Special guest article by triathlon champion Ben Greenfield

Compared to their running and cycling brethren, triathletes certainly tend to have slightly more muscular shoulders. But when you actually look at a triathlon junkie from the side view, you’ll see a rather unsightly phenomenon: a hunched back, slouched shoulders, and ugly curvature in the upper spine.

These slumping triathlon shoulders (which can turn into a permanent fixture on your body) come from a combination of spending long hours hunched over the saddle of a bike, working the internal shoulder rotators during swimming, while neglecting the external rotators in the weight room, and often a job spent sitting at a desk or computer.

So how can you get nice shoulders and still be fast at triathlon? Here’s what to do:

How To Get Nice Shoulders Step #1: Stretch Your Chest

Tight chest muscles can come from sitting a desk for several hours with your hands on a keyboard, from riding a bike in the aero position, and from swimming. Once tight, and especially in the presence of weak external rotators, these muscles pull your forward into a slouch.

To stretch tight chest muscles, try a doorframe stretch, in which you reach for the top of a door frame, place your hands on it and lean forward as far as you can. If you can’t reach the top of a door frame, just place one hand over the other hand, and lean into a wall.

How To Get Nice Shoulders Step #2: Strengthen Your External Rotators

Although the most popular exercise for “strengthening” the external rotators is to grab an elastic band and do dozens of repetitions of rotation for the shoulders, most of us don’t have time to stand around doing that. Bigger, multi-joint exercises like pull-ups and rows work far better, and have the added advantage of burning more calories and working your arm muscles.

I’ve personally installed a pull-up bar in the door of my office (it cost me about $25), and I try to do at least 25 pull-ups each day (usually one set of 5 whenever I walk under the bar). You can also include regular or assisted pull-ups as a weekly part of your gym routine. Also include lat pull-downs, seated rows, cable rows, and single arm dumbbell rows – focusing on squeezing your shoulder blades back and maintaining a tall, proud posture as you do each exercise.

How To Get Nice Shoulders Step #3: Train Your Core

Blah, blah, blah, work the core. Sure, you’ve heard this before. But think about it this way: when you’re riding a bike, swimming, or sitting at your desk, there is one thing that has to happen before you begin to slouch: your core has to get tired first.

But if your core is strong, it takes a massive load off your shoulders, and allows you to maintain much better posture. I personally recommend planks as the best way to strengthen your core and shoulders at the same time.

Try this: get into a front plank position, hold for 3 deep breaths, then switch to a side plank position left side, hold for 3 more breaths, then side plank right side for 3 breaths, and finish by holding a full push-up position for 3 breaths. Do that entire sequence without your knees touching the ground. See how many rounds you can do before you core collapses. If you can get to 10 round (about 7-9 minutes of planking), you’ve got a solid core. Otherwise, do this routine once or twice per week until you can get to 10 rounds.

Now that you’ve learned the 3 easy steps to get nice shoulders, you can be one of those triathletes who swims fast, but also cuts an impressive figure, and doesn’t have that notorious slouch, especially when people look at you from the side.

If you want to learn more about how to swim, bike and run lightning fast, but also have a nice body, (and get access to the other 6 articles in this series) then head over to Tri-Ripped Training System for a brand new approach to training for the ultimate triathlon body.

Lots of people come in to my Carson City Bootcamp with super-tight hamstrings.

Even if you’re dedicated about stretching at home (you are stretching in your spare time, right?) you might still be bothered by tight hammies.

It might even seem like flexibility is something some people have, and other people don’t – especially if you’re one of the inflexible ones.

What’s up with that?  Is it true that some people are just born more flexible?  Well, yeah :p

But you can get a LOT more flexible if you really do want to…

A couple of things might be making your hamstrings tight:

- Injuries

- Lack of hip mobility

- Overtraining

- Poor training

- Tight hamstrings!

Now, some strategies that I use in my bootcamp to loosen up those hamstrings.

The first thing you need to look at is if your hamstrings are really the problem.  If you have to sit a lot during the day (in a desk or car).  Your calves cross your knee like your hamstrings and so tight calves can make it hard to keep your knees straight when you stretch.  And sitting a lot can affect your pelvic tilt which affects how you bend when you stretch.

Or you might have scar tissue on your fascia (the “skin” of your muscles) that is pulling tight.

Or maybe you have problems with your lower back.  When this is the case you might notice that stretching exercises really hit your back and hips, but don’t seem to touch your legs at all.

So tight hamstrings may just be the symptom of some other problem, far beyond just a lack of flexibility.

Since so much can be going on, today’s post will be a few tips to get you started in the right direction (If you want a more in-depth assessment, my friend Dr. Brian Russell is phenomenal at treating any joint or muscle problem you might have.  Here’s his website: Carson City Chiropractor)

Hamstring Tip #1: No Forcing

Stretching too forcefully can invoke your muscles’ “stretch reflex”, where the muscle actually tightens during a stretch.  This is a protective mechanism to prevent injury.

Another problem with forcing a stretch is that you may not be aligned correctly due to injuries, poor posture, or improper training.  Forcing a stretch from a bad position is a recipe for making things worse.

Stretch slowly and focus on deep even breathing.  After about 30 seconds, you should feel yourself relax into the stretch – this is where flexibility will improve.

Hamstring Tip #2: Stretch Hamstrings Last

As I mentioned above, other muscles may be holding your hamstrings back.

Stretch your hips, calves, shins, and quads.  Then GENTLY stretch your back.  After this, go on to stretch your hamstrings.

You will be surprised at how much more flexible your hamstrings become with this method!

Hamstring Tip #3: Self Massage

Self massage is a way of breaking down the scar tissue in your fascia.  When this scar tissue is relaxed, your muscles will be able to move much more smoothly.

Your hamstrings are part of what we movement therapists call the Posterior Chain.  Here’s a pic:

Massaging any of the areas in this posterior chain should help relax your hamstrings and improve flexibility.  Perhaps the most important area to massage for hamstring flexibility is…. your feet!

Seriously, I’ve seen range of motion in the hamstring stretch DOUBLE from two minutes of tennis ball rolling on the bottom of your feet.  Here’s how:

And here’s vids of basic self massage for other areas that may be holding your hamstrings back:

Don’t forget to massage your hamstrings too!  Turn your feet inside and out to hit the whole muscle group:

Hamstring Tip #4: Knee Bend

Some knee bend is actually ok if you’re trying to stretch your hamstrings.

The reason for this is that a bit of flexion will take most of the calf out of the hamstring stretch, allowing you to hit the hammies better.

Use the knee bend tip if you feel hamstring stretches in the backs of your knees instead of the backs of your thighs.

Hamstring Tip #5: Use A Full Range Of Motion

After all this stretching and foam rolling, you want to make sure you keep whatever new flexibility and mobility you build.

The secret to this is to use full range of motion exercises in your workouts.  Short range of motion activities like cycling or running will keep your hamstring shortening back up, since they don’t require a full range of motion.

Basically, you need to teach your body to incorporate this new flexibility into how it moves.  This is the key to maintaining your flexibility progress.

Now, if you have tight hamstrings, these five tips will definitely start you off on the path to flexibility!

Welcome to another edition of study corner!  Today we’re going to look at a study from the Journal Of Strength And Conditioning Research.

This study is titled… Effects of 4 weeks of traditional resistance training vs. superslow strength training on early phase adaptations in strength, flexibility, and aerobic capacity in college-aged women.

Aren’t you glad I read all these things for you? Just the title makes me want to fall asleep

So, why super-slow training?  Well, wanna-be fitness experts on the news have promoted slow-cadence lifting, and people believed it.  But what does the actual science say?

This study split college-aged women into 3 groups: No lifting, Slow Lifting, and “Regular” Lifting.

The No Lifting group didn’t make any changes during the study.  I’m sure they were very nice people, but let’s forget about them and forge onward.

Slow Lifting group trained for 35 minutes twice a week.  They used 50% of their one rep maximum (the amount of weight they could lift one time) and lifted 10 seconds up, 10 seconds down until they couldn’t do any more.

“Regular” Lifting group trained 25 minutes three times a week.  They used 80% 1RM and did 3 sets of 8 reps, with a 4 second contraction time for each rep.  This 4 second contraction is why I put quote marks around “regular.”  4 seconds is still very slow.

Both groups’ workouts consisted of 5 exercises: shoulder press, chest press, leg press, low row, and lat pull down.

At the end of the 4 week study, both groups had gained strength.  The super-slow group’s strength gains were so slight so as to be only “statistically significant.”  (Translation:  so little improvement you wouldn’t notice without having a degree in mathematics).

So only the regular speed training group made real improvements.

Conclusion: Slow speed resistance training is a waste of your time.

J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Nov;25(11):3006-13.
Effects of 4 weeks of traditional resistance training vs. superslow strength training on early phase adaptations in strength, flexibility, and aerobic capacity in college-aged women.
Kim E, Dear A, Ferguson SL, Seo D, Bemben MG.
Source
Neuromuscular Research Laboratory, Department of Health and Exercise Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA.

And here’s a link to the abstract if you want to see what it looks like: Slow Lifting vs Regular Lifting

After I posted EAT LIKE THE MIGHTY THOR a few days ago, I received a few requests to see what Chris Hemsworth’s strength and conditioning program looked like.  Here it is…

The challenge was to take Chris from this:

To something more like this:

And to do it in only 3 months…

How did he do it?  Well, you’ve already seen how he ate to put on muscle, so here’s his 2 part workout plan:

Phase One: 8 Weeks Muscle Building

3 Sessions Per Week

Day 1: Chest and Back
Bench press
Bent-over row
Weighted Dip
Weighted Pull-up

Day 2: Legs
Hamstring Curl
Deadlift
Squats

Day 3: Arms
Close-grip Bench Press
Weighted Chin-up

The sets and reps went like this:

Week 1- 4 sets of 4 to 6 reps
Week 2- 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps
Week 3- 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
Week 4- 4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

Weeks 5-8 the cycle was started over.

You can see there was nothing fancy about this workout, just basic compound movements and lots of intensity.

Most people who are looking to add muscle overly complicate things and do every exercise under the sun.  The “everything” approach actually breaks down muscle leading to no progress despite hours and hours in the gym.  Until you are very advanced it is better to pick a few big “bang-for-the-buck” exercises like the bench press and deadlift

Oh man, the question “What bodypart does that work?” drives me bananas.

First off, “bodypart” is a word made up by the bodybuilding industry.

Seriously.  Here’s what happens when you search for it in Mirriam-Webster or Dictionary.com:

Focusing on “bodyparts” is pointless.  You hear people talking about biceps day, triceps day, shoulders day.  But you’ll never hear someone say “It’s flexor hallucis longus day!”  (Except me, and that’s because I’m a dork)

Besides bodypart being a fake word, what cheeses me off about “What does that work?” is if you’re worrying about what muscle you’re working, you’re probably not focusing on the important things… Like working freaking hard!

Look at this gymnast:

Do you think he asks his coach what muscle the pommel horse works?  Hell no!  He gets up there and busts ass to be awesome.

The key to getting results from your training program is this: Train MOVEMENTS, not MUSCLES.

There are 7 fundamental human movements.  These movements are the squat, bend/hinge, lunge, push, pull, twist, and gait/locomotion.

Take the lunge as an example.  You can perform thousands of different lunge variations.  The ValSlide Lunge works ankle mobility, foot strength, knee stability, hip extension, knee extension, hip stability, core strength, balance, proprioception, posture, metabolic conditioning, and much more.  Yet when someone asks “What bodypart does that work?” I sigh and say “Butt and Hamstrings.”

The best exercises for transforming your body won’t be done on a machine designed to isolate one muscle group.  You’ll raise your metabolism and build a tight body by focusing on those 7 fundamental human movements.

On the youtube page for the rocking chair video below, someone actually asked what muscles it develops!

Not to sound supercilious, but WHO CARES?  “Bodypart” training is geography, not physiology.

That take home message for today is: Stop worrying about what muscles each exercise work.  Instead, focus on working hard on variations of the 7 fundamental human movements and you will totally rock your body.

According to Wikipedia:

Anaerobic exercise is exercise intense enough to trigger anaerobic metabolism. It is used by athletes in non-endurance sports to promote strength, speed and power and by body builders to build muscle mass. Muscles energy systems trained using anaerobic exercise develop differently compared to aerobic exercise, leading to greater performance in short duration, high intensity activities, which last from mere seconds up to about 2 minutes. Any activity after about two minutes will have a large aerobic metabolic component.

A study from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Japan compared the effects of 6 weeks of traditional aerobics training to high intensity interval training.

The aerobic group exercised at 70% of their maximal aerobic uptake for 60 minutes 5 days a week during the study. At the end of 6 weeks the endurance group did not increase their anaerobic capacity and only increased their aerobic capacity slightly (from 53 to 58 ml/kg/min).

The interval training group also exercised 5 days a week during the 6 week trial. Their workouts consisted of 7-8 sets of 20 second sprints, followed by a 10 second recovery. After the 6 weeks, this group increased their aerobic capacity slightly MORE than the aerobics group (7ml/kg/min increase for the sprint group compared to 6ml/kg/min for the aerobics group). The interval training crew also increased their anaerobic capacity by 28%!

Let’s compare total exercise time for the two groups over the six week study:

Aerobics:
6 weeks x 5days/week x 60 minutes = 1800 minutes

Intervals:
6 weeks x 5 days/week x 4 minutes = 120 minutes

So… in less than one tenth the time, the interval group beat the aerobic group in both aerobic and anaerobic improvement!

Hooray science!

If you’re interested in checking out this study, here’s the citation:

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1996 Oct;28(10):1327-30.
Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max.
Tabata I, Nishimura K, Kouzaki M, Hirai Y, Ogita F, Miyachi M, Yamamoto K.

And here’s a link to the abstract: Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max

Push ups are a classic bootcamp exercise that strengthen and tone your upper body muscles.  But it can get BOOOOORRRRRIIINNNNGGGG doing the same old up-down pushup in your workouts.

By adding variety to your pushup training you will not only keep your bootcamp-style workouts more fun and interesting, you will help prevent injuries by working through different movements and ranges of motion.

Here are 10 Cool Push Up Variations for you to add to your workouts:

1.  Cool Pushup #1: Tiger Push Up

The Tiger Push Up is a combination plank and arm extension, great for your triceps and tummy muscles

2. Cool Pushup #2: Tripod Switch

The tripod switch is a very advanced arm training exercise (I mostly use these with mixed martial arts fighters who need to train explosive position changes)

3. Cool Pushup #3: Dive Bomber Pushup

This will really smoke your shoulder muscles

4. Cool Pushup #4: Reverse Push Up

Also called a bridging pushup, this is a motion almost never trained in traditional work out programs

5. Cool Pushup #5: Hand Lift Push Up

Keep a tight body on this one! By going all the way down and then lifting your hands, you are sure to have the same range of motion on every rep. I like to use this one for testing athletes, as it eliminates head-bobbing and half-bending reps and keeps assessment quality high

6. Cool Pushup #6: Reach Out Push Up

Want a core strength and shoulder stability challenge? Give these a shot

7. Cool Pushup #7: Forward Ellipse Pushup

One of my very favorites

8. Cool Pushup #8: Ring Triceps Extension

Not really a “push up”, but a great variation to add in for strengthening the back of your arms

9. Cool Pushup #9: Plank Walk Up

Most people only think of this as a core exercise, but it is a great workout for your pushup muscles as well

10. Cool Pushup #10: Threading Push Up

Another push up variation that takes you out of the traditional “up/down” of regular pushups

BONUS!  Pushup “Finisher” Exercise

In this finisher – use at the end of your workout! – you do as many pushups in a low position as you can, then move up to make it a little easier, push up to failure, move up a little, and repeat until you can’t move your arms. I only do a few pushups in each position in the video, as a full set of these can take over 3 minutes. (If you don’t have rings or a TRX, you can use your gym’s Smith Machine, just slide the bar up 2 inches for every set)

And of course, I like to finish every push up workout with some stretching:

Even very lean women can have a little “pooch” on their lower bellies.

Check out these bikini models that have what my daughter calls a “pooch”:

These models are lean, heck – you can see their ribs!

So what causes that little bulge in the lower belly?

Is it something they ate hanging around in their digestive system?  Maybe.  Grains, even whole grains, can bind up in your intestines and cause bloating.  (More on that here:  Beat The Belly Bulge)

But if your diet is on point, you’re lean, you’re working hard… What can cause the pooch?

Simple: tight hip flexors.

The muscles that cross the front of your hips can get really tight and pull you into what we exercise science types call an “anterior pelvic tilt.”

This forward tilt pulls your low back out of alignment.  Look at the diagram below on the left, it shows what happens when your low back is pulled forward:

Whoa!  In the lordosis (“swayback”) picture the lower belly is pooched out!

Even on someone very lean having a swayback can give you a lower belly pooch.  Here is a skinny kid that manages to look like he has a belly:

In the title of this blog post I promised one exercise that would end lower belly pooch.  And here it is: The humble hip flexor stretch

This stretch will bring your hips back to where they should be, ease forward pressure on your lower back, and dial back the lower belly bulge.

Here is an example of someone with forward tilted hips (from tight hip flexors).  Notice the slight bulge:

And here is the same girl without the forward hip lean.  Notice that she isn’t sucking in her stomach or flexing her abs, just fixing her hips and low back:

Pretty cool, huh!

So if your diet is straight-on and you’re looking for that last little edge on getting rid of lower belly bulge, try the 3 way hip flexor stretch twice a day, for 30 seconds in each position.

And say bye-bye to the lower belly bulge!

A Carson City Bootcamp Exercise Post by Lucas Wold

Gymnastics rings are a phenomenal training tool.  You can build strength, flexibility, and balance on one simple training tool

Most people don’t realize that two of the most popular training tools in the world right now, the TRX and the Total Gym are take offs of traditional gymnastic ring training.

The TRX is a set of rings with flat flat handles, foot stirrups, and a single point of attachment:

And the Total Gym is a take-off of an old Russian gymnastics training tool that allowed athletes to practice rings moves with a smaller percentage of their body weight

And rings aren’t just good for training gymnastics tricks.  You can use a set of rings to exercise every muscle in your body and get a great metabolism boosting workout.

To that end, here are 10 simple rings training exercises for you to try:

Gymnastic Ring Triceps Extension

This is a great exercise for the triceps muscles on the back of your arms.

Gymnastic Ring Body Row

In this video I have my feet on a Swiss Balance Ball, but a simpler variation is to put your feet on the floor. This exercise will strengthen your back and arms, and do wonders for your posture.

If there was a single exercise I’d recommend for everyone, the body row would be it.

Gymnastic Ring Pistol Squat

Pistol squats are a phenomenal exercise, but they are very difficult. Using the gymnastic rings allows you to train the pistol without losing your balance, plus the rings take some of the load off your working leg, allowing you to build up to a full pistol squat.

Gymnastic Ring Straight Arm Pulldown

This exercise is a great way to develop your back and core

Gymnastic Ring Reach Out

This is one of the best exercises for training your core.

Gymnastic Ring Dip

Dips have been called the “squat of upper body training.” If you want a strong chest, strong arms, and shoulder stability, try dips.

Gymnastic Ring Low Trap Pull

Scapular depression is one of the most under-trained movements in the gym. It is also one of the most important things you can do to improve your posture and shoulder health.

Gymnastic Ring Biceps Curls

If you’re going to do curls, do them on the rings.

Gymnastic Ring Push Up

You can improve the basic push up by using the rings. It will challenge not only your “push up” muscles, but also your shoulder stability and core strength.

For beginning exercisers, you can use the rings to reduce the amount of your body weight that you are pushing, making it less difficult than a push up on the floor.

Gymnastic Ring Face Pull

One of my favorite exercises for the back of the shoulders.

Now, if you want to use rings in your training, set up your workouts to use ring exercises in a circuit. Here’s an example:

Have fun!

My relationship with dumbbells is like Captain James T. Kirk’s relationship with tribbles: I love them and every time I turn around there are more of them in my gym

Dumbbells are so versatile and easy to use that I’m amazed more people haven’t embraced dumbbell training.

Without further ado, here are 7 reasons YOU should be using dumbbells in your fat loss and fitness training program:

Dumbbells Make Your Body Smarter

When you’re training with dumbbells (as opposed to machines) you are working in three dimensions, not locked into static pushing and pulling on padded handles.  This means your body is learning how to work in the real world at the same time you’re becoming healthy and lean.

The ability to move your body and knowing how to handle a moving weight is one of the most valuable things you can do to improve your safety and quality of life.

Icy sidewalk?  After training with dumbbells, you’ll have the strength and balance to get to your car without falling down.  Real-world abilities like this will never come from a machine that does all the balancing for you.

Dumbbells Make Your Heart Healthy

More than 100 studies have shown that strength training will lower blood pressure and strengthen your heart.

A few recent studies have shown that working out with dumbbells will lower your lipid profile (less FUNK blocking your blood vessels) and increase your oxygen uptake.

Dumbbells Give You A Better Workout

Most people only use dumbbells for training their arm muscles, but dumbbells can be used to train every part of your body:

Legs – Lunges, squats, deadlifts

Back – All sorts of rows and pulls

Chest/Shoulders – 1000′s of press variations

Core – Side bends, windmills, renegade rows

Dumbbells Make You Strong

Training with dumbbells allows you a great range of motion, building strength in ways no machine can.

Ain’t No Machine Can

Barbells and machines can restrict your motion.  For instance, in a barbell row, you can only bring the bar up to your body.  With a dumbbell row, you can pull an extra two inches, building strength through the entire movement.

Dumbbells Prevent Injuries

Weight training machines are designed to only use one muscle at a time (ex: biceps).  That’s great if you want to spend hours in the gym to hit all of your muscles, and then the only thing you do outside the gym is flex in a mirror…

For people with a real life though, it’s important to train the small muscles, tendons, and ligaments that stabilize your joints.

Machines MISS these balancing muscles and support tissues (tendons and ligaments), which means you’ll likely be injured as soon as you move in a way you haven’t pumped on a machine.

Dumbbells, however, strengthen you everywhere (including your support and balance systems) which means when you move, you’ll be safe from injury.

Dumbbells Keep Your Body In Balance

Using dumbbells forces each side of your body to do its share – train with dumbbells for the first time after using machines and you’ll definitely see how much you favor one arm and leg over the other.

From the way you drive, the way you carry packages, and the way you play sports, you will develop HUGE imbalances that will eventually lead to injury. For instance, if one leg is much stronger than the other it will pull your hips out of alignment and give you low back pain. In this case, the answer isn’t back stretches or a heating pad – the cure is balancing out your leg strength!

When you lift a barbell or use a strength machine, you can compensate for a weak left arm by pushing more with your right arm – which makes your imbalances worse.

When you lift two dumbbells each side of your body has to work on its own, so both sides get the right amount of exercise.

Dumbbells Are More Challenging And More Interesting

With dumbbells you can do thousands of exercises. With a machine you can do one.

There are so many different ways to work out that you’ll never have to get bored – which means you’ll work out harder and enjoy your workouts more. Pretty sweet deal