We all know them. We’ve all seen them before or at least heard of them. They prowl around the gym roaring like lions. The sound of thsoe roars echo through the squat racks. You know, the guy who’s a BEAST in the weightroom, but when it comes to his kitchen status he’s a little school girl! He/she busts into the weightroom with vigor and tenacity, attacks the weights like an animal. But when it’s time to cash in on that hard work and reap the rewards, his nutritional skills are less than desirable. The reality is he eats like a little school girl and trains like a beast! His strength and mass levels reflect this poor nutritional lifestyle. He has every nutritional supplement known to man but good ol’ meat is far from his kitchen. The fur on his neck rises up high with only a thought of the squat rack as his blood begins to boil. This beast can’t wait to put the chains around his waist for heavy pull-ups, but somehow eating the flesh of another animal doesn’t seem that exciting to him. His bond with the iron reaches into the depths of his soul, and the chalk on his hands is as refreshing as the morning dew on grass. This type of individual can’t wait until the next opportunity to lift heavy things. His grunts that come with every rep are existential cries for the true meaning of strength. Every workout his bond with the iron grows like a lioness’ bond with her cubs. His prey is the iron plates that he tosses around like rags.

     Though some may claim steroids or other means, it’s a safe assumption that he who possesses beast status in the kitchen has the size and strength gains indicative of that. Often times, the biggest guys at the gym have the best nutritional habits. Put simply, you can’t out train a bad diet! The mesomorph believes the opposite is true, while the ectomorph is left wondering why he’s still weak and skinny. Neither have heard of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs.

     I can think of so many people who get fired up for bench pressing and “get after it” when it’s squatting time. Their mentality towards deadlifts is rooted in the heart of a lion, but it seems meat eating is going to GNC and buying some crappy protein supplement because “it’s the same thing”. Their little school girl eating habits are as intimidating as a 185 bench press and a 225 deadlift. I can honestly say that throughout my college career only a few times have I reached beast mode in the kitchen and eaten like an animal. My ectomorphic hardgainer self always had excuses why I didn’t make tons of food and eat for performance to get the results I greatly desired. I attacked the weightroom with maximal Sam Leahey intensity, but my intensity in the kitchen sounded like a cat meowing rather than a roaring lion. I knew I needed to get my nutrition game up if I wanted to be as strong as possible. For the last 4 years I ate in my school’s cafeteria and finished off whatever my roommates left in the fridge, but I never attempted to cook for myself. Why? I didn’t know how and thought it’d be too big of a process to start learning. This was all before the greatest internship in the world with Mike Boyle. Thus far my life has taken a turn this summer and I’d like to share it with you now.

“Necessity is the mother of all invention”  –  Coach Jeff Oliver

 Coach Ollie, a wise man and a “big deal” if you know what I mean

     When Coach Ollie first said the above quote to me last spring the lights came on and the ah-moments just started trickling down. So much so that I decided this summer would be the first time in my life I would learn to cook for myself. Yes, at the ripe old age of 22 I have decided the time has come. I took Coach Ollie’s statement to heart and MADE myself learn to cook by showing up at the intern house this summer with nothing but a credit card for food and supplies. It’s been almost 3 months now and I must say, COOKING IS SO EASY!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I wish I hadn’t been so intimidated and tried cooking before. Admittedly, I’m still at lion cub status in the kitchen, but I can hear the roars of the pack slowly approaching.

Sam’s beast status in the kitchen before MBSC internship

 Sam’s beast status in the kitchen after MBSC internship. . . hopefully. . .

      Working nearly 60 hours a week as an intern has unfortunately made training for football take a back seat a couple times. But what’s so amazing are my training results. I weight more now than I ever did in my life! Hmmmmmmm. . . could it be that my animal like approach to the weight room carried over into the kitchen? Have I finally eaten decently enough to gain the muscle and strength I was waiting for? Maybe so. As with any new life change I realize I have much to learn in this new realm. I still could do better and eat more but I’m laying a foundation this summer. Overall though I feel as if cooking is here to stay and my strength and mass gains will continue to come as the quality of my nutrition increases. Check out this video to get the inside scoop on how im finally learning to cook for myself . . .

First up this week is the second article from Mladen Jovanovic called Planning the Strength Training. Mladen is a European strength and conditioning coach and long time site member. Scott Vass, another site member from Canada, was nice enough to forward the article to me. This is a long and incredibly detailed article. What is more amazing is that English is not Mladens primary language. Please note, there may be a few errors in syntax and grammar.

The remainder of the week belongs to Nick Tuminello. As I have said many times in these emails, I really enjoy Nick’s work. Over the past month Nick has sent me a lot of material. Nick is always willing to share articles he has written for other sites and I appreciate that.  First up is Fundamentals of Nutrition and Fat Loss. These are Nick’s views on nutrition. After that is How Strong are Your Glutes, a piece originally written for Figure Athlete.com. Previously I have spoke about and I believe posted a video of Nick’s unique ideas about glute isolation. If there is one muscle we might want to train in isolation, it would be the glutes.

Video of the Week

Video of the week is also from Nick. Nick has a great series of videos discussing ways to improve your shoulder prehab.

As always don’t forget to check out the StrengthCoach Podcast  at www.strengthcoachpodcast.com.  Anthony always has great info and great guests. 

Also make sure you check out www.strengthandconditioningwebinars.com. Anthony has archived  a bunch of webinars on the site so you learn any time day or night without ever leaving your house. I think both Nick Tuminello and Charlie Weingroff added webinars this week.

Hope you enjoy the week.

Michael

From the Stonehearth Newsletter

According to the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health men who drink four pints of beer a week could be increasing the risk of needing hospital treatment during their lifetime, a study has suggested. Researchers studied 5,772 Scottish men for up to 35 years. They found those who drank between eight and 14 units a week were more likely to be admitted to hospital than those who drank fewer units or nothing. That is the equivalent of four pints of beer, eight shots of spirits or eight small glasses of wine.

The men, from Glasgow, Clydebank and Grangemouth, were all aged between 35 to 64 when they were recruited between 1970 and 1973.

Drinkers were also likely to be kept in hospital for longer than people who drank less or abstained, according to the research by the universities of Glasgow and Bristol, which has been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

 

This looks like bad news for me, Alwyn Cosgrove and Coach Dos.

First up this week is a great piece from Pat Rigsby. It was actually an email he sent out to his list and was posted on his www.patnickandjim.com blog. It’s simply called Pat Rigsy on Getting Things Done. I think for many of us time management is a huge part of success.

Next up is a piece from Teena Murray called The Cardinal Way. Teena is an excellent strength coach and runs a great program. I asked her to contribute an article a few months ago describing their program philosophy at Louisville. I think her piece is exactly what this site needs.

Last up is another piece that will make you think called What Ruins Running. The article, written by Christopher McDougal, originally appeared in the Boston Globe and is based on Chris’s book Born to Run. To learn more about the book you can go to the link below. Chris was also a guest on a recent Strength Coach Podcast. 

Video of the Week

Video of the week is a Standing Diagonal Lifting Pattern. Gray Cook obviously likes diagonal patterns as corrective exercises. We also work on these in progressions for strength. This a “phase 2” exercise.

As always don’t forget to check out the StrengthCoach Podcast  at www.strengthcoachpodcast.com.  Anthony has great interviews up with both Chris McDougal and Dan John Also make sure you check out www.strengthandconditioningwebinars.com This is another great educational vehicle that Anthony Renna of the Strength Coach Podcast is developing. Anthony has archived webinars on the site so you learn any time day or night without ever leaving your house. I recently recorded Understanding Sports Hernia for the site.

Hope you enjoy the week.

Michael

MBSC Internship with Sam Leahey: Part 2 of Building Relationship in The Weight Room & Part 2 of Explaining The “Whys”

     To be quite honest, I thought the people who would most appreciate my blogging would be fellow MBSC interns and a few others that know me personally. But apparently my perspectives are farther reaching than I assumed. I’ve gotten some great feedback in my inbox as well as people commenting on the blog, especially regarding the last post. So much so that I decided to elaborate even further on my coaching resonations and allow my blabbering to continue on. Below is part 2 of building relationships in the weight room as well as part 2 of trying to explain the “why’s” to everyone instead of actually coaching. It’s not as much content as before but more of a “finisher” on the topic at hand.

More on Building Relationships

     I began this week by remembering the big lesson from last week. I made it a point to engage in small talk more frequently WHEN APPROPRIATE and tried to find out more about the athletes’ lives outside the gym. Honestly, I found a new passion for learning more about other people’s lives beyond the barbells and slideboards. Beyond the rusty iron (shiny iron in MBSC’s case) I discovered how much people actually enjoy other things besides strength & conditioning (NO DUH, SAM, YOU STINK’N DORK!). As it turns out, my athletes were more inclined to do what I said the more I talked to them about things other than the workout. I didn’t want to get too carried away, so I slipped it in between sets and during transitional times between circuits or conditioning. I can’t even begin to tell you the difference in responses I would get between athletes with whom I planted friendship seeds and those with which I did not. Take this basic example for instance. . .

Situation A – Trying to coach two people when no one knows each other’s names and you previously didn’t take any time to learn about his/her life outside of training.

Coach Sam: “THROW THAT MED BALL, MAN! COME ON! HEY YOU! PUSH THAT BARBELL UP! YOU GOT IT!”

First Athlete’s Response: “I guess I’ll throw this ball harder because I know it’s the right thing to do, but not because he said so.”

Second Athletes’ Response: “I’m pushing this barbell as hard as I can guy, leave me alone!

Situation B – Trying to coach two people whose names you know and they both know your name as well. You’ve also talked to them before the workout to see how their feeling, what sports their training for, and what their goals are for the summer.

Coach Sam: “THROW THAT MED BALL, BRIAN! COME ON! HEY, CHELSIE, PUSH THAT BARBELL UP!”

Brian’s Response: “He better watch out because I’m about to put a hole in the wall with this med ball!”

Chelsie’s Response: “You’re right! I got this! GRRRRRRR!”

The only difference was I knew and addressed each athlete by name, and we had built a little foundational relationship beforehand. I’ll be the first to say this is as generic and simple as an example gets, but it gets my point across and I’ve found this to be pretty realistic actually. I’m starting to realize it’s just that simple sometimes. Call people by their names and make sure you talk to them about something other than training and good things happen!

     When I began helping Coach Boyle at BU with his hockey team the same concept applied. Yet it was a different “progression” if you will. The group was mainly comprised of freshman with only 4 seniors. I thought about my own college athlete experience. As an upperclassman I had been working hard for 4-5 years, and the people who’ve coached me the most and earned my respect were the actual staff members, not interns. That said, I wouldn’t appreciate some intern coming in my senior year and telling me what to do. So I decided purposely not to coach the upperclassmen hockey players at BU. I focused completely on the freshman since they needed the most help anyway. This went on for a 2 workouts. I brought the best coaching energy I could to the freshman and pretty much ignored the seniors. I think they realized this pretty quickly after the first workout. BUT GUESS WHAT?!?!? After only the second workout EVERY LAST ONE of the upperclassmen came up to me and introduced themselves, asked where I was from, and yada yada. A couple actually said they appreciated having me there! What? I didn’t even coach them. I quickly realized that by me respecting their seniority and not attempting to order them around THEY in turn took the initiative and started building a relationship with ME! WOW! I didn’t even have to do anything this time. I’m sure in time the next step will involve them being welcoming of my coaching, but for now I’m pleased to have build a good report with all the athletes on the team. As time goes on the dynamics of coaching a group of individuals becomes more apparent to me and I’m realizing every day that it’s not as simple as blowing a whistle or starting a clock. Knowing how to win friends and influence people is critical!

     Back to MBSC. The next thing I realized in the whole building relationships theme was that I naturally took more time to invest in the lives of the older athletes: asking them what year in school they were, what colleges they attend or want to attend. I caught myself actually just coaching the kids I worked with instead of trying to show interest in them as people with identities. So I readjusted.

     In one case, I was coaching a group of young kids and on the walk over to the conditioning area, I made sure I went through everyone’s name aloud and asked them about what they did last weekend for the fourth of July. Then as we began doing drills, I showed them how excited I was to coach them by showing passion and energy. In return, they gave me the same energy back with big effort, screaming, and hollering! Our group got pretty loud, and other coaches and groups’ starting staring at us wondering what the heck was wrong with everyone. Believe it or not I had them yelling “HOO-AHH” after every rep of speed drills they did. The energy was so awesome that morning, and I made sure we carried it over into the weight room. I got a better response from the kids than I did from the older groups! I’m almost convinced that if i didn’t talk to each person individually before the workout they wouldn’t have reciprocated my energy the way they did. Though not fail proof, this technique has the potential for big returns as child athletes might personally invest more in their workouts. I stepped out of my comfort zone of college athletes and found commonalities with and showed personal interest in a demographic I normally wouldn’t. This technique is integral to succeed in coaching people from backgrounds different than one’s own.  I’m sure I’ll see this concept manifest itself more and more as my coaching career progresses.

     Furthermore, though the equation isn’t always this simple, I’m finding it’s a great starting place for this young coach:

Plant Relationship Seeds + Good Coaching = Positive Responses from Athletes!

One of the comments from last week’s blog penetrated my coaching thought process so much that I want you to read it also:

Sam,

In my mind the number one thing in coaching is the coach-athlete relationship, something you are clearly learning here and getting a great grasp on. In other groups (non-pro), a lot of what the athlete’s will remember from the summer is the relationships they have made in the process (probably because this is easier to grasp than the great coaching you are giving them). Keep up the good work on both and I think you will continue to have rewarding experiences.

Coach Brad Stoffers

This is so true. When I read that bolded line above I couldn’t stop thinking about it all night! The fact that the number one thing influencing them was their experience and NOT me telling them about the “whys” of their training lead me to seek out even more information on the topic. . .

More on Explaining the “Whys” of Training

     In fact when I was speaking with Coach Boyle this morning he said something similar to Coach Brad – “most athletes don’t care about the “whys” of their training. They care about the experience they have and the results they get”. This was actually a surprise to me at first, I guess I thought everyone was like me, having an overwhelming passion for knowing why I’m doing Y,T,W,L’s and why I’m doing interval training instead of steady state cardio. Coach Boyle again had to set me straight – “when you try explaining internal/external rotation to them all they wanna know is if it helps their bench press or not!” At Athletes Performance I’m told the first thing athletes try and skip out on is the education component, which is about a 5-15 minute block where they’re educated on their training and its implications. I’m not suggesting this is a good thing or that we should all together stop educating our athletes. It was just sort of surprising to me that the “whys” were not as important the mass majority of athletes as they are to me.

“I don’t care about increased intra-thoracic pressure, engaging the lats, or the scap-packed position! Just tell me how to get more plates on here!”

So all in all my current thought process is this: (1) Build relationships (2) Provide top quality coaching (3) Begin to educate the athletes on the “whys” that are pertinent to their goals. We’ll see how far this takes me and what changes I make to it as time goes on. As I said, this week’s post is a finisher/icing on the cake to two previous blog posts. Thanks for all the feedback and I encourage all your comments below in case there’s anything I’m forgetting in my thought processes.

Sam Leahey CSCS, CPT

Sam.Leahey@gmail.com