Randy Gruezo

Skill Training Shalosh (Hebrew for 3)

There is no “sport” specific training, only skill specific training. This is why I say this: you are not guaranteed that your 1000lbs squat will get you to run raster, you are not guaranteed that your 225lbs snatch will get you to serve faster, your long cycle KB swing may or may not increase your batting average, those tire flips could get you the winning submission or just break your nail. All these are training modalities that may or may not increase your performance on your athletic field. Athletic performance is a highly specific skill not one that can be duplicated in a gym setting. Then one must question, which most professional and trainees forget to ask, is HOW the training modalities transfer on to the athletic field. For example, besides increasing my hip drive, for other activities, how does KB swings increase my swing control in golf?
Let us take a look at both of these skills:

KB Swing:

- Limb manipulation (the performer is manipulating an object in their hand)
- Mostly triple extension
- Movement occurs within the sagittal plane of movement, the movement occurs fore and aft of the body.
- Little weight transference, meaning you do not need to shift your body weight from one foot to the other

Golf Swing:
- Limb Manipulation
- Slight triple extension
- Movement occurs in the Frontal and Transverse plane of movement. (think of your arms going up and down in jumping jacks with rotating left and right of the hips)
- Weight transfer from one foot to another, trailing leg to lead foot, trailing foot comes onto the toe

The answer to the question is progressive programming. This is a process to which skill is built upon skill in a systematic manner such that the outcome or the end result of all this skill building is an increase in athletic ability, on that athlete’s athletic field. This means a KB swinging will need to be progressed in a manner so that it affects the skill of a golf swing on the golf course. Below is a flow chart of one of many possible progressions to a golf swing.

Conceptually, the flow chart above “makes sense”. However, one must question: what is the qualitative regulation of skill progression? In other words, at what skillfulness level is it appropriate to move on to another skill or increase the difficulty level of the current skill and what are some observable behaviors are we using to gauge the level of skillfulness?
As I have stated in previous posts this is a systematic learning process and it is imperative that you understand it as an athlete and or the instructor. There are very distinct phases of learning the performer goes through when acquiring and mastering a skill. The level of skillfulness is directly related to the phase of learning and should be utilized, along with feedback from the performer, to appropriately progress skill in terms of difficulty and or introduction of a new skill. Below is a list in sequential order of these phases with some observable movement behavior.

Cognitive Phase:

o There is a high degree of cognition moderation
o High amounts of errors in performance
o Movement is choppy and slow
o Performance is inconsistent
o Instruction during this phase is most effective in enhancing performance

Associative Phase:

o Cognition moderation is lower
o Lower amounts of error in the performance
o Movement is “smoother” and deliberate
o Consistency of the movement has increased
o Coaching of challenging areas are needed

Autonomous Phase:

o Cognition moderation is lowest in this stage
o Little to none in performance errors
o Performance is highly consistent
o Little to no coaching is needed

Progressions within any program should be based on the performer’s skillfulness. The individual’s skillfulness is directly related to where the performer is within the learning phases. By utilizing the learning phases as your bases of progressions you, as the coach, will have a qualitative scale to indicate when the learning environment should be changed. Each change that occurs within the environment or environments should challenge the trainee so that skillfulness drops but does not totally degrade.

All trainers, with some experience and worth half a grain of salt, observes their clients and sees the above phases and progresses in some logical manner. They may not know technical names and or be able to articulate in a clear fashion. These trainers are the professional “technicians”, they train intuitively. It is the goal of these posts to educate you on what NO BS Fitness Professionals do on a daily bases and to enlighten our reading audience.

Next post drilling down on these concepts by providing some practical application and examples to the blog’s of Coach T

Post your question and comments! The only way to learn is to engage!

Be back with some more…Coach T

Skill Training Dalawa at Kalahati (2.5)

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If you are confused and wondering what the point of all this rhetoric on skill training is all about, you know who you are emailing me with questions and comments, the next time you are in the gym or your local “fitness” facility, start observing and I mean observe everyone from the time you enter all the way till you leave. Most people go to the gym and do the same random crap called a workout out without really thinking their way through. As you gather from the last 2 posts on this subject, there is a lot more to a program than just “sweating” or going through the exercises. This is about the process of critical thought and utilizing this process to make better decisions in solving movement problems for you as the performer. For the coach, trainer and instructor this is about observing the performer overcome those movement challenges and understanding the thought process to impacting the decision making process, of the performer, through appropriate, individual feedback modalities.

These concepts are not for your commercialized, factory trainers or clients. This type of training experience is for those that value high caliber professionals and for those professionals that understand the more you learn the more you realize you don’t know anything. The end goal, simplistically put, is to get our athletes, whether urban or not, to be a better movement problem solvers and the coach that is coaching, be better able to set up the learning environment to maximize that learning experience which will get you better prepared for the game we call life. So, let us continue then…

Look out for Skill Training Shalosh, Hebrew for 3

Coach T

Have any questions or comments?
Email me: Ted@NoBSFitnessSolutions.com

Skill Training Dalawa

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On my way home yesterday in New York City’s subway system, better known as the Iron Horse, I got into a dialogue with one of New York’s Premier trainers, Justin “JT” O’Brien (to the right), over two things:

- The previous post “Skill Training”
- The last workshop I presented at for the NSCA at Club H NYC, “The Progression Workshop”.

The gist of the conversation was the need to look at skill training, more specifically the programming aspect of it, as a modality of education for the client/athlete and the enhancement of performance as a matter of instruction or teaching from the trainer/coaches. I got home opened up a bottle of Duvel, soooo delicious I highly recommend it, and I picked up the most recent NSCA Strength and Conditioning Journal. Within the journal is an article titled: “Program for Effective Teaching: A Model to Guide Educational Programs in Strength and Conditioning” by Dwayne Massey EdD. Then I received a comment on the last blog “Skill Training” from Drew, one of our readers, and this is an excerpt:

“Many people and trainers included need to focus on movement technique rather than going through the motions and or doing the same routine.”

So, I guess the god of steel, Crom, is sending me signs to cover this matter…Strap in, read on and get ready for Coach T’s conceptual ideas of strength and conditioning programming: “Skill Training Dalawa”, dalawa is the Tagalog word for 2.

Note:
Due to the density of the subject there will be multiple posts delving into this concept of skill and the learning process of skill and becoming more skillful. During this process, I would encourage everyone reading to post up your comments; dialogue is honestly the best way to glean through the matter to reach a level of understanding. So let us being this journey…

The word skill, looked up on Dictionary.com, is defined as:

1. The ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well: Carpentry was one of his many skills.
2. Competent excellence in performance; expertness; dexterity: The dancers performed with skill.
3. A craft, trade, or job requiring manual dexterity or special training in which a person has competence and experience: the skill of cabinetmaking.

Now let us take this definition and apply it to human movement. Human movement is a skill we utilize knowledge, practice and there is a certain aptitude or skillfulness that needs to be acquired in movement behavior. Let us look at it from the perspective from the riddle of the Sphinx:

“What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?”

The answer was given by Oedipus. His answer was man, crawling as a child, walking as a man, walking with a cane as an elderly man. The point is, let me be politically correct, this human being learned to ambulate and mastered the skill of crawling, walking and eventually walking with assistance. If we “drill down” on the mastery process of said skills, this individual acquired these individual skill sets, obtained a level of proficiency and then progressed to the next skill.

So what? Who cares? How does this all pertain to what we do with our clients and athletes? Well, all the movements we assign the performer to do during those workout days are essentially skills that we want, and hopefully they want that too, to be more proficient at. Furthermore, the movements, aka the skills, which we assign, should be assigned such that it creates a sequence, a sequence in learning. So now there are two distinct processes that need to be taken apart in future articles:

- The learning and mastery process of skill by the performer
- The educational platform to accomplish the process of learning and mastery of skill

So now let us re-look at that quote from Drew’s post:

“Many people and trainers included need to focus on movement technique rather than going through the motions and or doing the same routine.”

What we need to focus on is the given skill that is being executed and the degree of aptitude or skillfulness, prior to progressing. We also need to realize that if one is going through the “motions”, then maybe we have reached a level of skillfulness where these “motions” are not challenging enough for us to benefit from. In other words, there is a process of learning for the performer and that process needs to be understood to maximize benefits. There is also a degree of “challenge” that needs to be part of this learning process so that the benefit of the executed skill is maximized and a level of skillfulness is achieved. Furthermore, we cannot forget the program that we are following. That program is an educational platform, a curriculum if you want to be specific, that provides these “challenges” and moments of success in a sequential order such that progressions within the program result in overall enhancement of performance on the “athlete’s” athletic field.

If all of a sudden you are realizing that there is a hell of a lot more to the concept of training and being the best at your skill sets, you are not alone! Keep reading, keep learning and post up your questions and comments!

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” Malcolm Forbes

Carpe Diem and more to come on this subject…

Coach T

Skill Training 101

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After having a conversation with a New York City trainer, I just want to make it clear on all the confusion that is out there in the internet world and literature, there are a PLETHORA of training programs that are out there, 5/3/1, Starter Strength (SS), Linear Systems, Non-Linear Systems, Seksi Naman, Hipdrivetakeit Program, Pogi Program, Dropitlikeitshot Program, …etc. They are all designed to do one thing…increase the skills of the performer or the maintenance of the current skill sets of the performer. The term athletic performance is loosely defined from ADLs, Activities of Daily Living. So, athletic performance could mean dodging people on the streets of New York City to performance on the “traditional” athletic sport field.

This improvement of performance is an increase in the execution of skill and or skills within the program and or on their athletic field. These skills are commonly seen as movements, traditionally called exercises. The term skill refers to the quality of movement. Skillful movement is the end result in training and we as coaches assist and improve the degree of skillfulness over time. This is precisely the difference between the workout and a training program. Training programs are focused and generally have a specified goal attached to them. Within the program are days of training, the workout day. Coupling workouts with micro focused movements, biomechanical changes and weekly practices you have a results based training program.

Each day within the program is designed specifically to improve the movement skills of the performer. The objective of the any well thought out training program is to increase the performer’s skill sets. The diagram to the left shows the level of individual’s, of different demographic skill sets. The size of the area represents the level of skill an individual has. The majority of individuals that we all see throughout our practice are the sedentary and fitness enthusiasts. As coaches we have several objectives for those individuals coming to us for training:
1. The improvement of current skill sets
2. The progressive learning of new skills
The accomplishment of these 2 points is done through the execution of a precise program, focused on skill specificity of the performer.

Prior to the execution of any program comes design. Program design focuses on current skill sets and the minute, methodical introduction of changes within those skill sets and the introduction of new skill sets. The higher the skill sets and individual has the more specified the program needs to be. This is depicted by the diagram to the right. Sedentary individuals need a broad based program to increase their overall fitness level versus the elite level performer where they have very, very specific athletic needs to increase the performance by 5-10%.
If we take the skill pyramid, tricolored pyramid, and overlap the Specificity of Programming Pyramid it will look like the picture to the left. Again, just to reiterate the more skillful an individual the more specified the program needs to be to obtain a positive result, positive result means that the specific performance of a skill or skills has increased.

So the questions and answers that usually come up with this concept of skill training and performance are:
1. We deal with the average Joe and Jane not athletes how does skill training address that demographic?
2. So Coach, what do I do with those clients that want a weight loss program?
3. My clients are looking for the aesthetic aspect of adaptation does skill training address the “suns out guns out” clientele?

Answers:
A. The average Joe and Jane do come in with skill sets, squats, lunges, step-ups, push-ups…etc. These skills may not appear to be the “traditional skill sets, like the squat to the right, but Joe and Jane can do “modified” movements. Instead of doing a loaded squat why not build from body weighted squats.

B. In fact, by building on their basic skill of a body weight squat this client will increase their skill capacity. This means that they can do 2 things:
i. Increase their volumes of skill execution aka executing the squat
• Multiple repetitions
• Multiple sets
ii. Increase their ability to move more than body weight
By increasing the client’s skill capacity of their given skill sets caloric expenditure will also increase by increasing volumes of skill execution and or moving more than the starting weight, body weight. Not only will their caloric expenditure increase with the increase of skill capacity but there will be an increase in functionality of the given skill and an increase of muscle mass. The increase of muscle mass will increase the performer’s basal metabolic rate. This means that this individual will now “burn” more calories at rest. Combining a progressive skill based training program and nutritional plan this individual will lose weight.

C. Getting bigger “gunz” or muscular hypertrophy is a result of load moved and volumes of that movement executed aka skill capacity. By being able to push more in terms of volumes and load that will lead to muscular hypertrophy. So, there for skill based training program may even be called the Suns Out, Gunz Out Program focusing on the skill of elbow flexion, the technical term for bicep curls.

So you want to look Seksi Naman or be at your Pogi (Filipino saying for cute) best on the athletic field or want to be able to dropitlikeitshot in the octagon stop the procrastination and start TRAINING!

Remember if you need a coach in any of the above programs…see picture below

More to come on this subject….Coach T OUT!

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Sexy Training

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I’m Filipino-American, living in New York City, and in the Philippines we have a phrase there…Seksi Naman, (Pronounced SEXY NA MAN). When translated it means sexy person or you are agreeing that person is a sexy. All the people around the world in all cultures want to be that person that… Seksi Naman. Cool, debonair, collected and more importantly in shape like the Philippines national hero Lapu-Lapu, who was responsible for the killing of Ferdinand Magellan.

So what do you do…meander through the gym and possibly hop on a cardio piece to work up a sweat or maybe join random group fitness class and or throw some weights around like Conan the Barbarian. Do that for a length of time and sim sala bim, you should get your desired results….Right? Wrong! You will get a result….now whether or not the result you have obtained is the one you want in the first place, is a different story.
First and foremost you must define to yourself…what is this Seksi Naman look that you are looking for…trimmer waist, loss of some baby fat, lose the muffin top, the demise of your back fat, leaner look, bigger, faster, stronger, fat loss, you get the idea need I go on?

Secondly, you need to construct a plan that will result in the desired result. I know you have heard it before you may have read it in some health and wellness magazine with some male or female and or both on the cover with some 6-8 pack of a stomach versus the fuel tank that your neighbor is carrying around as he invites you over for wings and beer. The Seksi Naman plan needs to also be specific…ok, Coach T you mean the torn page that i have from “Men’s Health”, “Women’s Health” or the WOD, Workout of the Day, that I obtained from a web site is, not enough? NO! Sorry to rain on your parade but it is NOT enough to obtain your desired goal. Here is why: Your desired goal means that there needs to be a desired biological, aka physiological, response that results in your desired performance goal and or aesthetic goal.
These physiological responses are also specific to the following:

o Movements assigned
o The intensity of the movements, force or energy exerted
o The volumes of the movements, frequency moved

That is the difference from a Workout Program versus a Training Program. Workout Programs are something you can tear out of a magazine and or download off a website to follow. These programs are great for the short term or to “change things up” within your total workout. Training Programs are highly focused in their construction as well as execution and they have the “Big Picture” in mind:

• Your Stated Goals aka what you want

o I want to look Seksi Naman… “pa cute” (cute) in my bathing suit
• Your functional goals aka what you need, is obtained through a coach’s assessment process and worked into the program. These needs are high on the coaches “to do list” for you. These goals are what you need to continue to be functional and or increase performance of your function in every day activity. So besides looking “pa cute” in your bathing suit…what does a coach see and want to address:

o Lumbo-Pelvic Control
o Joint instabilities that may or may not be caused by muscular imbalances
o Movement anomalies or what I like to call movement strategies that may be:
- Extraneous
- Superfluous
- Mechanically inefficient
- Mechanically unsound

Am I telling you that you shouldn’t follow the WOD, Workout of the Day, or the “Expendables” workout from your favorite fitness publication? Not at all! Those workouts and or routines do have their place within your programming need. But if you are looking for a higher return on your investment then you should be training….not working out!

WTF Coach T! What are you saying? That I am wasting my time doing curls for the girls’ workout?

No not all! But, consider this, not only is the woman, ok let me give you more credit…women, around your arms not an accessory, they look at the total package not just those small packages called your biceps…of course. What I am saying, is that instead of curling in MY, that’s right I claimed it, squat rack while staring at yourself in the mirror and NOT getting the wanted and needed results then you should go and train instead of “working out”. This way you will be a functional Seksi Naman.

Coach T

PS…NO BS is willing to help…don’t know how to get started post up on the comments and I’ll guide you along the process!

Stop the Spread of this Medical Condition

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Ladies and gentleman, there is a growing pandemic that is affecting our society and cultures. This pandemic has moved from one culture to another…spreading like wild fire from continent to continent and city to city. It started off with Asians then slowly moved west to Europeans and East to the Americas. This serious medical condition knows no boundaries and with cross continental travel at our disposal we have seen alarming numbers in New York rise every year. This name of this medical condition is Noassatall.
Noassatall is the lack and or degradation of the posterior soft tissue structures of the hip known as the glutes, commonly known as the butt. Other nomenclature that may be associated with this condition is “Flat Ass”, “No Ass Bastard” and “No Butt”.

Note the Pictures to the left. This shows the classical picture of the Noassatall condition. No superior protrusion of the posterior hip, this protrusion is commonly known as a shelf or the top of the trunk. As you observe, inferior to the shelf, the “body” of the buttocks the flatness continues resulting a pair of saggy jeans. Note how the back and buttocks just blend down into a pair of legs without distinction from one or the other, see below.

What causes this dreaded condition? The number one cause of Noassatall condition is the lack of engagement of the butt, technically called the glutes, which is comprised of three muscles:

• Gluteus Maximus
• Gluteus Medius
• Gluteus Minimus

What are some of other complications due to the lack of engagement of the glutes?

- Poor Back Stabilization! Your glutes are the strongest superficial muscle on the human body. One of the main functions of the glutes is that it works in concert with other muscles, like your lower back muscles, to support and stabilize your lower back throughout various movements through a serape affect.

- Poor Hip Stabilization. We are moving machines, or at least we were designed to move. The glutes are responsible for lateral stabilization, especially during a gait pattern; the stance glute stabilizes the hip from dropping because the opposite leg is in a swing phase and is off the ground. This leaves you on one leg.

- The glutes are also the muscle that propels you. The major function of the glutes is to extend the hip. This hip extension is what you use when you ambulate: walk, run, jump…etc.

So what can be done to stymie the spread of this condition?

If the major movement is hip extension then you need to extend your hip and there is several ways that can be achieved:

1. Basic “bridging” can be done in any home and a great place to begin to engage those non engaged glutes. There are many variations to this movement the one to the right is most common. Once mastered on both legs the performer can progress to the single leg squats.

2. Prone, lying on your stomach, hip extensions. Just like the above exercise. This movement can be done in the comfort of your home. This can be done utilizing ankle weights, cable machines, free weight, bands and no resistance.

3. Squats, Step-Ups, Lunges and Dead Lifts of all various types. The more functional of the 3 choices also the more challenging of the 3 choices. The first three movements listed, squats, step-ups and lunges, can all be done with or without external loading. Dead Lifts are always done loaded hence the name dead lift.

Bring an end to this pandemic and start working on glute engagement and help rid the world of the dreaded condition Noassatall.

Coach T

“If I Can Do It Longer, Then It’s Better!”

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First of all…get those nasty thoughts out of your head perv

Being fit does make this better!

Maybe for some activities longer means better, but that’s another blog post

Back to the matter at hand. The title arose out of a conversation I was having with a friend and colleague about a forum posts he saw. Someone wrote on the forum:

“Suppose two trainees train side by side doing isometric exercises, if one can statically hold a 100-lb barbell for 4 secs, and the other can hold 150-lb barbell for 2 secs, which of these two trainees is exerting more effort or force, thus stronger..and why?”

I had to stop and think about this question as easy as it may look because I thought it was a trick question. It’s easy to over analyze something, at least on my part.

(My answer by the way is the 150 lb is exerting more force therefore stronger. Strength is ability to apply force. It’s obvious that 150 weighs more than 100. Real world example. I can squat 305 for 5 reps fine. However I can’t carry my computer bag and walk for an hour without my back tightening up. Think about that. What does that say?)

Anyhow, the purpose of this post is not to attempt to answer the question but more so to answer…

So WHAT!

This was the question I was posed constantly by my mentor, Dr. Juris. It drove me fuckin crazy. It seemed like there could never be an answer. I finally understand now that there is no real answer, but perspective and context.

So back to so what… So what who is applying more force and therefore stronger. That’s freaking awesome if you could hold more weight or hold for longer time…. So the f$#k what!

If you’re not achieving the results you’re looking for out of your training program, does it really matter how much you’re lifting, how long your holding it for, or whatever means you’re using to measure progress.

If my goal is fat loss and after 3 mos of training my bench press went from 100 to 150 and I can squat 100 reps in 5 mins up from 25, but I’m still a fat fuck does it really matter that I can do all those other things. NOPE… Why? Cause I didn’t lose any fat that’s why…That was the reason I was training, right? Reality is that something is not working in my fitness program. Could be the exercise program, nutrition, rest/recovery, etc. But the point is, what I was doing has been irrelevant up to that point because I didn’t accomplish my objective, at least yet.

Ask a professional athlete who wins the MVP, but ultimately loses in the Superbowl what he would rather have an MVP or Superbowl ring? If his goal was to win the Superbowl it’s obvious he rather have the ring than the MVP trophy. To him the season was a failure if he doesn’t win it all. That’s how most professional athletes are.

Develop the mindset of a professional athlete. That’s how you should look at your fitness program. If you’re not achieving your goal you’re FAILING! Is that a bad thing. Hell no… Why?… Cause you learn from failure. You go back to the drawing board and see what’s working and not working, restrategize, and you do it again until you achieve your objective.

Forget all that feel good bullshit, “Oh I got a little bit stronger, I have a little bit more energy, I can climb the staircase better.” Don’t trick yourself into believing that you didn’t fail and things are ok. Wake up, it’s not okay because you didn’t achieve your goal! Period… Find out what happened make necessary adjustments and get it done…rinse…repeat… if necessary until you get the goal.

So back to that forum question…. The better question to ask, “How do those tasks relate to the clients’ goals?” Because in the end if the tasks are not goal oriented then who really cares who can do what. I guarantee you won’t see me doing anything that forces me to exert effort if it’s not getting me close to my objectives. It’s wasting energy and resources for nothing.

Come Get Some!
RG

P.S. Please share your thoughts! Also take a stab at answering the forum question. Would love to see everyone’s thoughts and perspective…

Vanilla Spice Oatmeal

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Vanilla Spice Oatmeal

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped, optional
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch nutmeg
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, plus more, to taste
1 cup lowfat milk, divided
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring the water and salt to a boil. Stir in the oats and raisins, reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, place nuts, if using, in a dry skillet over a medium-high flame, and toast, stirring frequently, until golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

When the oats are cooked remove pan from the flame and stir in the vanilla and nutmeg. Swirl in the brown sugar and place the oatmeal in serving bowls. Pour 1/4 cup of milk on top of each bowl, and top with toasted nuts and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Note: For a quicker version using quick cooking or plain instant oatmeal: Cook the oatmeal according to the directions on the package. Stir raisins, brown sugar, and nutmeg into the cooked oatmeal. Top with milk, nuts (toasted or un-toasted) and cinnamon

vanilla-spice-oatmeal-nutritional-info

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