It’s been a while since I posted a random thoughts article, so here are twelve random thoughts for you:
1. It’s Not About What You Say, It’s About What You Don’t Say
Working toward a PhD and reading tons of research does several things. First, it humbles you and helps you learn how to make appropriate claims. Second, it makes you more “evidence-based” and gives you an appreciation for the different types of evidence and hierarchy thereof. Third, it greatly increases your knowledge. These days I read various blogs/articles and I’m always amazed at the things fitness pro’s claim to be true. When someone becomes a true expert on a particular topic, I’m equally impressed by the things they don’t say than the things they do say. A majority of fitness folks are for lack of better terminology too ignorant to know what they don’t know and promote pseudoscience like it’s going out of style.
2. Great Article on Glutes
This was an awesome article on the glutes titled, Call of Booty. The only way it could have been better is if ESPN had reached out to me! Seriously, I could have helped improve upon it. At any rate, it’s a great read! Glutes are the new abs!
3. Updated Chart on Focus of Attention: Situations Where Internal Cueing is Superior and Situations Where External Cueing is Superior
Last month I wrote a blogpost on Cueing/Attentional Focus during resistance training. There were some excellent comments from readers, and even Dr. Wulf herself and Mike Young (a PhD from EliteTrack.com) offered some great insight. I’ve given this a lot more thought and have updated the chart from the original article. This chart depicts what I believe to be true (but I could be wrong of course) in terms of situations where internal cueing would be superior to external cueing and vice versa. More research is needed to show whether my hypothesis is correct of if I’m just really good at B.S.!
4. Bradley Won!!!
Thanks to all NSCA members who voted for Brad Schoenfeld for NSCA board member. He won! This is a dream-come-true for Brad and I have no doubt that he’ll do an excellent job fulfilling his duties.
5. Incredible Psoas Stretch
For those readers who are hell-bent on finding the most effective way to stretch your psoas without having a partner around to assist, this might just be the best possible method. Plus you gotta love the accent!
6. Quoted on My Idol Arnold Schwarzenegger’s New Fitness Site!
It’s a big honor for me to have recently been quoted on Arny’s new site. Arny has been my idol for over 20 years! Thanks to my friend John Romaniello for reaching out and for writing an incredible article. HERE‘s the link. I may write up an entire article reviewing the literature on this topic as the support in favor of selective recruitment and hypertrophy is pretty overwhelming at this point.
7. Excellent New Blogpost by Chris Beardsley on The Biomechanics of Resistance on Our S&C Research Review Blog
This is difficult material to sift through, but very important nevertheless. In THIS blogpost Chris reviews an incredible article by Frost that showcases the different forms of resistance, namely isoinertial, isokinetic, and variable resistance. If you’re a strength coach, you need to give this a read and try your best to make sense of it. Kudos to my friend Chris – I’m astounding by how freakishly intelligent he is.
8. Make Your Rainy Brain Sunnier
THIS was a great CNN article on why it’s possible to become happier and more positive. I have been on a personal quest in the past year to improve my happiness and I have definitely succeeded. If you’re not happy right now, rest assured knowing that achieving happiness is within your control. But you gotta work at it! Nothing in life comes easy.
9. BioLayne.Com: You Got Guru’d!
My colleague Layne Norton, someone for whom I possess a ton of respect (he’s a badass natural bodybuilder and powerlifter with a freakin’ PhD!), just started a fitness blog HERE. Layne is a fellow guru-slayer and if you’re into bodybuilding and physique-enhancement training I highly recommend following him. I always appreciate those who exhibit an evidence-based approach while blending practical and research knowledge together. HERE is a link to his Twitter profile. He has coined a hilarious slogan on Twitter: #yougotgurud (You Got Guru’d).
Here are a couple of examples of getting guru’d:
1) If your trainer tells you to head down to the Dominican Republic for 5 days so you can pack on 13 lbs of muscle while losing 3 lbs of fat just by eating their nutritious foods, #yougotgurud
2) If your trainer tells you to perform seated l-flies so you can increase your incline press by 240 lbs, #yougotgurud
10. Inspiring Post by Kellie Davis
Kellie just wrote THIS post which I found very inspirational. Here’s the video she embedded:
11. New Pics
Funny story. My twin brother is a photographer. This has its perks. Around ten days ago I woke up and felt like my physique was looking really good. I called my brother on a whim and asked him if I could cruise over and have him snap some pics. I spent ten minutes pumping up with some push-ups, curls, and lateral raises, then we walked outside onto his front yard and took pictures. I uploaded them to my Facebook album HERE. I’m really happy with how they turned out. It’s amazing how much more confident and cheerful I am when I feel like I’m in peak physical condition.
12. Overwhelmed with Emails and Requests!
For the past three years, I’ve tried my hardest to keep up with emails and requests. Many days I spend up to two solid hours responding to emails. I don’t know what’s going on but the amount of emails/requests I get is getting out of control lately!
Little by little I’m becoming known as one of the go-to-guys in the fitness field for scientific information, and therefore I’ve been receiving tons of emails from people requesting studies on particular topics. Furthermore, many individuals have questions pertaining to glute training, back pain, or glute imbalances, so I receive many emails on that topic as well. Finally, I’ve been getting tons of requests to speak at events, contribute to websites/magazines, promote products, etc. I’m very flattered and I try very hard to respond to everyone, but I can barely keep up anymore. I truly apologize if I’ve blown you off or ignored an email, but I am incredibly busy these days. I need to save up a lot of money to continue with my PhD (I want to continue it from the U.S. which means paying foreign tuition and traveling a couple times to N.Z. to collect data) and I’m just over half-way there. I’m incredibly focused on saving up this $$$ by February.
I wrote two books this year (Kellie helped out considerably with Strong Curves of course) and have to deal with the editing processes which is very time-consuming. My personal training clientele has increased even though I didn’t really want it to (and I’m considering renting a facility so I can properly train my clients – I have the best equipment possible for sculpting glutes haha). Brad and I are in the process of publishing a couple more journal articles. Chris and I are working on something very cool. I have the research review service and it takes a ton of time each month to stay on top of the research in the various fields in sports science. In addition, I blog regularly, film videos, and write articles for TNation, etc. Finally, I train hard myself and am always striving to reach new goals.
Juggling all of this while trying to maintain balance in life is highly challenging so please understand that I can no longer respond to everyone. I’ll still do my best but I have to put a limit on how much time I dedicate in this regard or I don’t accomplish any of my goals.
Have a great week fitness peeps!
Great pic, Bret! Keep up the good work as always
Thanks Anoop!!! I appreciate it.
Wow! Great post..
ESPN article was excellent, and hilarious. 3+years after the emergence of “the glute guy”, and mainstream media is coming around. I foresee heightened interest in your works, BC.
I freaking LOVE that shot of Arnie, b/c of the proportionality from his very lean, “normal’ waist. I saw him a few months back riding his bike in Santa Monica, (for real, not a goof), and it’s a little shocking. He looks like a regular guy, still fit, but so…not Arnold. As opposed to Ferrigno, who is still pretty jacked. Granted, he is 64, now, but still, use it or lose it!
Your new pic illustrates why when you said 240 ripped was not possible for you, I disagreed. You changed your routine a bit?
And finally, Kellie’s video is awesome! (Did you notice the way she is (correctly) rolling through her scaps on the pull ups and rows? Just sayin’..:) It reminded me a bit of this video by Ross Enamait, which might be the most inspirational training video I’ve ever seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43pIkeA_ZZg&feature=plcp
Keep on keepin’ on, BC..
Derrick, I’m around 222 right now (and in those pics) so 240 would probably put me at too much bf to look really good. Sure I could strive for it, but these days I’m content to stay at 220-225. And I like your article and am considering posting it, but I wanted to give you some feedback that I got from my friend (who called me to discuss so I can’t just forward you the info). Ross’s video rocks, that dude is so impressive! Cheers, BC
I look forward to some knowledge, thanks!
Understood on the optimal weight..when I get up around 195 on my shorty frame, my full court basketball skills start diminishing in a hurry! (Note to teammates: enough with the dirty looks just b/c my man is beating me down the court..)
222 and athletic works! Just b/c more skeletal muscle COULD be added, doesn’t mean that it SHOULD be..
RE: Kellie’s video, (and Ross’s video): Their subtext is not so much, “Look what I can do!” as much as it’s “Look what YOU can do!” That’s inspiration..
Thanks for the mention (or two). It’s been a wild roller coaster of a year and it’s nice to finally see everything coming to fruition. Happiness is definitely going to be a part of your future as it looks so bright from here!
Love the ESPN article!
And I DID vote for Brad. What a great thing for him.
I know!!! Crazy year but we’ll get through it and be very glad we put forth the effort! Thanks Kel.
Thanks so much for posting these, Brett; I enjoyed the article on glutes especially, and at one time I knew Arnold quite well (I made the film “The Comeback”, the story of his 7th Olympia win, when the contest was held at the Opera House, Sydney), so that brought back memories, too.
And I love Kellie’s inspirational video.
A small aside on the hip flexor stretch: in my view, almost no one has ever stretched psoas, because for the vast majority of the population, rectus femurs is the limiter of extension at the hip joint (and this is just as true of elite athletes as ‘normal’ people).
I have a much more effective stretch for the hip flexors which I will link to below, but it does require a partner. Assuming the lunge position, until your entire back leg is on the floor, you can’t begin to get in to psoas, in my experience. And when this happens, AND you then take the spine away from the floor (to roughly 45 degrees from the floor), a unique sensation is experienced, part fascia, and part psoas. If you are really flexible (dancer/gymnast level) then psoas will be strongly elongated as the spine reaches 90 degrees form the floor, and it is an amazing sensation.
The key point for you, the glute guy, is that it’s much harder to activate the gluteus in the all-important final part of the extension movement if the HFs are tight (reciprocal inhibition). Kellie is demonstrating a very impressive active extension in her video, which prompted me to post: you can’t even get into this position of your HFs are tight. And for sprinting, the final part is important.
See here for the next level in rectus femoris/psoas/iliacus stretching (there are two beyond this!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtsQTfAwE4Y
Enjoy.
Thanks Kit! I appreciate your thoughts. I can’t imagine going after the RF without flexing the knee joint to get the stretch at both ends??? You could very well be right about psoas. Care to comment on this video I recently filmed? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-LiS_l5ZSk
Great post, thank you. I forwarded the post from ESPN to my sons, because they just don’t get it about having a strong ass (and unfortunately, both younger sons have that flat Hispanic ass). I think one from you though would be more compelling because you have that knack of speaking/writing concisely to the point.
We all need to keep preaching the glute gospel!!! Thanks Maria.
Thanks for all the time spent on giving all this great information,lucky people who get your replies.This information is priceless especially those who want changes.thanks
You’re welcome Karen, thanks for the kind words!
You are like Glutestradamus, I cannot believe ESPN didn’t give you a shout out.
Definitely about what you don’t say, and I’m finding that the less I have to say, the more I need to do my research. People like yourself keep on raising the bar and inspiring me to find the truth (that’s why we’re all here, right?).
Anyways, awesome post and keep up the good work. Thanks!
Bret, you have always been awesome and incredibly helpful. I’m sure everyone understands that you can’t be at their beck and call to answer emails/questions/requests full time! Love Kellie’s video, the article & the psoas stretch!
Great article, great pic. You really whipped yourself into shape pretty quickly, man.
Thanks for the post Bret. After the reading about all the things on your plate, I’m very inspired that you take the time to write these blog posts. I know it must be hard to train clients, eat well, train yourself, study and research , respond to emails, film videos and write this blog…I’m sure I’ve missed something else. Anyhow, we appreciate it!