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Random Thoughts

By February 12, 2013January 11th, 2014Random Thoughts

Hi Fitness Friends! I have 10 random things for you today.

1. New Website

As you can see, I finally changed around my website. I hope you like the new design. I think I’ve solved the popup issue as well (I received many emails informing me that my popup was freakishly annoying). It may take me a while to fix things, but I do listen to my reader’s concerns!

2. New About Me Page

I also created a new About Me page. This page contains links to all of my best articles, and they’re categorized into various topics. I hope you like that too.

3.  Reconsidering Posting My Training Women Article – What Do You Think?

I’ve been jotting down notes for the past several months in regards to the differences between training men and women. I have 100 observations and would like to post it, however from past experiences I’m pretty sure that a certain number of women would find it to be offensive. I would be sure to mention that these are generalizations and there are of course many individuals who are exceptions to these generalizations, and I think many trainers and coaches would appreciate the attempt at providing honest feedback. However, I don’t want to upset people, or to have to defend my intentions. What do my readers think – should I post it or leave it be?

vida guerra

4. BCSC Back in Action – Sort Of

Charles Staley and I  recently moved all of my equipment to the place we’ve been training at for the past 6 months. We just need to finish setting it all up and it’ll be good to go. Having moved my strength training equipment so many times over the past six years, I welcome the day where I never have to do it again. But it’s always nice to enjoy the fruits of your labor – in this case I can’t wait to perform reverse hypers again on a regular basis. Reverse hyper – I’ve missed you!

5. Two Months til My First Powerlifting Competition!

In two months I’ll be competing in my first powerlifting comp. I’m very excited! It’s a raw, natural competition, and they’re very strict on squat depth. I’m shooting for a 400lb squat, a 300lb bench, and a 600lb deadlift in the 219lb weight class, for around a 1,300lb total. I was a bit disappointed – a few days ago I tested my strength and squatted 365, benched 290, and pulled 535 for a 1,190 total. In the past couple of months I’ve squatted 390, benched 290, and pulled 550. So in the next two months I need to put 10-35lbs on my squat, 10lbs on my bench, and 50-65lbs on my deadlift. I have a solid plan, so I hope it works. Wish me luck!

6. Kellie Davis Sets Hip Thrust PR at 365lbs!

Check out Kellie Davis here hip thrusting 365 with excellent form! Some strong glutes on this woman!

7. Innovative Hamstring Exercises

I was sent this video on Facebook and I told the sender I’d post on my blog. I like seeing innovative things!

8. Quick EMG Review: Training the rotator cuff trains the scapulothoracic muscles

Click HERE for some cool graphics detailing the EMG activity of various rotator cuff and scapular muscles during common rehab/prehab movements. Thanks to Greg Lehman for this!

9. Female Figure/Bodybuilders and Leg/Glute Training

Here are some vids that I stumbled upon of various women training legs/glutes. Though I feel that these women could improve their training in various ways, it’s important to notice the style and manner in which they train.

10. Proper Reverse Hyper Form

Here is Karli performing 15 reps on the reverse hyper with 50lbs. Notice the lumbar spine stays pretty still throughout the exercise; it doesn’t go into too much flexion at the bottom or hyperextension at the top. Also notice how she absorbs the eccentric loading and reverses at the bottom of the movement – this makes the exercise much harder!

And that’s all for today fitness friends! I hope you have a great week.

51 Comments

  • David Morales says:

    Yes! Please post your “Training Women Article” Lots of trainers would benefit from it. And yes that email pop up was annoying. Was about to email you about it. Gracias!

  • Ryan Lateward says:

    Hello Brett,

    Please Post the training females article, I would like to read it.

    Thanks.

  • Tammy says:

    Yes, please post the women training article! We big girls can handle it…and learn something, too.

  • Russell Peele says:

    post away. as Ben Carson said in his recent speech at the national prayer breakfast, “It has become impossible to say anything to a large group of people without offending someone.”

  • Ong Beng Hwee says:

    The Quick EMG Review on rotator cuff training is certainly useful when it comes to shoulder rehabilitation. Great innovative hamstring exercises that I can put into use.

  • Jeremy says:

    So glad to see the first two comments on here supporting what I came to comment for.

    Yes please share the Female training article. As a newish trainer, that’s one of my big questions about training. (I’ve got a lot more if you’d care to look them over =)

    As long as the article is honest and true I can’t see why anybody would have a problem with it.

  • Arlene says:

    Hi Bret,

    Of course you should post “Your Training Women” article.

    Even if someone disagrees with it or something specific you wrote, that’s fine. If we all agreed to disagree – life would be so much easier and we’d all be a lot less stressed out.

    And, it’s your thoughts, observations and opinions!

    From everything you have shared with us this far, I definitely want to know your thoughts on training women.

    Thanks.

    Arlene 🙂

  • Love the new site. I will call it “la teegra”it is a bit of a softer look (zoolander reference)

    Post the article! A) I would love to learn from you B) pissing females off might be good for extra press 😉

    I yelped when I saw the sl clean to step up and rotations and pulses on the sl back extensions (sweeeeet!). Mark Verstegen got me doing keiser resisted valslide hammy curls and keiser resisted valslide lunges to add in that horizontal vector of resistance (you can use bands too).

    I look forward to hearing about your meet. Thanks for your continued passion!

    • Derrick Blanton says:

      That hamstring video is creative, and looks pretty brutal!

      Quick question: At 2:20, shouldn’t that be “single leg back extension to INTERNAL rotation”? The working leg appears to be internally rotating to erect the contra-lateral torso. If it were externally rotating, it would force the contra-lateral torso down towards the floor, yeah?

      Or is my blood sugar just low, and I’m not thinking right here? 🙂

  • Sheyna says:

    I would love to read your article on training women…

  • kari says:

    Thank you Bret for this post and loving it. It makes me so motivated to work out harder!

  • Kimberlie says:

    Please post the article on women! As a female powerlifting newbie, I’d like to be the best trainee I possibly can be. Any article on training women might help me appreciate the coach’s perspective. If you want to throw in a few tips on how to be a great female trainee, that would be helpful too 🙂

  • Chris says:

    Awesome video RE: Hamstring rehab excises!

  • Derrick Blanton says:

    Big guy, of course you’re going to make those lifts. Unless I’m missing something though, that adds up to a 1300-total, not 1400. Right? (Still a lot of iron, raw, and in one day!)

    And Kellie is completely out of hand. Incredible HT strength. 3xBW plus with hold and squeeze.

  • Steve.B says:

    Thanks Brett for all your work brining the hip thrust to the fore front of strength training, I’m training a client who is getting ready for his first bodybuilding comp when he does hip thrust at his gym no one knows what he is doing makes me laugh! keep posting Great stuff Brett.

  • Sha Ali says:

    Please repost!

  • teri says:

    Yes! Write the article! You are becoming an expert on training us girls, we need your insights. Your intentions are pure & that will be apparant to those who read it with an open mind.

  • Zach Zettle says:

    Yes, please post/write the article!

    I to like innovation when it comes to exercise however I am going to take the opposite side on the “hamstring rehabilitation” video. Although some of those exercises can be beneficial others are outright dangerous. The van damme bench throws, single leg clean to box step up, and split stance squat to good mornings are perfect examples of these. Risk vs. Reward. A old coach of mine use to say “get strong before you get cute” and I definitely see a lot of “cute” exercises in that video.

    • Bret says:

      Zach, personally I love these types of vids. I’m always thinking in the gym, and I get complacent thinking that I’ve thought of everything. But there are always things I can learn from experienced coaches/trainers/therapists. When I encounter something that makes me say, “why didn’t I think of that?”, I’m very appreciative. Sure I won’t use much of this, but these days it’s rare to find anything I incorporate into my arsenal.

  • Johanna says:

    Please post the article Bret, you made me so curious!

  • Luis says:

    I’ve got an idea for you to achieve your goal in powerlifting competition!!!! You have 2 months to train right?!! Here in Europe we have an excellent exercise that we use often!!! You can thank me later when you achieve number one in your 3 lifts…
    I’ll send you some vids with this exercise to help your training schedule!
    It calls…HIP THRUST!!!

    Good luck!!

  • Oliver says:

    Great hamstrings exercise variations in that video, I think it would an injustice not to post the training women article Bret, I can’t wait.

  • Mimmi says:

    Post it! Would love to read it! But fewer illustrations of almost naked women with their behinds pressed into the camera maybe? (If such images were present in this article …) I haven’t read all your articles, but remember the very first one that lead me from google to your site – it included a lot of almost naked booty … and it made me think that you were an idiot spending too much time on the wrong internet sites 😉 I’m very happy that I continued reading, and now I am a big fan! But first impression – not that good.

    • Bret says:

      Mimmi – I’ve been doing this for years – it’s my signature. Can’t you look past the half-naked booties? I like to think they inspire some women (and men).

      • Mimmi says:

        Yes, i certainly can (and have) looked past the booties! I didn’t really mind them in the first place, but since I knew nothing about you at first I wasn’t sure you were a serious trainer/researcher – because of the pictures. (Then I started reading your articles, and am very glad I did).
        I’m just saying that certain pictures appeal more to men than women, and it would be a sad thing if women, who need your advice, feel unwelcome when first visiting your site and decide to go elsewhere.
        And, if you think booty pictures are your signature? No, your great knowledge of glute training is your signature! Pictures you can find all over the internet …

  • maureen says:

    Post Post Post. Knowledge is power…The more you teach(tell) us the better off we are. If there is one thing reading you blog has taught me is read and listen to as much as you can handle…try it and if doesn’t work for you toss it out..

  • Good luck on the upcoming meet Bret! Excellent!
    Rock on
    Mike T Nelson

  • Kellie Davis says:

    Thanks for sharing my video. You know I advocate writing the article and will staunchly stand behind what you post because you are the keenest observer of female training. I think the hardest part when writing these posts is that your reader base is filled with many, many incredibly strong women. But they are such a small percentage of the population and are truly elite. When you write these posts, they speak to the general population and that needs to be taken into consideration.

  • Conrad says:

    I also would love to learn from your observations on gender differences in training.

    I can certainly understand being cautious in what you post as to not wanting to be misunderstood.

    On a related note, my wife was a little weirded out when I first showed her your ‘strong female booties’ video. She “gets it” now and is much less weirded out by that video. : ) She is now benefiting from your stuff.

    Seems like there’s somebody who can get offended by about anything so…ehh, what can you do?

  • Cindy says:

    Yes, please repost!!!

    Thanks!

  • Condeezle says:

    Please post it!

  • Tammy E. says:

    Please post the article. Most women are easily offended at well, anything and everything 🙂

  • I have your article on training women (from 2010) saved on my Kindle, and I read it frequently to refresh. That article has been very helpful to me as a personal trainer, so I would love to see an updated version posted. Do you still have the same thoughts on training women frequently with full-body workouts, or have some of your ideas about training females changed/evolved over the last 2+ years? I have personally found MWF total body splits to be far superior to the upper/lower splits that I see many females following.Thanks!

  • voula says:

    Regarding whether or not to post traing differences between men and women…OF COURSE you should post it!!! In my opinion women need to understand that men and women are just different! Its not a bad thing, its just how it is! Different hormones and such make our bodies and brains function differently.If a woman takes offense to that post then they must be extremely defensive of the female gender which is wrong. I think this has a lot to do with divorce rates these days but thats another story. WOMEN, EMBRACE YOUR GENDER, BODY, AND NURTURING NATURE AND LET BRET POST ABOUT TRAINING WOMEN DIFFERENTLY! I know as a woman i want to learn as much as i can about how to work with my body in the best way possible.

  • Ola says:

    Hi Brett,

    Please post the article. I’ve been a fan for around a year now and your stuff if brilliant. I’ve just started Get Glutes and I’m loving it. I look forward to reading this article on female training soon.

  • Marc says:

    Hi Bret. I like your new web site very well done great female videos Kelly is a killer.
    Keep up the good work.
    Ciao,Marc

  • Lee Michaels says:

    Regarding if you should post some insights on “Training Women” article, do it. The classic way of dealing with some folks who may get upset is to include a fairly comprehensive DISCLAIMER at the beginning of the article. Identify what may be a problem for some folks.

    This serves two purposes. 1) It warns off those folks who may get offended. 2) It clearly shows that you are sincere and will publish relevant information that may not be universally politically correct.

    Any insights into training women, that doesn’t involve waving around 3 lb weights or prance-aerobics, is sorely needed in the world.

    Besides, if you don’t publish this information, we will all think you are a WIMP!
    😉

  • michelle says:

    Please post the training women article! I will not be offended by anything

  • Only post the Training Women article if we don’t need to look or act like the steamy babe at the top of the post! 🙂 Of course you should post it, even if for no other reason than to challenge us to face what we relate to and change what we want about ourselves.

  • Bret says:

    Okay folks, I will post it! Thank you for the tremendous support, I appreciate it immensely. I just need to go through it and wordsmith it to minimize any potential offensiveness.

  • Oider says:

    Training Women article please! 🙂

  • carol says:

    please post your article about training women.
    some people confuse observations about a group with statements about individuals.

  • Rachel says:

    Dude, seriously? That training women article is sad, dude, just sad. Maybe you should meet more women before posting that kind of stuff? Pink? Sexual grunts? Drama? Maybe it’s just you?
    Oh, and the pic you used for the article – REALLY? That’s what you CHOSE?
    *sigh*

  • Ellen OLeary says:

    I can’t belive you dont realize how offensive these statement are. You must be a real d-bag.

  • Jenn says:

    I wear tons of pink while I’m doing my 250lb (thus far) deadlifts, may as well stand out from the sea of “brahs” vying for bicep curl space in the squat rack. 😉

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