Get the glutes activated so they work. Activate the glutes with hip bridges. Activate, activate, activate.

I’ve been review Thomas Myer’s book Anatomy Trains recently. In it, he discusses how the nervous system is binary: on or off. Activate to turn on right?

But is it always that simple? Is a glute bridge a good exercise for activation of the glutes in gross movements patterns? In a supine hip bridge you’re on your back and the hamstring is shortened on the working leg, but if you’re in anterior tilt it may be lengthened when you stand back up. Will the glutes still be activated–is the nervous system still on? Or will the length-tension relationship change the dynamics of the glutes? That is, we have to look at structure to hope get an idea of function.

Honestly I don’t have a damn clue. But at the end of the day I’m still doing glute bridges (isolated activation) and then working into dynamic warm up movements that utilize the glutes as hip extensors or stabilizers. Anecdotally, it seems to work and lead through the whole progression of a warm up.

This isn’t a business post, but SYSTEMS are important in business and it stands for:

Save
YourSelf
Time
Energy
Money
Stress

There are a number of amazing strength coaches out there and many of them have similar, but slightly different methods of strength training. And many of them work great. So my personal push has been defining and refining my own systems for strength and conditioning.

There are many schools of thought out there and sometimes it’s difficult to marry multiple ideas and move forward with a program that is methodical and well thought out. Once a system is developed (however good or bad) it will need improvement.

The most important thing is to have a question or standard against which all new ideas or methods are measure against before including them into a new program. What I use is this: Will ______(X equipment/progression/change) help to deliver better or faster fitness results?

This has led to more logical progressions. A number of times I’ve looked backed and realized my coaching cues were borderline idiotic I’ve added and subtracted different pieces of equipment, all while avoiding the “shiny new stuff” syndrome (see pic below) and being able to seriously evaluate something as it pertains to my program.

As long as you continue to educate yourself (something I strongly believe in, especially a field as dynamic as this) you can take a pretty simple system to something quite elaborate overtime. Essentially your “system” of doing this just gives context to what improvements should go where and how they should be incorporated.

With the right assessment you can essentially put people on a sure path to success based on what they need and what their sport demands of them in relation to where they start.

–
Ryan Patrick
e: patrickperformance@gmail.com
www.patrick-performance.com

I’ve had a few guys who’ve skipped out on foam rolling at the end of their session. Sort of the classic hand in the cookie jar when I’m not looking. Much to my dismay, I actually have my revenge because a couple have developed some trigger points…

I pulled out the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook and paged through it a bit as a refresher. This is a good reminder that pain can be referred due to limitations in other tissues. That’s not to say all pain is actually stemmed from another place. In the case of anterior knee pain the pain is in the knee, but the problem lies elsewhere.

The body is often broken down by the individual muscles, but the reality is it’s essentially one big unit connected by fascia. Thomas Myer’s in Anatomy Trains discusses this global view of movement. Limitations in one segement of a fascial train can have implications in the entire train. The classic example is the superficial back line which starts under the feet with the plantar fascia and runs all the way up to the base of the skull. If you roll a lacrosse ball on your feet for a few minutes and test your hamstring flexibility you will find it to be immediately better. Why? Loosening the tension in that plantar fascia allows flexibility in the whole line.

Whether or not you subscribe to the anatomy trains idea (it’s hard to undo the reductionist approach of muscles operating in isolation) it’s easy to recognize pain being referred. Neck massages often clear headaches. Anterior shoulder pain can often be the infraspinatus on the back side of the scapula (less known).

The big idea is essentially that recovery and regeneration techniques are extremely important for those training hard. And even those with desk jobs who sit for 8 hours. Your body adapts to imposed demands. If you sit all day you’ll soon lose precious mobility and possibly develop some referred pain from trigger points. Take the time to foam roll and stretch.

First, muscles can be short–they are truly short and tight. Sometimes they can be ’stiff’–more resistant to stretch. That is they are more difficult to lengthen than nearby tissues which ‘give’ first.

edit: if you do a length test for your lats (on back, knees bent, arms straight overhead) sometimes the lumbar spine will go into extension first before the lats are fully extended. This can be an issue of the lats being taut and the lumbar area being more extensible

There are three ways to lengthen a muscle:

1. Prolonged elongated position–typically difficult to use this one to lengthen necessary muscles. We sit all day and a specific set become short while others tighten. ‘Reverse’ sitting would be difficult, although a stand up desk or airex pad to kneel one can go a long way in helping keep the hips more extend (as I sit on my Ninja Turtles box from my childhood that is just wrecking havoc on my body. I don’t which is worse, that I do this sitting down or I’m in graduate school and have a TMNT box?)

2.Injurious Strain–not user friendly.

3.Sustained stretching — best for the shortened muscles.

Stiff muscles need a balance of force couples about a joint. If you are familiar with the attachments at a given joint, you can do a lot to correct the problem. You can sort of take the Janda approach and lengthen the muscle while strengthening the antagonist as well as strengthening other muscles involved in the force couple.

–
Ryan Patrick
e: patrickperformance@gmail.com
www.patrick-performance.com

The internal/external rotation picture is still commonly used to ward off shoulder issues, but it’s not the whole picture. While the external rotaters counter the strong internal pull of the pecs, delts, and lats (among a couple others) they all cause movement of the head of the humerus as well.

Take for instance the infraspinatus–it’s an external rotate and thus an antagonist to the pectoralis major, but it also causes anterior migration of the humeral head in the joint capsule same as the pecs. This makes it somewhat of a gray area.

To take an intellectual shortcut this morning the best solution is often a healthy dose of horizontal pulling (rowing) and plenty of scapular stability and GH joint work. This would include YTWL’s, prone trap raises, wall slides and of course the classic internal/external rotation work.

Why gloss over the details? Well, chances are #1 that you don’t care about humeral head movement. #2: The shoulders are notoriously injury prone in recreational lifters (couple a desk job with bad posture followed by too much bench pressing) and knowing what to do rather than why is going to be much more beneficial.

Short and sweet today, I’m headed to Rocky Mtn National Park…
–
Ryan Patrick
e: patrickperformance@gmail.com
www.patrick-performance.com

Enter the Pareto principle. This states, “80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.”

If you clearly identify your goals, it’s pretty easy to make sure you are making strides toward it with this in mind.

So you wanna add size? If you had to explain to someone who knows nothing about gaining size, what would you tell them? Maybe you’ve read some freaky stuff about leucine and protein synthesis or supplement X, but is that what you would share? Of course not.
It’s probably be a 3-5 step direction:
1. Eat more calories
2. Lift progressively heavier weights
3. Prioritize compound lifts, and sprinkle in the details (read: arms, calves, traps, etc)
4. Chill out every 6-8 weeks to allow for more recovery.

If you get these 4 things right, I bet you’ll grow. It could be the worst written program–too much volume, not enough volume, not enough pulls compared to pushes, a peculiar body part split, whatever–but you’ll more than likely grow. If you do the heavy lifts and eat more, that’s more than 20% of the equation and will yield more than 80% of your progress. I’ve done some terrible routines in my day, but I grew because I had this down.

Fat Loss:
1. Create a calorie deficit through exercise and diet combined.
2. Read # 1
3. Utilize big compound lifts for moderate reps 8-15 and supersets to increase metabolism.

There are better ways to lose fat than others, but the really all share #1 in common. It’s just how we go about it, and what we can do to increase the deficit in terms of the entire day versus just the workout.

The best way to go about this is to break your goals down to their simplest element and use the principles necessary to get closer to that goal. Fat loss is about losing weight. Muscle building is about gaining weight. Strength is about muscular and nervous system efficiency–use the familiar max effort and dynamic effort methods.

This is not meant to undermine the great strength coaches out there who put together fantastic programs that fluctuate volume and intensity perfectly; but it’s just a reminder not to miss the forest for the leaves.

–
Ryan Patrick
e: patrickperformance@gmail.com
www.patrick-performance.com

1. The trunk curl, as it’s known, is a test of abdominal muscle strength. Simple enough
2. The trunk curl precedes the hip flexion phase, and also causes the pelvis to tilt posteriorly and avoid the arched back sit up.
3. It’s hard and the reps are low
4. As world renowned strength coach Mike Boyle says–it prioritizes hip flexion over trunk (lumbar) flexion. A very important variable when you consider sitting is a position of sustained flexion and many people with desk jobs are more prone to flexion based pain (although a position of flexion is “more comfortable” for them naturally). Though there still is some lumbar flexion occuring But that’s beyond the scope of the blog.
5. Anchoring the feet in a regular sit up (or even a straight leg) is a recipe for dominant hip flexor activity even at the initiation of the trunk curl (predominately abdominal activation).

But the straight leg sit up isn’t for everyone, and there’s a series of questions to asses whether it is a good exercise for you.
1. Does the pelvis actually tilt posteriorly when the movement is initiated?
2. Are you a man or a woman?
3. Do you have a thoracic kyphosis?

All in all a great exercise, but not a great exercise for all.

–
Ryan Patrick
e: patrickperformance@gmail.com
www.patrick-performance.com

Muscle tightness can often arise from repeated muscle action. Running is a rhythmic movement by nature so the focus is on a small number of muscle groups. Particularly the hip flexors responsible for hip flexion less than 90 degrees (primarily the ITB and Rectus, with the sartorius to a lesser degree).

The ITB has an attachment that passes the lateral aspect of the patella (knee cap) and inserts on the lateral of the tibia tubercule. The ITB moves back and forth during flexion and extension of the leg. Without proper care, this can be indicated in lateral knee pain for runners.

The rectus femoris is a biarticulate muscle so in addition to knee extension with the other quadriceps, the rectus is also dominant in the low level of hip flexion seen in runners. Tightness here, due to it’s insertion into the patellar tendon, make it a possible culprit in anterior knee pain seen in runners.

Foam rolling is important because it breaks up the adhesions and knots in muscles known as trigger points. In addition to increasing the quality of muscle, the phenomenon of autogenic inhibition will allow the muscle to lengthen as well.

Take time to foam roll. Purchasing a foam roller is inexpensive and the methods for using it are simple.

Read more here.

–
Ryan Patrick
e: patrickperformance@gmail.com
www.patrick-performance.com

2. Also on for squatting, when coming out of the hole, pull your shoulders together and drive your elbows forward. Provided you don’t have an ultra wide grip (you shouldn’t anyway), this will engage your lats and create more stiffness and stability for lifting.

3. On the bench press, put your feet under your hips. This increases activation of your glutes, giving you a small arch and putting you in a tighter, more stable position.

4. When the bar is lower in a bench press you should pull your shoulder blades together. The humerus shouldn’t move independently of the scapula otherwise it will anterior capsule stress on the shoulder.

5. When pressing the bar on the bench you should grip the bar as tightly as possible nad attempt to pull it apart. The grip will fire the nervous system and the pulling apart will help tricep activation at lockout. You’re always better with a more narrow grip than a wide one for shoulder health (hint, it won’t compromise pec development either)

6. If you have back issues you should switch to single leg exercises primarily and ditch the back squat.

7. During a chin up/pull up/lat pulldown you should always pull your shoulder blades down and back. The line of pull should be roughly to your clavicle or ‘into’ your body.

8. The starting position for a deadlift always has the directly beneath the shoulder blades. If the back rounds, you are having trouble dissociating hip flexion form lumbar flexion. Begin with a pullthrough on the cable machine to learn the movement better. Even though this has it’s own set of problems, it’s easier to correct and there is no load on the spine.

9. Shoulder health is important, but make sure during external rotation exercises that movement comes from shoulder rotation, not shoulder retraction (crunching your shoulder blade to your spine). Rhomboids can be dominant in this movement.

10. On a reverse crunch the starting position should be knees to chest, heels to butt, and toes to shins. This tucked position takes all hip flexion out of the exercise and focuses on the abdominals to a better extent.

–
Ryan Patrick
e: patrickperformance@gmail.com
www.patrick-performance.com

2. More volume is not always better
You need moderate to high volume to build muscle, but doing so at the expense of exercise frequency is a fallacy. Main movements done heavy and with great intensity will yield far more muscle mass gains than isolation exercises. An upper/lower split and full body workout are much better in the long run. Don’t be victim to the ‘more is better’ trap. There is a time and place for everything, but be cautious of adding more.

3. Strength enhances muscle gain
This is painfully obvious, but not many guys actually pay attention to this. Stronger = more weight moved = more muscle built. 12 reps is estimated at 70% of your 1 rep max. If you get stronger that number goes up.

4. You don’t need a million extra calories to build muscle
If you increase your food intake 300-500 calories over maintenance, you will stay lean while still adding muscle. Building more muscle protein has to do with complicated cellular processes: transcription and translation of new proteins to be incorporated as myofibrils. Upregulating this process with additional food above and beyond your genetic threshold to manufacture proteins is adding size as fat.

5. There are two kinds of muscle hypertrophy
The first mentioned above, is myofibrillar hypertrophy. This is when the body actually creates new contractile proteins that help you get stronger. The other, is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. This hypertrophy causes the body to enlarge by increased the cell fluid volume via more water and non-contractile proteins. Sarcoplasmic is much more rapidly achieved but diminishes quickly once training stops; while myofibrillar takes longer to achieve it is much less transient.

6. Food is better than protein powder
This is purely anecdotal, but I’ve seen people be far more successful gaining muscle with food protein than supplemental protein. Want to add more size? Try replacing the powder with food on a calorie for calorie basis.

7. At the end of the day, we really don’t know what builds muscle
The scientific literature is equivocal. The actual mechanisms that build muscle are foreign to us. Sure, we have an idea of a few pathways involved in protein synthesis of muscle. But there are upsteam and downstream metabolic pathways we haven’t been able to figure out. Unfortunately, we are dealing with way too much obesity research (uh, physical inactivity and overeating ring a bell?) to really focus on fun things like hypertrophy (unless it’s for sarcopenia). Progressive overload and muscle tension are the trick really, and we understood that back in the glory days of bodybuilding.

8. Muscle bound?
Becoming muscle bound is a byproduct of poor flexiblity and neural confusion from isolation and machine training. Functional muscle is all the rage right now, but muscle is muscle. It is under the control of the nervous system, so if you train in isolation and with uniplanar machine, there is a cost to that. Having large amounts of muscle does add some passive restraint to flexibility, but there is no reason you can’t be flexible. I still remember watching bodybuilding on ESPN (loooong time ago) as a child and watching a few of the bodybuilders being able to do the splits. You can always stretch and you can use large kinetic chain movements to retrain more ‘athletic function’.

9. Gaining muscle is a continued effort to swim upstream
This is a standalone.

10. Most of the above rules are conditional (barring 7-9). there is a time and a place to eat way above 500 calories, add additional protein shakes, and use crazy high volume. Due to nature of #7, it seems the more unique training exposure we can impose the more long term adaptation we will have (anabolics aside). It’s known as surfing the curve. Heed the advice above, but at times completely disregard it.

–
Ryan Patrick
e: patrickperformance@gmail.com
www.patrick-performance.com