I just received an email from a prospective new client who mentioned she wants an FMS (Functional Movement Screen) to see what, if any, imbalances she has and correct them as she’s training to become a firefighter. I love that she’s keen to build her body on a base of sound functional movement before adding strength. I suspect I’m going to really enjoy working with her.

As I was replying, I thought of an email that I had written to another client who decided, after he’d been training with me for a while, that he would like to do the test at some point and wondered if I could help. I took a look at the test and realized that for the most part, the training that he was already doing with me would prepare him very nicely. I wrote a detailed email explaining why I think that.
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I was at the bike store-coffee shop this morning for an Americano between clients (Cyclelogik has great Americanos – featuring beans from Francescos….mmm…) and was feeling a little snacky. It was almost 1130 and I had another couple of assessments before lunch. So I noticed the snack offerings they had today: a big oatmeal raisin cooking and a protein bar. Not thrilling, but I considered them enough to look at the nutrition numbers for each. The power bar looked decent: less than 250 calories, and it was somewhere in the 3:1 to 4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. It has fat, but fat is really not such a big deal – unless there is so much that it increases the calorie content too much. In fact some would call fat essential. And by some, I mean smart people who understand nutrition: The “Essential” in Essential Fatty Acids is not just a marketing thing.
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Shoulder packing. Yes, that’s right: shoulder packing. It’s really a thing.

It’s a concept of how we should position our shoulder when doing any sort of lifting with our arms. Now some will say that this is ridiculous – we just move our arms and that’s how they should move. I could get behind that line of thinking. Except for one thing: many of the people that come and train with me don’t actually position their shoulder properly when moving their arms, and then they complain of pain or discomfort in their shoulder or neck when doing exercises like pushups, rows, and planks. But when I help them to position their shoulder properly, they proceed to exercise without pain or discomfort.

That’s pretty convincing for me. Why does this happen? I’d say it’s a fair bet that your computer is the culprit. In fact take a look at your shoulders right now. They’re rounded, aren’t they? Read more…

My friend Brian has recently decided to move to a standing desk setup at work and asked my opinion about it. Because he is smart, he researched this before just jumping in. This means he didn’t just buy a taller desk, but has considered all elements of the desk ergonomics. Based on that, I think it sounds like a really interesting option, which is what I told him. I do have concerns about this approach for someone who has neck troubles, as the lack of arm rests could be troublesome. But otherwise, it sounds interesting.

If this is a topic that has made you go “hmmm”, then I suggest you read through Brian’s blog post about it:

http://nesbot.com/2011/9/22/why-and-how-i-will-switch-to-a-stand-up-desk

He’ll be updating it once he’s tried it out for a couple of weeks, and I’ll be sure to update you when he does. I know I’m curious about it.

Elsbeth Vaino is a personal trainer in Ottawa, Canada.

When it comes to exercise, most people either do too much or too little. I think this applies beyond exercise, but let’s stick with that for the moment.

Those of us in the fitness and nutrition fields write a lot about those who do too little, in the hopes of helping fight the growing obesity epidemic. Today, however, I am going to talk about the other end of spectrum: too much exercise.

We laud those around us who maintain a healthy lifestyle, and are motivated by, and impressed at their the feats of strength and dedication. I recently read about a man who has run everyday for the past 40 years. I’m sure most of us who read that were inspired, and impressed. But is that actually a good idea? In his case, he seems to be enjoying a great and long life, which is all we can really ask for. But is it because of his excessive dedication to running, or in spite of it? Read more…

This article is part of my blog-series: My Favourite Training Tools (For my American readers, please excuse the ‘u’ in favourite. It’s a Canadian thing). There are probably thousands of tools out there for fitness. Some are ridiculous fly-by-night items, others have been mainstays for hundreds of years, and now and then there is a new kid on the block that is clearly here to stay. Through this blog-series, I’ll share with you the tools that I think are worth including in your home or commercial gym.

Number six on my list of favourite training tools is the chin up bar. As I write this, I wonder how it only made it to number six. If this was a “top 10 exercises that make me feel awesome” list, pull ups (palms away) and chin ups (palms toward you) would probably rank number one. But in reality, most people can’t do them (yet!), so we need other tools to be build up our strength so you can do them. This is where things like free weights (#1 on my list) and the TRX (#5 on my list) come in handy. I use them for building overall strength and stability first, and then I also use them to help clients progress to pullups. Here are a couple of how to exercise videos showing the pull up progressions that I use to get clients to be able to do pull ups:
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For your sake, I really hope it’s better than mine was a couple of months ago. Before that, I had fallen into the “the cobbler’s children have no shoes” category with workout planning. Each workout was scribbled onto a piece of paper and then shoved into the front pocket of my program folder. Some on post-its; some on scraps. Most do have a date and in theory there was probably some semblance of a plan from day to day, although not much more than that. It almost became a joke. Probably I should not have included “almost” in that last sentence.
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If you’ve read my stuff before, then you know that I am, well, a big geek. I think I probably took fitness geek to a whole new level with my bench press assessment article, talking about the work value of a bench press based on arm span. I think this article will further raise the bar on geek in the fitness industry.

This article is about what typical problem areas I see based on the Functional Movement Screen (FMS for those who like to keep things short) assessments that I perform. Not familiar with the FMS? Check out functionalmovement.com, or read on for a brief overview. Then follow the article to see an overview of the results I’ve seen in terms of what functional movements tend to cause the most problems, and how the results are different based on gender and whether someone is an athlete.

Lastly, I’ll share my take on what this should mean for your training (or programming for trainers) if you do not have access to the FMS or other assessment options to help guide you.
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I just got back to San Diego (I say that like I live here! maybe that’s a sign) after 3 amazing days in Long Beach, attending the Perform Better summit. Wow is all I can say. I mean that about the overall experience. The summit itself did not wow me as much as the last 2 that I attended in Providence did. But maybe that’s because I know a bit more now, and because I’ve already experienced how awesome they are, so my perspective is different. Don’t get me wrong – I saw some amazing presentations. And I learned a lot. And I got inspired. I think my favourite presentations were those by Brett Jones on the push press and squat, Charles Staley on Olympic lifting for regular folks, Diane Vives on functional training for female athletes, and Rachel Cosgrove on training women. But as I write that, I realize that I want to include Mark Verstegen coaching a barefoot training dynamimc warmup, Dan John coaching (and then taking the time to engage me about lifting norms for women athletes outside of class), Todd Durkin showing me how to be a phenomenally impressive speaker and how to motivate people, Sue Falsone about the head and neck, and John Berardi on coaching to help your clients meet their nutrition goals. In other words – it was all pretty amazing. Seriously – how lucky am I that I got to see all of that in one conference? And by the way – that meant skipping presentations by Martin Rooney, Michael Boyle, Gray Cook, Lee Burton, Alwyn Cosgrove, Todd Wright, Dr. Ed Thomas (so curious about club swings) and more. Seriously – what a conference.
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“Living in San Diego does not suck” is something my brother is fond of saying. I’m sitting in his backyard in San Diego as I write this, and I have to agree. I could get used to this. I’m here for a little family time before heading up to Long Beach for the Perform Better Summit this coming weekend. That’s my candy store, and today I’m sitting here reading the bios and presentation descriptions for all of the presenters. If that doesn’t adequately demonstrate my high geek quotient (the new GQ), then consider that I just created a table in Excel to highlight the sessions I’ll attend and those where I’m still undecided (click here to download it for anyone who will be attending and wants to be able to do the same). Ya, my GQ is high. And it gets worse: During each session of the summit I will sit in one of the first few rows, take notes and ask questions. I’ll probably even go ask the speakers additional questions at the end. Then I’ll continue to discuss nuances with other high GQ attendees in the hall. At last year’s event in Providence I chuckled to myself at one point as I realized that the 2011 version of me would be keener bingo’d by the 1990s-engineering-student-sitting-in-the-back-of-the-class version of me. Read more…