just slightly below the top of the knee.

Correct depth

Way too shallow. 

The head may be lower, but the hips sure aren't. 

When someone doesn't want to squat to full depth, the most common reason they give is that it hurts their knees.

This makes absolutely no sense.

You don't do partial push ups to save the elbows, and you don't do partial squats to save the knees.A review of squatting kinematics by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (man, what would I do without them?) reveals that full squats are actually superior to knee extensions and partial squats during rehabilitation for a knee injury.  In fact, a partial squat is actually worse for your knees. In a partial squat, most of the stress on your knee is generated by the quadriceps pulling your tibia forward. Repetitive, one-directional pulling on any joint, knee or elsewhere, is a recipe for injury.

However, at the bottom of a full squat, the hamstrings kick in and balance the anterior stress on the knee with an opposing force. At full depth, with correct knee and foot position, the anterior and posterior forces acting on the knee are balanced. Balanced forces = safe knees.

Figure 2-11 from Mark Rippetoe's book Starting Strength, showing the forces acting on the knee at the bottom of a full squat

And no, lunges are not safer for your knees. Knee range of motion is knee range of motion.

The key here is technique. Some of the things I see people do when trying to squat (see above) are absolutely bad for the knees, and that's why proper form is so important. If you can't squat correctly, you're better off avoiding the exercise. But you'll really be missing out, and I suggest putting real effort into learning the technique and gaining the mobility necessary for a proper squat. Remember, as a personal trainer, I'm here to help you with both.

Here's a simple exercise to practice getting to full depth, which also doubles as a fantastic mobility routine for the hips.

Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes pointed about 30 degrees outward. Sit down between your legs, and drop your butt as low as it will go without coming up on your toes. Put your elbows between your knees, and push them out so they track over your feet. Try to sit a bit lower. Hold the stretch for 3-5 seconds, stand up by driving your hips up and forward, and repeat for 10 reps.

A strong, full-depth squat is one of the best indicators of total-body strength and mobility we can measure. At Lift, we include it in our warm-ups, our strength and conditioning circuits, our athletic development programs, our weight-loss programs, our...well, you get the picture. We want you to get the most out of your workout, and that means doing each movement to its fullest. 

As always, go forth, get low, and lift heavy things. 

Knowing Where to Tap It

I heard a great anecdote over at the thePTDC.com the other day:

A guy calls in a plumber to fix a problem he's having in his house. When the plumber shows up and listens to a brief description of the problem, he heads down to the basement and kneels down at one section of a pipe near the water heater. The plumber takes out is hammer, aims it at a particular bend in the pipe, and with one clink of the hammer, the problem is fixed. The plumber smiles, tips his hat to the guy, and is on his way within five minutes. The guy is understandably impressed.

Two days later the guy gets a bill from the plumber for $500. The guy is outraged, and calls the plumber to dispute the bill. "All you did was tap the pipe with a hammer!" he says. "How in the world does that cost you $500 to accomplish?"

After another two days, the guy receives a bill that outlined the charges in his bill. It read:
-$1: tapping pipe with hammer
-$499: knowing where to tap it

To be fair, most of life's problems can be solved in some way with a hammer.

When I was just starting out training a year ago, I felt like I need to use the most expensive pieces of equipment in the gym to make sure my clients were getting their money's worth. I honestly felt guilty when I had them do planks and push-ups because I still thought of myself as a demonstrator of equipment, not a designer of programs.

"Trainers do more than demonstrate exercises."

When you hire a personal trainer, you're not hiring someone to show you how to do a squat. At least, not just how. You also need to know why you're doing this squat, with this much weight, this many times, before these lunges but after those mobility drills, for this many sets, resting this much afterwards, on this day of the week.

There is, believe it or not, a reason I went to school for this.

I'm glad I bought this program for my arms, because it reminded me of my own value as a trainer. I'm writing this an hour after I finished a tricep-focused workout that had me doing 100 rope pressdowns to end the day. For the record, it felt like my arms were about to pop, and I'm having trouble keeping them in place atop my laptop as I type. 

Could I have thought of that on my own?

Yeah, but I didn't.

Do I know how to do every exercise presented in the program?

I have a literal degree in knowing every exercise in the program.

Do I understand the concepts of eccentric muscle contractions, time under tension, and volume principles that are the basis for the design of this program?

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, homey. 

But when someone else puts it all together, they provide a service that is absolutely worth the money.

I wouldn't have stuck with an arm program for this long if I had written it myself. I would have found reasons to switch to something else, or would have convinced myself I had to change something, or wouldn't have pushed myself as hard and let the weights just fall instead of being controlled and stopped at 8 reps instead of 12, and blah blah blah. But I have a sheet of paper telling me to do these things, and that's all it took for me to stick to a program and make some already noticeable gains in my physique. 

Now imagine if that piece of paper could talk, instantly clear up any questions you had, and look damn good in a 1/4 zip pullover, and you'd have yourself a personal trainer.

It also makes me think maybe I shouldn't complain about my doctor's bill from when I cut off part of my pinky. (But I'm still gonna.)

Justin is personal trainer in Lexington, Kentucky. He also writes the blog for his gym over at liftfitnessandwellness.blogspot.com.

Functional Training for the Core

"Functional" training is a relatively new concept in the fitness world, and one that is gaining more and more recognition in the general public. Unfortunately, it's meaning is about as clear as the meaning of the word "ironic", which is to say that everyone thinks they know the real definition despite agreeing with absolutely no one else. Seriously, people will throw punches over this concept at strength and conditioning conventions.

I want to have the most spectacular injury anyone has ever seen.
This is my dream. This is my destiny. 

The short answer, in the best way I can think of to describe it, is this: functional training refers to training in the gym the qualities you want to have outside of the gym. Yes, that is very, very vague, because we all want different outcomes from working out; some of us want to lose weight, others want to jump higher, and still others want to keep their shoulders healthy this baseball season. A "functional" workout is one that best helps you achieve your specific goals.

I'm going to keep things simple, and give my thoughts on training one of the most misunderstood muscle groups: the core. In my opinion, the best core exercises are the ones that prevent motion of the trunk, as opposed to flexing the trunk like you do in sit-ups and crunches.

Why is that? Well, let's look at the trunk musculature, compared to a muscle designed solely to flex and bring two points together: the bicep.

The muscles of the abdominal wall in particular run every which way. The muscles are segmented to allow different sections to contract at different rates, the deep muscles are running at different angles laterally, and it looks like there is a muscle designed to pull in every direction imaginable.

Now lets see the bicep:

One muscle, going one direction.

If the core's main job was to flex the trunk, it would look like the bicep.

Going back to the idea of functional training, we usually don't think of the core muscles as prime movers; that is to say, we generally want the trunk to stay stable while the appendages pick up stuff, run, and carry things. The core -and believe me, I'm sick of hearing that word too, but it's the best I got right now- consists not only of the "six-pack" abdominal wall, but also the muscles running up the sides and back of your midsection. The main job of these muscles is to keep everything in place, and to do so they must resist forces that want to move your trunk all over the place.

Here are three basic exercises to train your core in a way that will keep you safe and stable outside the gym:

1. The front plank 

Couldn't be simpler: put your elbows directly under your shoulders, make a straight line from your head to your ankles and hold. Start at 20 seconds, and eventually progress up to a minute. Keep your belly button pulled in, don't let your back sag down, and don't stick your butt up in the air.

2. Stability ball rollouts

No one rolls balls like me.

Start in a front plank with your elbows and forearms on a stability ball. Push your elbows as far forward as they'll go without letting your back sag, and bring them back for one rep. Pushing your elbows away from your body increases the weight your core has to counter-balance to stay still, because physics and stuff. These are, by the way, much harder than they look, Keep your sets at around 8-15 reps, and take your time; every rep should take about a second to get to full extension and a second to bring it back. All you have do to make it tougher is hold for a beat at full extension.

3. Pallof Press

I'm using this demonstration as my glamour shot. 

At a pulley station, set up a handle at chest level. Turn 90 degrees from the station so that the cable runs parallel with your shoulders, bring the handle to the middle of your chest, and stand up straight. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart. Press the handle away from you until your arms are fully extended, and don't let the force from the cable turn your body; resist that motion! Your stomach should feel tight when the handle is out away from you. Hold for a beat, then slowly return the handle to the middle of your chest. This "anti-rotation" a great way to build a strong core. 

Training your core musculature like this definitely takes some getting used to, especially if you're used to crunches to work your abs. You might not "feel" like you're "working" your "six-pack" as much, but you'll have a more solid trunk to hold everything together. And that's not to say you won't build a sexy set of abs from these exercises! 

I'm not saying there isn't value to be had in crunches and sit-ups, but there just isn't enough carryover to other aspects of lifting and living for me to recommend them as your sole source of ab training. Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that my overhead press and squat not only went up, but just felt safer after I switched from crunches to rollouts, because my core was getting better at keeping still. 

This is just a toe in the water if you're interested in "functional" training, and if you're not afraid of entering perhaps the biggest quagmire to be had in the field of strength and conditioning, I highly suggest you go check out some of Mike Boyle's stuff. He's written two books on the subject, and it's where I've gotten the bulk of my information on functional training.

Now go forth and show those weights that you won't be pushed around.

Justin is a trainer at Lift Fitness and Wellness in Lexington, Kentucky. He also runs their blog over at liftfitnessandwellness.blogspot.com