The next 70’s Big Seminar is scheduled for January 5th and 6th, 2013 at CrossFit Annandale near Washington DC (here is the information/purchase page) and consists of the Lifting Seminar on Saturday and the new Mobility and Programming Seminar on Sunday. This seminar weekend is significant for a few reasons.
1. I’m polishing and adding new material, particularly the mobility stuff. Day #2 now includes a Mobility portion prior to the lectures. Day 1 consists of attendees getting coached in lifting and Day 2 consists of a ‘mobility workshop’ in the morning and ‘how to program’ lectures for the rest of the day. Saturday’s lifting portion will provide the same coaching, but will have focused points of emphasis in a way that lets the attendee take them home to implement in coaching or training The mobility portion will feature material that I haven’t ever taught on the site or in seminars. The programming lectures are being reworked and improved (I constantly work on the material with each seminar I do, but this is an overhaul to present it differently).
2. This is the last seminar I’ll be doing for a while. This means that east coast folks on the fence about attending should make a point of getting a spot.
3. The seminar will be filmed. I don’t think this changes the experience for the attendee; if anything it elevates the level in which information is presented and taught (I’m already working on the material).
This seminar will be the best one I’ve ever done, so I hope you can make it. We always have a fine meal on Saturday evening (location undecided, but it’s been all you can eat Korean BBQ in the past) and CF Annandale has increased in size since the last seminar. If you have attended a seminar in the past, you’re eligible for a discount assuming you purchase both days (just shoot me an e-mail with “SEMINAR” in the subject).
For years people have lambasted USA Weightlifting for failing to grow the sport or perform well internationally. I’ve publicly defended USAW regarding the performance aspect and have also pointed out how they get a reprieve from growing the sport (CrossFit will take care of that). However, there’s still something that they should be on trial for: how awfully disorganized they are.
Some of us remember how a couple of years ago the online streaming feed did not work for nationals — a big hiccup. And people who were actually present at this year’s Arnold Sport Festival (AKA “The Arny”)[spoiler] Chris and Mike specifically refer to it as “The Arny”. If someone says “The Arnold”, they will ask them, “The what?” over and over until they say, “The Arny”. Then they’ll say, “Oh, the Arny?”[/spoiler] The schedule was changed on Thursday, the night before all of the lifting started. Whether or not they allowed lifters into the Senior National meet after the deadline or they allowed too many lifters is irrelevant, because the result was that several lifters were not privy to this schedule change and missed their weigh-in times and therefore were told that they could not lift. To make matters worse, the sessions did not start and end on time and the 94-A group ended after midnight. Then the 105-A session started at 8:00 AM the next morning. For people like me who wanted to watch both sessions, we barely got any sleep and it ruined our Saturday schedule at The Arny. To be clear: USAW ruined my Saturday at The Arny because of their disorganization.
I wasn’t present at the American Open this past weekend, yet I hear the venue was good and things were relatively organized. There were only a couple sessions that ran long and only a few weird things (like how there was only four lifters in the 94-A session). Yet, they had a scheduling problem again.
On Sunday morning I logged onto the official USAW American Open page to download the “tentative lifting schedule” and the “tentative start list”. The times on each list were available the day of the meet, yet they were different. This caused a friend of mine to miss his weigh-in and therefore not lift. He was told he should have checked the night before. Sorry USAW, the customer is always right. For a guy who works a full time job and is spending his hard earned money to attend your meet — that he’s giving you money to participate in — he shouldn’t have to double and triple check your mistakes. And even if he had seen the discrepancy in the ‘start list’ and ‘schedule’, he would have had to show up and say, “Okay, which one of these is correct?” (and some how find the time to do this since his flight got in late on the night he was supposed to check USAW’s accuracy).
In good, worthy companies the customer is always right. REI allows 100% refunds, no questions asked. Wal-Mart is a juggernaut and can afford to accept stupid refunds. Small business know that they need to treat their customers well in order to continue receiving business. Why should USAW be any different?
In the last year there have been more than one national meet that has had this scheduling issue. What the hell is the problem? Is the entry form deadline not adhered to? Are more lifters accepted than the venue can allow? Are more lifters accepted than the schedule can allow? Why can’t the schedule be set two weeks before the event? I realize that it’s in the ‘rules’ that the schedule can change the night before it starts, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. Why? Because there are people paying hundreds dollars to travel to these national meets and they are told that they aren’t allowed to lift because USAW is incompetent. I’ll again point out that this has happened to more than one person this year — and it’s happening because USAW is disorganized.
If the lifters simply missed their weigh-in, then that’d be their fault. But the reason they are missing the times are because USAW is posting the wrong times, and even doing so on the day of the meet. This isn’t just bothering me because a friend of mine was screwed out of not lifting — and was denied lifting as an extra in another session — or because I had a crappy weekend at The Arny. It’s because 70’s Big receives over 100,000 unique readers a month. Through this website I’ve personally sent at least hundreds of people into USAW, and then USAW consistently shows disorganization in how they conduct their operations. Why would I want to send people to use an organization that consistently fails? And you know what? USA Powerlifting doesn’t have these problems!
In fact, at The Arny USAPL’s platforms and stage were set up and looking very professional the night before the meet began. Meanwhile USAW was scrounging around throwing their stage in place late into the night before The Arny kicked off. And don’t get me started on poor judging in the USAW. Not only was it abysmal at Nationals (to include a judge who was at least 130 years old), but I also heard it was poor this last weekend. But these are grumblings the regular USAW members deal with. They see it as normal and not something that will change.
Horse pucky. Just because an organization is consistently bad doesn’t mean we should be okay with it. I’ve seen fraternities with better organizational skills. USAW should, at the very least, refund the meet entry fee for people who miss weigh-ins on the account of USAW’s failings. In actuality, I think they should also refund travel expenses, but that won’t happen since they can’t even acknowledge that the fault is theirs (or return my call).
All I know is that I’ll be hesitant to recommend new lifters to join the USAW until I see that they show better organization.
Congratulations to criedthefox for winning his second “funniest video award” for the Thanksgiving Weight Gain Challenge. I’ll be contacting the winners for their addresses and shirt preferences.
A few guys were recently asking questions about linear progressions in the comments. The discussion even got so specific guys were saying, “I like the Greyskull LP better than Starting Strength.” I find this distinction trivial, because 100% adherence to a program is not necessarily a good thing. The “cookie cutter approach” would state that a given program should be implemented with everyone or with a person in a specific group (i.e. a “novice”). Being a cookie cutter trainee and blindly following a program may not be optimal.
Perhaps internet readers are pressured into adhering to a specific program. Maybe it represents a devotion to the person who created the program. For example, Mark Rippetoe had to shout, “Do the fucking program,” because there were former bodybuilders, CrossFitters, or non-lifters who would try to add or change too much to the Starting Strength linear progression that it no longer was a simple strength progression with barbell movements. That “do the program” message was probably necessary around 2008 and 2009 because it was irritating to see people not making progress and asking why, or maybe even doing something that was no longer ‘Starting Strength’ and still calling it by that name.
My perception is that lack of adherence to a program doesn’t happen much anymore. Perhaps Rip influenced that by convincing people to just do Starting Strength like it’s listed, but CrossFit had to have helped too. CrossFit started as a, “Just do whatever workout shows up on this home page,” kind of thing. As many of us in the CF community realized that strength training needed to play a predominant role to increase performance or be better at CrossFit, various gyms started programming their own stuff. These gyms became popular and other people “followed their programming”. Let’s ignore the fact that a good program is tailored to an individual, so programming for an entire gym — or thousands of people — is not specific and inherently not optimal. The result is that hard training folks have gotten in the habit of “following” programs.
But programming is not intelligently putting exercises in a weekly schedule. Programs featured online usually have a goal — aiming for strength, power, and conditioning — but without the context of the population it remains a schedule on a calendar. Sure, some guys can put some Olympic lifting, some strength training, and not-retarded looking conditioning workouts and get results — many things can work. But true programming is what works optimally for the person doing it.
I get comments, messages, and e-mails from CrossFitters asking, “What is the 70’s Big program? I can’t seem to find it.” There isn’t a 70’s Big program. I may have what I call a “strength and conditioning” program or The Texas Method (and advanced), but there is not a single program that people come to this site to do. Why? Because I actually program. I take into account the person’s current state of adaptation (which includes their body type, age, nutrition, recovery, injuries, current or past programs, etc.) along with what they need and want (i.e. goals). From there I devise a plan for someone to accomplish those goals.
There are existing programs that work well for a type of person. For example, linear progressions work with ‘novices’, Texas Method stuff works with ‘intermediates’, 5/3/1 works with ‘intermediates’ or ‘advanced lifters’ who want or need to avoid volume. Factor in the desire or need to do conditioning and it can complicate the application of these programs.
But this isn’t about my ability or difference in programming. It’s not about what coach or program is good or bad. It’s about the type of program you select and how you implement it. Instead of thinking of “doing a program”, think about “using a program”. Programs are not indentured servitude where the user cannot tweak it for their goals; a program is an outline, a tool, to use to accomplish your goals.
Let’s assume a person who decides to use the Starting Strength program. Unless you are in your late teens or early twenties, it’s likely that squatting 3 times a week in a linear progression (i.e. increasing the weight every session) will be too much work. Does that mean you have to “switch programs” to something like the Greyskull LP? No. Just stop fucking squatting 3 times a week. And if you want to deadlift on Wednesday and squat Monday and Friday, does that make it the Greyskull LP. No, it’s just arranged similarly.
Use programs as a template or foundation for structuring your training. Pay attention to the good and bad in a program, or more specifically what is helpful or not to you. For example, if you are weak on the bench and press and you are making progress from alternating them each training session, then you don’t need to drop them for weighted dips or push-press. But eventually just alternating the bench and press won’t be enough to continue progress. Another example is that the stock Starting Strength template would have you deadlifting every other session. If you’ve never lifted before and are weak, then this will be fine for 8 weeks or so. But eventually the frequency will need to drop to deadlifting once a week.
If I were structuring a generic novice’s training, their program would modify every 4 to 8 weeks to accommodate their progression. Since I’m not programming for all of you individually, you need to understand that you are allowed to make tweaks — it’s your program after all. Just don’t be stupid with your changes, and, as I stress in the Texas Method e-books, just make one small change at a time in a program instead of of revamping it entirely.
I try to teach basic principles through this website, but you can learn a lot about programming by reading the Texas Method books or FIT (which is basically a manual on programming strength and conditioning). I honestly feel that reading both Practical Programming and FIT creates an excellent foundation on how to program (and not just because I authored one and know the authors of the other).
It’s hard to wade through bullshit online, but try and take advice from people that not only have success with their programming, but regularly teach and challenge your knowledge of it. Develop a working understanding of physiology and how it adapts to training stress. Consider the stress/adaptation relationship when looking at your own programming. And for gods’ sakes, don’t feel like you’re trapped in a program.
In “Shoulder Health – Part 1” I reviewed the musculature surrounding the shoulder and body posture. Posture is important because it dictates shoulder mechanics, specifically internal and external rotation.
IR=internal rotation and ER=external rotation
Shoulder rotation is easy to decipher: if the anterior aspect (front) of the humerus (upper arm bone) rotates medial (towards the middle of the body), that is internal rotation. If the anterior aspect rotates laterally (away from the middle of the body), then that is external rotation. This holds true regardless if the elbow is flexed or extended, or if the shoulder is flexed, extended, abducted, etc. For example, put your arms overhead. Turn the front of your biceps (which sit on the anterior aspect of the humerus) towards your ears; this is internal rotation. Now turn them back and to the outside, and this is external rotation. Coincidentally this external shoulder rotation while in flexion is what the training community refers to as the “overhead position” — which is the position in which a person can bear a load safely (i.e. with good mechanics).
But it’s important to understand why external rotation facilitates a good overhead position and is the basis for shoulder stability in all shoulder movement. There are several reasons that are intimately related: shoulder positioning, muscular involvement, and force distribution (or mechanics).
Shoulder Positioning
Simply put, external rotation keeps “the shoulder” back and down whereas internal rotation moves it forward. “The shoulder” is actually the articulation of the humerus into the glenoid fossa; this junction is collectively called the “glenohumeral joint”. This bony articulation will be the focal point when we observe if the shoulder is “back” or “forward”. Keep in mind that the glenoid is a part of the scapula, or shoulder blade, and scapular movement (up, down, in, or out) can influence shoulder position.
External rotation on the left, internal rotation on the right. Note the change in position of the glenohumeral joint. (I took the flannel off for clarity)
In the above picture, the shoulder is in neutral position (relative to anatomical position), and the elbow is flexed. But you can see this same glenohumeral movement even in extension or flexion (i.e. if your arms are overhead for shoulder flexion, you can see the glenohumeral joint move if you completely internally rotate compared to where they were in complete external rotation).
Click to see a larger image in more detail
This forward transition in internal rotation completely changes how the shoulder receives and distributes force (which we’ll talk about in the next two sections). But it also has an effect on thoracic spine positioning. The scapula is primarily held in place by the trapezius muscles and the rhomboids (see image right). So if internal rotation occurs, it pulls the scapula laterally to pull on those muscles that anchor the scapula. The result is that if the shoulder is in severe internal rotation, the thoracic spine cannot achieve quality extension.
This is easily seen in poor front squat or clean mechanics in CrossFit or Olympic Weightlifting. When the trainee flares their elbows out to the side (internally rotates the shoulders), their chest inevitably falls to round the upper back and usually also causes the lumbar spine to round (which may be directly caused by the thoracic spine or caused by the hip impingement from not shoving the knees out to externally rotate the hip). This severely inhibits good front squat mechanics and results in the trainee not training their musculature properly (it doesn’t work the upper back muscles, it shifts the center of mass forward, puts most of the weight and force application into the knees, and removes the gluteals and even the hamstring involvement, and undoubtedly contributes to “The CrossFit Quads“). The cure for this is to cue the elbows “up and in”. “Up” means shoulder flexion and “in” means external rotation in the front rack. This cue should be distributed en masse to all CF facilities.
Hard to find a good example, but flared elbows means internal rotation means flexed thoracic spine means ineffective exercise.
Glenohumeral positioning has an effect on thoracic extension. Furthermore, having limited mobility in the shoulder is compensated by the thoracic spine. Let’s assume a person that has a poor overhead position. They cannot achieve full shoulder flexion (straight up and down) much less do it with external rotation. Their straight arm is five degrees forward of vertical (example). In order to put the bar “overhead”, they will compensate by hyper extending their thoracic/lumbar junction by 5 degrees (see image right). This is bad for several reasons: 1) places undue stress on the thoracic/lumbar junction or the lumbar/sacral junction; 2) it caters to existing shoulder or hip immobility and makes it worse; 3) it does not allow the trunk muscles to properly stabilize or develop properly which 4) results in a lack of progress and strength development in the press and 5) probably leads to some sort of injury or irritation, whether it be in the shoulders or cervical/thoracic/lumbar spine.
Now you should have a good understanding that internal rotation and/or lack of shoulder mobility can influence the positioning of the glenohumeral joint, but also the spine when lifting.
Muscular Involvement
Look at the image of the posterior shoulder anatomy again. Review the video from part one. We already know that the shoulder is the articulation of the humerus with the scapula. We know that rotation of the shoulder can alter the positioning of this joint. and we also know that since the scapula sits on the back of the rib cage, most of the musculature holding it in place is on the posterior side. There are some muscles that attach on the anterior aspect of the shoulder, but most of the important muscles are posterior. Also keep in mind that there is not a lot of structural stability in this joint — the muscles that attach around the glenoid and the head of the humerus hold everything in place. When you make a fist, your have some tissue surrounding a lot of bones. Your shoulder is pretty much two bones touching with a lot of muscles wrapped around it.
I point the anatomy out, because how these muscles are used matters. Previously mentioned muscles like the traps or rhomboids will effect scapular positioning, but the health of the shoulder joint lies with what people call “the rotator cuff” muscles: the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. Other muscles like the teres major and lattisimus dorso play vital roles in shoulder mechanics.
The point isn’t to learn all of these muscles, but to the general role that shoulder musculature plays, especially regarding lifting. Some muscles externally rotate while others internally rotate. We already know that external shoulder rotation is efficient and desirable, but the muscle action supports this.
Without good coaching, a trainee will perform a press, bench press, or push-up however they can. They’ll utilize existing musculature to try and get the job done. But internally rotating the shoulders leaves out a lot of musculature, and thus stability in the shoulder. By externally rotating, all of the muscles that externally rotate will contract and all of the muscles that internally rotate will lengthen with tension. This last part is important, because in a well excecuted bench press the internal rotators will be taut and help stabilize the joint. In the same way that the hamstrings lengthen with tension during a squat, the internal rotators will be stretched, yet apply lots of tension to play their role in holding the shoulder in place.
On top of this added stability, the proper external rotation in this bench press also allows the distribution of force into other muscles (like the pecs and triceps) without exposing an area or structure to undue injurious stress. In other words, by using external rotation in pressing and pulling movements, more musculature is being used properly, which helps a trainee get stronger. This is also why people who internally rotate (and flare their elbows) will eventually experience pain or injuries. For example, conventional powerlifting lore says that pressing overhead is bad for the shoulders — and they are right! If you press overhead with crappy mechanics, you should expect to destroy your shoulders.
Force Distribution
I use the term “force distribution” to refer to what muscles are being utilized in a given movement. By lifting with quality shoulder positioning and mechanics, the muscles around the shoulder work in symphony to apply force. Proper technique yields comprehensive muscular action and development. I use the phrase “even force distribution” to mean that one muscle or muscle grouping is not solely relied on to complete a movement, and instead it is distributed evenly across all of the muscles that are supposed to be used.
For example, above I critiqued the poor CrossFit girl’s front squat technique (she needs lifting shoes too). By flaring her elbows on her front rack she drops her chest to a) round her upper back and b) drop the bar forward on her shoulders. When the bar shifts forward, it moves her overall center of mass forward, and then her knees and quads receive the brunt of the responsibility to stand up with the weight. In a quality clean or front squat, the load will stay centered to allow all of the muscles of the thighs and hips to apply force. In this case all of the gluteals, the hamstrings, and her lateral quadriceps are not contributing to the movement. Whether she’s doing the front squat for strength or conditioning, her coach is letting her not train her musculature as efficiently as she could. A crime, really.
Back to shoulder anatomy. If internal rotation occurs on pressing movements, then force is unevenly distributed. Specifically, the acromioclavicular joint (where the tip of the shoulder meets the clavicle) receives a lot of stress. This is also the same region as the proximal biceps tendon and the insertion of the supraspinatus. This means that these two tendons (biceps and supraspinatus) are often irritated, strained, and later frayed or torn when bad mechanics are used chronically.
In order to have even distribution across the shoulder muscles we must have good shoulder positioning, and this is done by using proper external rotation with respect to the exercise being performed. Good position allows for the proper muscles to act not only in the way they evolved to act, but in symphony with each other (this is an important point that is the reason that compound, multi-joint exercises are optimal for strength training and rehab). Since the positioning and musculature are correct, the force application is evenly distributed so that the muscles do their job, keep the joint safe, and get stronger.
The problem is that all of this is either inhibited or not possible with crappy shoulder mobility. And that is the topic in Part 3.
The next 70’s Big Seminar is scheduled for January 5th and 6th, 2013 at CrossFit Annandale near Washington DC (here is the information/purchase page) and consists of the Lifting Seminar on Saturday and the new Mobility and Programming Seminar on Sunday. This seminar weekend is significant for a few reasons.
