I was just reading a brief message from Matt Furey about some movements/activities that every man and woman SHOULD be able to perform to ensure if they were ever caught in a life or death situation, they would be confident enough that they could get themselves (or others) out of harm’s way.. Here is some of that message from Matt…I found it so inspirational and mind-opening that I thought you all should see this. It kinda “Wakes you up” to how fit and strong you REALLY are… Enjoy this excerpt. I know I did!

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Fight or Flight response.. How will you respond?!

“Recently, in Dr. Al Sears – Health Confidential for Men – a
newsletter I HIGHLY recommend,
he said:

‘I’ve seen patients transform their bodies through the power of
calisthenics. You too, can see improvements in your appearance
and in your stamina. And, by doing regular calisthenics, you will
be lowering your risk of injury and building muscle that has been
‘trained for function.’

Let’s face it, big gigantic muscles may impress some people, but
there is nothing more impressive than having the functional
strength-endurance to do things with ease – including saving
someone’s life. Yours included.

Liederman’s life-saving prescription is not very far off from my
own. He wrote that you should …

* Be able to swim at least half a mile or more;
* Be able to run at top speed two hundred yards or more;
* Be able to jump over obstacles higher than your waist;
* Be in condition to pull your body upward by the
strength of your arms, until your chin touches your hands,
at least 15 to 20 times;
* Be able to dip between parallel bars or between
two chairs at least 25 times or more.

Parallel Bar Dips

‘If a man can accomplish these things,’ Liederman said, ‘he need
have no fear concerning the safety of his life should he be forced
into an emergency from which he alone may be able to save himself.’ “

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I totally agree with this statement. Most trainees are HIGHLY neglecting the power of bodyweight training. I see this all too often, especially in younger athletes. Some of the  high school and even college athletes I’ve worked with could barely perform 5 pull ups.. NOT GOOD. Pull-ups, dips, sprints, jumps, and being physically fit enough.. These are extremely BASIC movement patterns and activities that are  extremely underrated and even more they are not being performed enough in the athletes training regiment. Of course every person’s goals are different, but regardless if you’re a recreational lifter, bodybuilder, powerlifer/strongman, athlete, firefighter, whatever your job or training goal.. We should still be able to MOVE with efficiency and not be afraid about gassing out halfway up the flight of stairs, or pulling a hamstring after a 40 yard sprint!

-How do you think the trainee or athlete would look if they were able to perform every single one of those qualities with EASE? I can almost assure you that the results would speak for themselves.

-I’m definitely not saying to ditch free weights and stop lifting heavy– far from it. It is important however to structure training that leaves you strong, fit, lean, etc. I am always saying that EVERY PERSON regardless of age, gender, race, etc should be training as athletes. We all move, and training like an athlete would surely leave one with less pain, more muscle, strength, and mobility, and ease of mind that activities of daily living can be performed without assistance from others..

And perhaps if you were ever caught in a life-or-death situation.. You’d be confident enough that you would survive. I want that peace of mind. Don’t you?

Let me know what you thought about this! What are your current strengths like? Weaknesses? Questions? Comments?

Yours in performance,

John Cortese, YFS

http://CortesePerformance.com

-John Cortese, YFS

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Weight Training Exercises to Avoid if You Want to Build Muscle Fast

By Jason Ferruggia

Jason Ferruggia.. A man who knows a thing or two about this stuff

When it comes to constructing the ultimate weight training program to build muscle, exercise selection is a very important component. You build muscle fastest with compound weight training exercises. Any bodybuilding program that focuses on machines and isolation weight training exercises is a complete waste of time.

Below are the worst weight training exercises on the planet and should be avoided at all costs if you want to build muscle fast.

1) Smith Machine Squats- Squats are one of the best weight training exercise you can do in order to build muscle fast. Doing them on a Smith machine however, is a huge mistake. Squatting in a Smith machine is very hard on the knees and causes the lifter to develop what is known as a pattern overload syndrome. The smith machine isolates the legs while taking the trunk out of the movement. In a normal free weight squat your lower back and abs must stabilize the weight and every muscle group must work in unison. This is how the body functions, as a unit, never in isolation. This can lead to severe imbalances and injuries.

2) Leg Extensions- Compound weight training exercises are the best muscle building exercises there are. Leg extensions are an isolation movement which do very little to build muscle. This movement also creates shearing forces on the knee and should be avoided at all costs.

3) Abduction/ Adduction machines- This is the one where you sit with your legs spread and strapped into the machine. You perform this weight training exercise by opening up or spreading your legs and then closing them. This is another isolation movement which will do nothing to build muscle. On top of that, you will look like a girl if you do it.

4) Abdominal Crunch Machines- The abs never work in isolation in the real world. In fact, the abs do not ever contract consciously. They contract unconsciously as a way to protect the spine. The abdominal muscles never work without the use of the hip flexors yet these isolation crunch machines are specifically designed to take the hip flexors out of the movement. For these reasons, this is a very ineffective weight training exercise for building muscle.

5) Ab Roller Devices- This apparatus is a version of the aforementioned crunch machines and is another useless piece of equipment. This device takes the neck completely out of the movement which is exactly what you don’t want to do. Contracting and or flexing the muscles of the neck during an abdominal crunch is exactly what you want to be doing and is physiologically correct. Another waste of time in the quest to build muscle fast.

The ab roller device.. A pain in your neck...

6) Smith Machine Bench Press- The bench press is a great muscle building exercise but doing it in the Smith machine is not a good idea. Much like the Smith Machine Squat, this exercise will cause you to develop a pattern overload and will lead to injury. Pressing on the Smith Machine isolates the pressing muscles and completely eliminates the use of the stabilizer muscles, such as the rotator cuff. This will lead to imbalances that can transfer to serious shoulder injuries. You can’t build muscle when you are injured.

7) Bench Dips- This is another weight training exercise that I did for many years and now regret. I routinely did this exercise with four 45 pound plates on my lap. Little did I realize at the time that bench dips put your shoulder in a very dangerous position and can eventually lead to serious problems. While this exercise is useful in building muscle it is also dangerous. If shoulder safety is a concern I recommend that you avoid this exercise and stick with parallel bar dips for building muscle.

8.) Concentration Curls- When it comes to weight training and building muscle, everybody’s favorite bodypart is biceps. Chin ups and barbell curls are the best weigth training exercises for building huge biceps. Concentration curls are not. This is a pure isolation movement which supposedly puts a “peak” on your biceps. The only problem with that is the fact that it is physiologically impossible to peak your biceps. Muscles grow evenly along the entire length of the tissue from origin to insertion. When looking at the effectiveness of an exercise one of the key determinants in the results that it may produce is the amount of weight that can be lifted. In a concentration curl it is very difficult to lift a great deal of weight and thus it renders the movement ineffective. If you want to build huge biceps, avoid concentration calls.

9) Bench Press to the Neck- This was a big favorite muscle building exercise of Larry Scott and Vince Gironda. It was supposedly a great muscle building exercise for the upper or clavicular pectoral muscles. The problem with this movement is that it will absolutely destroy the shoulders and can easily lead to a pec tear. This is one movement that you should stay very far away from in your quest to build muscle fast.

10) Old School Pec Dec-This is the supposed muscle building exercise machine which has you bend your arms ninety degrees while externally rotating. You place your arms on the pads and then proceed to bring the pads together in front of your body. This is not only dangerous for the shoulder but is absolutely useless and will not build muscle at all.

Just Say NO.. To the pec deck

11) Knee Break Squats- As mentioned earlier, the squat is the best weight training exercise there is for building muscle. Some trainers and coaches have advocated initiating a squat by first breaking at the knees rather than the hips in an effort to put more stress on the quadriceps muscles. The problem is that this also puts unnecessary stress on the knees and severely limits the amount of weight that can be lifted. Squats should be initiated by first breaking at the hips and sitting back and down, not by breaking at the knees and pushing your knees forward as you descend.

These weight training exercises are listed in no particular order. Unfortunately there are many other weight training exercises that are performed on a routine basis by many lifters that are also useless and dangerous. Those listed above just so happen to be the worst. If a weight training exercise causes pain, you should always avoid it. If a weight training exercise is supposed to target a certain muscle group in isolation and requires you to use extremely light weights it is usually best avoided. The exception to this rule would be prehab and rehab type exercises such as external rotation exercises for the rotator cuff.

Train hard, train smart and focus on the big, basic, compound weight training exercises and you will build muscle fast.

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Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle fast. He is the head training advisor for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/

Jeff Demps, a 10.01 100m runner (at 18 yrs old!) who just so happens to be one of the nations top college FB players

How often have YOU been on the other side of being beat deep for a touchdown by a player who just was flat out faster and more explosive than you? How frustrating is it to race for the ball in the middle of an open field during a soccer game and get beat there every single time by a player who had a better set of “wheels” than you?! These are just some examples, but you get the point? I wanted to address this topic because of a comment that I heard last night from one of the announcers during a high school football game. It was along the lines of “you CANNOT teach speed”. I’m sure we’ve all heard this before. I USED to believe in this. No matter what I did in high school, it seemed nothing worked to get me faster and more explosive. I was told I’d probably never break 4.6 seconds in the 40 yard dash-My freshman year of college I ran a 4.66 40 weighing 176 lbs; a little over 1 year later (after some hard/smart training) I ran a 4.47 40 yard dash weighing 189 lbs, while being significantly stronger!

What is the point of all this you say? Speed is a skill that can be taught to any athlete. Anyone can get faster than they previously are with some smart planning, hard work, and doing just enough to create an adaptation (QUICK TIP- Do enough to stimulate, NOT annihilate). Here’s some reasons WHY you may not be getting faster.

Jason Smoots- Safe to say, he has NOT neglected weight training (10.01 100m PB)

• You’re doing TOO Much- If you’re going out and running endless 100 yard sprints every single day, your body will start to break down. Injury will result soon enough, or you will get frustrated as fatigue starts to accumulate and get slower. My general rule is keep a speed session above 200 total meters/yards but no more than 500 total meters/yards in a given session, and do no more than 3 speed sessions per week. The rules are rough guidelines, so follow them loosely. If your form starts to break down, or you feel fatigued, then the session is called off. Which leads me to the next guideline…
  
• You’re not focusing on QUALITY- If you try to turn these speed sessions into a conditioning session, then you’re defeating the purpose! In order to facilitate improvements in speed, you MUST achieve complete recovery after each rep in order to teach your nervous system what a fresh, full speed sprint feels like. You will not be able to achieve the types of speed you’re looking for if you’re resting 30 seconds between 60 meter sprints. The effort might be there, but the times will show otherwise. Take home point- rest enough to make each rep QUALITY.
  
• You’re not lifting weights- Yes, most young (and even some college) athletes are flat out weak. If you aren’t strong enough to apply force to the ground, absorb force (each sprint stride places around 4-5x your bodyweight on each limb upon footstrike), and consistently do that rep after rep, you aren’t going to be as efficient as you need to be. Again, like number one, don’t over do it and go and lift 5 days a week and expect to get faster. My rule here is lift AFTER speed sessions (if speed is your main priority, this must be emphasized as supplemental to speed work) and keep it simple. Often times you may be too drained from a great speed session and only be able to perform a few sets of heavy squats, cleans, and chin ups- FINE, as long as you are striving to get strong and not afraid to pay your dues in the squat rack. Most fast athletes are also very strong (Ben Johnson, former world record holder in the 100 meters is said to have squatted ~600 lbs for 2 sets of 6, and bench press 440 lbs for 2 sets of 5- at a bodyweight of 175 lbs. He ran 9.79 seconds in the 100m). Think about it like this- you need to add some horsepower in that engine of yours, so get stronger!
  
• You’re not warming up properly- A thorough warm up is critical in order to generate the heat necessary for your muscles to perform optimally. Since sprint training is such a high velocity activity, you must be warmed up prior to engaging in this type of activity. No this doesn’t mean static stretch for 5 minutes and expect to be ready- I’m talking a full dynamic warm up (lunges, hip circles, leg swings, skips, jumps, throws, push ups, sit ups, drills, etc). This shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes. Not only will you be ready to sprint, but you’ll notice decrease in some painful problem areas such as your back, knees, shoulders, etc. QUICK TIP: Don’t turn the warm-up into the workout itself; this should be something that gets you “warm” and lightly sweating before activity.
  
• You’re Not RESTING- Your body gets better while it rests in between high intensity bouts of training, not during the training itself. A training demand of this nature requires you rest so your body can repair and come back rested for the next session. The nervous system generally requires 48 hours in between bouts. So if you’re going to sprint on Monday, wait until Wednesday or Thursday to do it again.
  
• You’re Out of Shape- Yes, even sprinters and power athletes must have some sort of general fitness in place. The key here is to keep it low intensity. Low intensity activities can include extensive tempo running (“rhythm running” i.e. stride at 60-75% of your best time over a given distance with short recoveries), bodyweight/calisthenics circuits, jump rope, incline walks, swimming, even an extended warm up of 30-45 minutes without resting. Benefits of this type of activity are that it improves capillary density to promote greater bloodflow and recovery between training bouts, increases the amount of high intensity activity you can tolerate (aka work capacity), decrease recovery time the day after a hard training session, keeps the athletes “fit” and body fat  percent down (ever seen a fat, soft, pudgy guy who could run really really fast? Not very often!), and promotes rhythm through cadence. This can be done in between high intensity days and the younger or less fit you are, the more this type of work should be done. Start out with 2-3 times per week. *NOTE- There is a time and place to partake in those gut-wrenching, ball-busting conditioning training sessions, but keep in mind that the further away you are from your competitive season, the less this type of work should be done (this is my opinion, others may think I’m full of shit, but what are you gonna do?! Can’t please ‘em all!)
  

Putting it all together: Ok, so we’ve established some general guidelines, but how the hell do you put a sample week together, or a given training day? Here’s an example speed day:

Full Dynamic Warm Up: Light jogging 400m, leg swings, hip circles, knee hug/quad stretch, walking spiderman lunge, crossover lateral lunge, a-skips, b-skips, pogo jumps, mb throws, practice starts.

Speed Work (acceleration focus) : 5x10m, 4x20m, 2x3x30m (complete recovery)

Jumps: Standing Long Jump 2×6, Standing Triple Jump 2×5

Weights (full body): Back Squat 4 x 5 (increase weight each set to a heavy set of 5 on last set), Bench press 3-4 x 5-6, 1-Arm DB Row 3 x 10/Pull Up 3 x max reps, Glute Ham Raise 3-4 x 8-10, Front/Side Planks 2 x 60 sec.

Regeneration: Foam roll x 5-10 minutes, static stretch 5 minutes, post-workout carb/protein shake, contrast/hot-cold shower.

Get stonger, get faster!

EXAMPLE TRAINING WEEK FOR AN 18 YEAR OLD FOOTBALL PLAYER:

Sunday- OFF

Monday- Speed (linear)/Weights/Jumps

Tuesday- Tempo (1500 yards tempo running 100 yard intervals at 70%, 30 seconds rest) Bodyweight circuit of push ups, sit ups, and squats.

Wednesday- Off or Light Skill work

Thursday- Speed (linear and non linear)/Lower Body weights/Throws

Friday- Upper body weights/incline treadmill walk w/ weight vest 5.0%, 3.5 mph 20 minutes

Saturday- Tempo runs 3x6x60 yards @75%, rest 20 seconds between runs, 60 seconds between sets, high rep ab circuit, soft tissue work/regeneration.

So there you have it. It doesn’t have to be rocket science. Keep it simple, lift weights, do some speed work with complete recovery, recover smart, break records each week, and you should see yourself finally get FASTER! Although the proper planning and periodization is also a factor in creating fast athletes, the principles remain here. Don’t over analyze the situation! Assess your goals and get started!

Here’s to getting you faster, stronger, and an explosive machine! And remember, it’s not your fault- Speed can be taught!

-John Cortese, YFS

PS- Questions/Comments? Leave em below! Liked this article? Spread the word, tell your friends =)

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Have a killer day. Make it happen!

John Cortese, YFS

CortesePerformance.com

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But first.. I’ll give you a quick scenario that is often too common in a gym environment…

A guy walks into the gym.. Looks around.. It’s universal CHEST day aka MONDAY. Proceeds to do bench press, incline bench, decline bench, DB Bench Press, Chest Flyes, and a couple other exercises..Often adding up to around 25-30 sets for CHEST alone.. Yikes. I hope he’s hitting his back just as hard (probably not though ha!)

Don't be like this Clown!

Now a typical session like this might take you 2 hours or more.. Now how productive do you REALLY think that this session was? More than often, a session lasting over an 75-90 minutes (including a good warm-up) means you’re wasting your time!

Too much talking in between sets, text messaging, reading newspaper, watching tv.. Add all these little distractions up and you get a recipe of big time wasters!

So the question is ==> How can you maximize your time in the gym and still get results?!

_______________________________________________

I prefer to split up my training sessions for my athletes and clients into either a.) Full Body Training Sessions or b.) An Upper/Lower split, with each training session usually lasting around 65-75 minutes max. *Trust me, if you’ve ever trained with me these sessions are NOT easy, but they ARE effective! Now, the big kicker here is how to TRULY maximize Training Economy or in other words, get the best “bang for your buck” when you are in the gym. Here a couple rules to follow, and a sample full body training session.

Rule #1- Pick Compound exercises first, ones that involve multiple joints at once. These lifts include squats, deadlifts, bench press variations, overhead presses, lunges, rowing, olympic lift variation, etc.

Rule #2- Have a plan! Know exactly what you will train on a given day, whether it be maximal effort upper body work, some hypertrophy or repetition based lifting, lower body strength, speed work/jumps, etc.

Rule #3- Use alternating sets! This is one of my favorite tips to use. An alternating set involves performing one exercise, resting a given time frame, then performing a different exercise for the opposing muscle group. An example of this would be perform a set of 5 bench press, rest 30 seconds, then perform a set of 10 dumbbell rows, then rest 90 seconds and repeat the process 3 more time. This will keep you moving and give you an added benefit of keeping the heart rate up.

Here is an example FULL BODY training session that might not look like much on paper, but let me know you feel after actually doing it.

1A.) Back Squat 3 sets of 5-8 reps, then 1 heavy set of 12-15 reps. Rest 2 minutes between sets. Make sure you get to at least parallel.

2A.) Bench Press 8,7,6,5

2B.) 1 Arm HEAVY DB Rowing 4 x 15 per arm; Rest 60 seconds between 2A/2B, then 90 seconds after 2B.

3A.) Walking Lunge, LONG steps 3 x 12/leg

3B.) Chin Ups or Pull Ups 3 x max reps; No rest between 3A/3B, 60 seconds after 3B.

4A.) 10 minutes optional “beach” work (any bicep, tricep, shoulder, trap work. Keep all reps in the 8-15 range)

*Conditioning- 30/30 Intervals x 10 minutes: Perform 30 seconds of work at maximal effort intensity and 30 seconds of moderate intensity; repeat the process for 10 minutes. I prefer either sprints on an incline, airdyne exercise bike, or concept 2 rower. You can also use Kettlebells and perform movements such as swings, cleans, snatches, etc. Get creative!

Hope you enjoyed this post! Leave me a comment below and let me know what your tricks and tips are for saving time in the gym, while STILL getting stronger, leaner, faster, etc.

See ya!

John Cortese, YFS

PS- Try this workout on for size and let me know how it went! Drop me a comment!

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