Like most people, I’m always looking for new and inventive ways to train the “core.”  Contrary to what many of the muscle-rags or many of the popular health/fitness magazines may advocate, when I think of core training, the first thing that comes to my mind is anti-rotation.  Or, better yet, stabilization.

Truth be told, I haven’t programmed a crunch or sit-up for any of my clients/athletes in well over five years.  For those new to this blog and wondering why I despise crunches so much, read here, here, and here for a brief idea.

For starters, you can’t discuss the goblet squat without first acknowledging the man who popularized it, Dan John.

Secondly, I really dislike the Smith machine.  I was originally going to say hate, but hate is a strong word and should really be saved for stuff like leg curls and leg presses.  And Poodles.  But I digress.  Furthermore, I think any personal trainer who uses the Smith machine exclusively to teach someone how to squat, is doing a huge disservice to their client.  And, they’re lazy.  But that goes without saying.

In any case, the last time I checked, our bodies weren’t meant to move in a fixed plane of motion.   Moreover, it makes no sense- at least in my eyes- to play into someone’s dysfunction and have them use a piece of equipment that just feeds into it.

Instead, the goblet squat is my preferred exercise when introducing the squat to new clients.

Lets back track a bit, though.

While the box squat is generally considered a fairly advanced movement (and it is), it might come as a surprise to know that we use them quite often with beginners at CP- particularly with regards to teaching proper squat technique.  Lets be real, most people don’t come remotely close to squatting to full depth (for the record, full depth equates to the point where the anterior surface of the thigh is BELOW the knee joint), let alone performing anything that you’d actually, you know, call a squat.  Most guys kinda bend their knees a little bit and call it squatting, like this guy.

Nice try, thanks for playing.  My eyes hate me now.

Girls Can Do Push-Ups Too.  And Make You 15 Minutes Late to a Dinner Reservation Because They Couldn’t Pick an Outfit to Wear.  But That Goes Without Saying.  Anyways, About Those Push-Ups……

One of my biggest pet peeves in the fitness industry, other than guys who curl in the squat rack, and anything related to Tracy Anderson (of course), is the whole concept of the “girl push-up.”  We all know the drill- guys are told to do regular push-ups, and girls- because we assume they can’t do them- are told to drop down to their hands and knees, and do girl push-ups.

Generally speaking, women are weaker than their male counterparts, so it make sense that we may need to tweak certain exercises to better suit them.  Although, I have a few female clients who would beg to differ!  If you ask me, however, I just think it comes down to pure laziness.  Most trainers (not all) are just too lazy to take the time to show their female clients how to do a proper push-up.  In the end, it ends up looking something like this:

Er, uh, I mean this:

It’s been stated that roughly 80% of Americans will experience low(er) back pain at some point in their life.  For the mathematically challenged, that’s four out of every five people.  Chances are if you’re reading this blog post, you’ve experienced some form of lower back pain, or at the very least, know someone who has.

As such, not a week goes by where we don’t see someone walk into CP for the first time and reveal that they’ve been suffering from a jacked up back for days, months, or in the worst cases, years at a time.

Moreover, trying to uncover the root cause of their pain can be tricky.  Was it a one-time, blunt trauma, like falling of a ladder, or, I don’t know, being a bit overzealous and busting out your robot at the company Christmas party?  Maybe it’s due to faulty movement patterns?  Is it pathological (disk herniation, spondy, etc)?  How about poor program design?  Or maybe, just maybe, it’s due to the fact that you sit all day in a flexed position and have the mobility of a pregnant pig?

Needless to say, it could be any number of things, and while I can usually speculate as to the root cause, it’s important to remember that I’m not a doctor dammit, I’m a strength coach.

We do a lot of push-ups at Cressey Performance. As far as “bang for your training buck” exercises, I’d place push-ups right up there with squats, deadlifts, and chin-ups (to name a few). Unfortunately, and not at all surprising, push-ups typically get ignored all together because they’re deemed “too wimpy” compared to what else- the bench press.

Which is ironic, because I’d say that roughly 90% of the people who come in for their initial evaluation can’t perform a proper push-up; let alone do them for multiple repetitions.