Women and weight training: A winning combination

For quite some time a myth that women will get bulky if they weight train has been circulating.  Slowly this myth is dying as more and more ripped women are walking around as the result of hard weight training.  On the other hand the old guard of women "just doing cardio" is resulting in the same old flabby women still walking around talking about how weight training will make them too big.  Well I don't want to ruin their good time but weight training will actually make you smaller, toned and muscular, but the bottle of wine they are drinking every night is what will really make them big.  There are several reasons why weight training is so beneficial for women and in this blog we are going to talk about some of them.


1. Women don't have the hormones to be big.  
Women are estrogen dominate and men are testosterone dominate.  Testosterone is what helps builds muscles and since women don't possess a large amount of it, they can't effectively put on muscle.  Some women point to female bodybuilders as having a lot of muscle but what these uneducated people don't realize is that professional female bodybuilders supplement with extra testosterone to achieve the over muscled look that they possess.  Because women are naturally estrogen dominate, that predisposes women larger fat deposits.  Estrogen actually is a big cause of the increased fat in women compared to men.  Combine this with the fact that fat has a mass 7x larger than muscle and it means that the primary way women get bigger is through fat gain, not muscle gain.  So next time a female tells you they got bigger from weight training, ask them if they had their body fat tested when they made these assumptions.  I would bet a lot of money that they did not and they are blaming their "bigger" condition on the weights instead of putting the blame on their poor diet, improper training habits and lack of dedication.  Women have used weights as a scapegoat for sometime in gyms because it's much easier to blame the "weight training" for their ever expanding back side than it is to admit that they are lazy and eat poorly.

2. Weight training improves women's hormone profile.
The ironic thing here is that proper weight training actually improves the likelihood that a female will be lean by positively affecting their hormone levels.  Proper weight training (I'm not talking about cardio class with 10lb. db's, that is not weight training, that is added resistance cardio) helps improve insulin sensitivity, which directly correlates to less belly fat.  It also helps raise growth hormone and testosterone levels which are two of the primary hormones that are responsible for making women not only lean but for providing an overall feeling of well being.  Proper weight training also has a positive effect on thyroid hormone levels which regulate your metabolism.  So in all, you are actually making things almost impossible by not engaging in proper weight training.

3.  Osteoporosis
Every aging women knows the risks of Osteoporosis and how this disease can negatively affect their life as they age.  The number one way to prevent Osteoporosis is by moderate to heavy weight training.  Again, the 10lb db work that women typically do with cardio class is not real weight training and does nothing to help prevent Osteoporosis.  Squatting, Pressing, Pulling, and weighted carries with a moderate to heavy external resistance is the best defense against this disease.  It is actually a good offense too as studies have shown that resistance training can actually help add bone density back after it has been lost in elderly women.

4.  Functional Strength
One of our goals here at The Spot Athletics is to make our clients functionally strong.  This means that no matter what tasks you come across in your life, you are plenty strong enough to do them and feel good doing them too.  I can remember my grandma asking me to get can goods down out of cupboards and I know that this really bothered her as years before she could do this with ease.  Simple tasks such as carrying a basket up the steps or doing yard work becomes harder as you age and lose the strength you once possessed.  Proper weight training can stop and even reverse this from trend and allow your quality of life to be very high for a long long time.

5. Empowerment
We here from a lot of our female clients how they never thought they could do some of the things they have done at our facility.  I believe that training hard and overcoming mental obstacles is not only good for ones constitution but it bleeds into other parts of your life.  I know that my daughter will grow up weight training because I want her to always feel that she can do anything she puts her mind to.  Proper weight training helps to instill this feeling by empowering females to accomplish things they never thought they could do in an environment that has been typically male dominated and I feel that this positively affects every part of a female's life.

So if you still think women shouldn't do heavy weight training then come give us a few months and I guarantee you will be stronger, leaner, more confident and look better than you ever have in your life.

Pressing and Overhead Athletes

Pressing and Overhead Athletes

I get asked a lot if we train our overhead athletes (baseball, volleyball, swimming, QBs) with the bench press. And the answer is yes but it’s not a staple in their program. We teach proper technique to all of our athletes which in turn drastically reduces the stress on the shoulder joint. Now the bench press is seen as dangerous as the barbell locks the athlete into an internally rotated position as the grip is pronated. A position that most overhead athletes are in when they play their sports. This can put an impingement on the rotator cuff. So one thing we like to use is the EliteFTS swiss press par. This takes the athletes from a pronated/internally rotated grip to a neutral grip. By doing this it externally rotates the humerus and takes stress off of the rotator cuff. So yes we do use a barbell bench press with our overhead athletes but for the most part we do our pressing with a neutral grip. 

Since the overhead athlete is in an internal position most of the time we want to strengthen the shoulder in an external position along with the upper back. We favor a lot of externally rotate movements. Band pull a parts with an underhand grip, chin ups with a neutral grip and rows with a neutral grip. We also follow a 2:1 push to press ratio on upper body days. Now with squatting we like to use the EliteFTS safety squat bar. This dramatically reduces the stress on an athletes shoulders and also strengthens the upper back. With our overhead athletes we want the athlete to effectively transfer forces from the lower body through the upper body. So we focus a lot on anti-movement pattern for core training. By doing so this will place less stress on the shoulder joint.

Overhead athelete training:

• Use a neutral grip or underhand grip
• Strengthen the upper back
• Strengthen the shoulders/upperback using external rotation movements
• Incoporate proper pre-hab and rehab into their warmups
• Use a safety squat bar
• Use anti-movement exercises like Palloff variations, one arm dumbbell bench press, DB rack walks, DB/KB suitcase carries
• Do a lot of band pull a parts

How Do You Know if Your Coach is Any Good?

You just got yourself a new coach. Or maybe there’s someone whose articles you follow religiously on the internet. But how do you know if they’re any good? Sure they have flashy taglines and they’re jacked so that means they’re a good coach, right? Well, no. There’s a distinct possibility they are just huge and good at sales and talking but they’re not actually a knowledgeable coach. Here are some guidelines to figure out if your coach makes the cut.

1) What does your coach do in their spare time? Do they attend conferences, read journals, write articles? Or are they using the same outdated information because they “always know best?”. Find someone that is always trying to learn and make themselves better. Better yet, find a coach who writes articles, presents at conferences, and is someone that others in the industry look up to.

2) Does your coach say there is only one correct way and everyone else is wrong? A good coach knows that everyone is different. Every sport is different, every person is different. Different goals, body types, issues, injuries, and movement patterns. Therefore, they should not be using a cookie cutter approach. They should tailor each program and training session to the individual. If someone else has a different method or theory, they will assess and respond to that instead of dismissing it prematurely.

3) Where has your coach learned their stuff? Did they open up a gym after getting an online certification? Or have they had internships and learned from some of the best in the industry? You can’t learn how to coach without getting hands on experience and learning from more experienced individuals. Take a look at your coach’s resume. If they don’t have any real world experience, they’re not worth your time.

4) Who has your coach trained? Olympic athletes? Middle school kids? High school athletes?  You might be impressed by their roster of stellar athletes but let me tell you this, their strength and conditioning coach didn’t make them amazing- they came to them that way. The true test is in the mediocre athletes. Did they take a second string high schooler and send him to a D1 college? Or turn a awkward bumbling freshman into a varsity athlete? Those are the real coaches.

These are just a few points to help you assess your coach. If they don’t stack up, find yourself a new coach!
Coach Lily

Can Your Trainer Also Be Your Friend?

Recently, I have been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have access to the Ohio State recreation centers and occasionally will train there with friends when I am not at The Spot. It is always interesting to watch the rounded back deadlifts and extreme bro curls that go on in a collegiate student gym, but these are usually kids who have no guidance and are, for the most part, starting from scratch. The most disturbing part of people-watching in a place like this is not the misinformed kids but rather the "certified" trainers that are being employed through the university. Granted, these trainers must take a class and pass an exam to get their certification, but after watching and experiencing how they interact with their clients, it is hard for me to imagine that there is much substance to these certification courses. Whether it is talking on the phone while a client is performing a movement or just being ignorant of exercise techniques and sequencing, these trainers fall drastically short of providing their clients with a worthwhile fitness experience for their money.

One exception that I have noticed has been the excessively "buddy-buddy" trainers that are more concerned with discussing this past weekends parties and escapades than how to properly perform an exercise. This approach can make the clients more willing to open up to the trainers and stimulate some good cooler-talk, but this is not a valid way to utilize a client's time. Once the session is over and the client goes home, do your think he/she will be more concerned with the conversation they had with their trainer or the lack of results due to the trainer's incompetence? There is a fine line between being a client's friend and pushing them to achieve their goals. If you do too much of either, you could fracture your trainer/client relationship. It is imperative that a good trainer find a good mix of being friendly and relatable and coaching the client so that they can get the most out of the service they are paying for.

In general, to the untrained eye, it is very difficult to differentiate a great coach like J.L. Holdsworth from a kid that passed a weekend certification class. Both are capable of giving a client a hard workout and being friendly, but I guarantee that J.L.'s client will be miles ahead in 12 weeks. Why? Because when you have been a coach for as long as he has, you understand the dynamic that exists between that trainer and client in respects to being your client's friend while also understanding that your job is to make them better and that is priority number one.

Coach Bryce

Motivate yourself with little victories

Everyone is always talking about dedication but what they should really be talking about is motivation.  Dedication is just motivation realized consistently over time.  So how does one stay motivated to train and eat properly day in and day out.  I will share with you some of my secrets, after all I've been training for over 20 years, that's a lot of motivating.

1.  Have a coach:

Yes everyone should have a coach.  I run my programs past the other staff at The Spot Athletics and other trusted strength coaches.  This ensures that my program is inline with my goals.  Also, even though I can break anyone's technique down, that doesn't mean that mine doesn't need breaking down as well.  Without a coach you cannot get better as a lifter because you can't fix mistakes you don't know you have.

2. Have training partners:

Getting ready for your workout is a lot easier when you know you have someone waiting on you to get it started.  We train as a team during our down times here at The Spot and it ensures that all team members stay training hard and going after their goals.

3. You will not feel like training all the time:

Knowing this can be motivating.  I used to think I had to "feel" like training when I was young.  I also thought people always felt like training.  Then I realized that you don't feel like it all the time but if you do it any way, those are your most rewarding workouts.  No one wants to train every session, but the ones that do, will get the best results.

4.  Have daily goals:

It's great to say you want to be "ripped" or "toned" but those may be long term and general goals.  Set small daily goals like "I won't eat any junk food today".  Those goals give you an immediate sense of accomplishment and motivate you to reach other small goals.

5.  Surround yourself with positive people:

My grandpa used to say "if you are always swimming up stream, maybe you should change streams".    People either give energy or take it away from you and if you have negative people always stealing your energy it is much more difficult to stay motivated.  Surround yourself with positive people who share your goals and passions and you will find it much easier to stay motivated towards those goals.

I hope you can use these little tricks to stay as motivated as I have with training.  Please share these tips with your friends so that you can be the positive, motivating person in your group of friends.  Also, if you have fallen off the training wagon or just need some help getting pointed in the right direction, get ahold of us at The Spot Athletics and we will get you back motivated and going in the right direction.

Thanks,

Coach JL