DESIGNING BETTER LIVING THROUGH STRENGTH
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EUGENIZATION
a personal training blog

From the category archives:

Strength Training

Misalignment.

May 12, 2009

One of the key concepts that I’ve tried to use in my application of Brazilian Jiujitsu is the idea of misalignment.  If you’ve ever partaken in an organized sport of any kind, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Where the head goes, the body follows.”  Well, the converse is true as well – if you want [...]

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Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.

April 6, 2009

A client of mine (name withheld*) related to me an interesting anecdote with regards to guitar playing:
I read or heard somewhere that if you practice a piece but allow mistakes to seep in, all you’re doing is practicing mistakes.   If you take 40 minutes to play a 20 note passage perfectly, you’ve practiced it once.  [...]

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Do Fewer Things Better.

March 23, 2009

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly trainees want to do new exercises, particularly when they haven’t mastered the basics.  I suppose it’s endemic to our culture of “more is better” that a routine is judged on how many exercises are done.  For example, a good routine for say, chest might be a few [...]

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Deconstructing “The Pump” – What’s The Science Behind Muscle Pumps?

February 11, 2009

Ah, the muscle pump – in the annals of bodybuilding, is anything more sacred?  For the uninitiated, the pump is that sensation of muscle fullness after performing a lot of work for a given muscle group (whether directly or indirectly).
Ah, who am I kidding.  Everyone knows Arnold explained it best, way back in ‘77:

Of course, [...]

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Muscles Contract From Both Ends.

January 13, 2009

Try this experiment: Grab a piece of rope, hold one end with both hands, and pull.
What happened?  A whole lotta nothing.  Why?  Because you can only transfer force through the rope if the other end is tied to something.  In other words, you can’t play tug of war with yourself.
According to our best theoretical model, [...]

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It’s Always the Little Things.

December 9, 2008

Why care about where your elbows are on a press?  Or how wide your stance is on leg press?  Or whether or not you maintain a proper (neutral) arch in your spine when deadlifting?
Little insults over time add up.
Have you ever sprained your ankle?  Even if you didn’t need crutches, you (naturally) hobbled around, putting [...]

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Flipping The Switch.

December 4, 2008

One thing that is intellectually easy for new clients to understand, yet difficult for them to execute:
At some point, you’ve got to flip the switch and go for it.
Some explanation is required here:
One of the concepts I hold near and dear is the idea that you should lift heavy things with the utmost control.  Lest [...]

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Do You Enjoy Exercise?

November 4, 2008

Do you enjoy exercise?  Are you one of those people who can’t stand the thought of jamming all of your workout clothes into a bag and shlepping over to the gym?  Do you balk at the mere thought of sweating?
Or, do you think exercise is supposed to be fun?
In their efforts to get more people [...]

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The Missing Link – Intensity.

October 23, 2008

You would think that with all of the information on fitness and exercise currently (and freely) available on the web, we would be experiencing a boom of fit, trim bodies; that Arnold and Rae-look-a-likes would be spilling out of every building across America, yet nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, we’re experiencing [...]

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Creating a Frame For Shoulder Stability.

October 15, 2008

One of the most important concepts you need to pin down when working with weights is the concept of “plugging up all the leaks.” This refers to what most trainers would call stabilization – tightening up your musculature so as to become resistant to change of position or condition.  Without stabilization, some of the force [...]

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