Robertson Training Systems Newsletter
In This Issue:
- Robertson Training Systems Updates
- Training Tip
- Nutrition Tip
- Exclusive Interview with Tony Gentilcore
- New Articles
- Schedule
Robertson Training Systems Updates:
Insight from the Experts
I've gotten an amazing response since releasing our special report, "Insight from the Experts." I've had athletes, "average Joe's," and even law enforcement officials write me and say how grateful they were for all the free information.
As I stated before, this is my way of saying "Thank You" for your support. I hope you liked it!
An AWESOME review of Bulletproof Knees from Eric Cressey
I'm going to let you in on a little secret here: I'm an absolute information junkie.
I'm signed up for more newsletters than I care to admit, simply because I want to know what others know.
The other day I was reading through Eric Cressey's newsletter, and came across this little blurb regarding my Bulletproof Knees manual. I'm not a huge fan of self-promotion, so I asked Eric if I could re-print it here in my newsletter - needless to say, I was flattered by his comments.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret: the Magnificent Mobility DVD and Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set were both originally MY ideas. I say this not to boast, but to clearly demonstrate that I approached Mike Robertson with the ideas because I firmly believed that his abilities were an outstanding complement to my own; they made the products better. In particular, Mike's knowledge of lower extremity functional anatomy, pathology, and exercise programming is among the best in the business.
In addition to working in the corrective exercise realm with hundreds of knee injuries, Mike has had knee surgery himself and formerly competed in two sports - basketball and volleyball - notorious for knee pathologies. Combine these experiences with his various educational pursuits, and you have a guy that knows knees REALLY well.
To that end - whether you're a weekend warrior looking to avoid or bounce back from a knee injury, or a fitness professional looking to help clients in these situations - I wholeheartedly endorse Mike's new Bulletproof Knees manual. Perhaps my favorite part of this resource is that it enables you to be proactive instead of reactive in dealing with knee problems. Mike shows you how to prevent the problem in the first place, and work around it/correct it if the problem has already reached threshold. You won't find many resources that can be so versatile, but then again, you won't find many people that know knees like Mike Robertson.
Check it out for yourself: Bulletproof Knees
Eric Cressey
Training Tip:
Get off the damn computer!
This may be the simplest tip you ever get - get off the computer and move around a bit!
Prolonged sitting induces creep. Creep is essentially shortening and/or elongation of the tissues in your body. When you sit for an extended period of time, your body is going to try to become more "efficient" at sitting! This generally leads to computer guy syndrome - short/stiff hip flexors, rounded shoulders, and an incessant need to argue on Internet training forums.
If you absolutely must work at a computer for extended periods, try several of these options to help minimize the damage:
- Try a stand-up desk; you'll get more hip extension and you'll actually
be moving around more
- Alternate periods of kneeling and lunge stretches while working. I use
an Airex pad to get some low-grade hip flexor stretches in while working
- Finally, just try to stand up every 15 or 20 minutes. 20-30 minutes it
the generally accepted amount of time for creep to set in, so standing up
and moving around every so often should minimize the effects
Now get up and move around a bit! (Well, at least after you're done reading the newsletter, that is!)
Nutrition Tip:
Introduce New Foods Each Week
By Mike Roussell
Variety is the spice of life. Cliché but true especially when it comes to nutrition.
Eating a wide variety of foods is essential to optimal health and performance because it will ensure that your body is receiving all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that it needs without developing any deficiencies. For example certain vegetables are higher in vitamins and minerals compared to others. Broccoli is high in indoles (an anti-cancer nutrient), folate, vitamin C, and calcium; while tomatoes are high in lycopene, potassium, B Vitamins, and Biotin. If you were only to eat broccoli every night then you would be missing out on all the vitamin, minerals, and phytonutrients that are not present in broccoli but are in abundance in tomatoes (or other vegetables).
The comparison can be made with fats as well. Getting your daily fats from a variety of sources will allow you get a healthy blend of saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, and omega-6 polyunsaturated fats. You get the idea right?By introducing a new food each week you have a built in system for variety in your diet.
So what is your new food this week? Mine is pumpkin!
If you like this tip and want to learn more about Mike and his products, check out his Naked Nutrition website.
Exclusive Interview with Tony Gentilcore
Tony Gentilcore is an up and coming trainer in the fitness industry. A writer for T-Nation, a trainer at an elite club in Boston, and just an all round good guy, Tony is someone you'll be hearing a lot from in the future.
Oh, and did I mention he's Eric Cressey's roommate? That HAS to be good for something!
MR - Let's get through the traditional BS and tell the RTS audience a little bit about yourself. What's your educational background?
TG - What? People don’t want to hear about my little Jennifer Garner obsession. That my friend, is not BS….;o) I keed.
My educational background is fairly boring. I started off as a History major believe it or not. However, it didn’t take me long to figure out that even though learning about how kick-ass Teddy Roosevelt was, it wasn’t really going to get me anywhere (professionally or with the ladies). Once I was done playing ball, I transferred back to my home state and finished my degree in Health Education, with a concentration in Health/Wellness Promotion. I did my student teaching in Health (both in middle school and high school) and got certified to teach K-12 Health.
After my student teaching experience, I chose to do my summer internship
for my concentration at a corporate fitness center near Syracuse, NY. I
did that for eight weeks and when I was done, they offered me a job right
away, and the rest as they say….is history. Pun intended.
MR - Being educated is great, but we all know there's a lot more
to the industry than knowing theory. What's you athletic background like?
Did you play sports yourself?
TG - I was SUPER active and athletic all through high school and college. In high school, I played a variety of sports. Basketball, cross-country, and baseball (and TONS of wiffle ball during the summers). Baseball ended up being my main sport and the one that I concentrated the majority of my time on after my sophomore year. The highlight of my high school career was pitching 12 innings in the sectional finals title game my senior year (in which we lost 3-2), and I still think I hold a handful of school records for innings pitched, complete games, and shutouts.
I started off at Junior College (Onondaga Community College, in Syracuse) where I was named 2nd Team All Conference my freshman year (as well as MVP Pitcher), and 1st Team All Conference and 1st Team All Region (as well as MVP Pitcher again) my sophomore year. I had several scholarship offers to play ball afterwards (including some prominent D-I schools), but ended up choosing to finish my career at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA.
Long story short, I had a few professional tryouts after my senior year, but unfortunately it didn’t pan out. I guess there wasn’t much demand for a 6-1 right handed pitcher who threw in the mid-to upper 80’s. Go figure!
On an aside, I attribute a lot of my success as an athlete to natural talent. Pitching always came naturally to me, and I worked damn hard during my career to stay in shape. But to say that I wish I could go back in time and kick myself in the nuts for some of the stupid shit I used to do is an understatement. I can say without hesitation that if I had known then what I know now in terms of strength and conditioning, I would be playing professional baseball right now.
MR - You and me both brother! Touching 10'6" at 5'10" isn't bad, until you realize that most collegiate level volleyball players are touching over 11 feet! My basketball coach always told me that squats were bad for my knees, though. Sage advice!
But, I digress - What kind of populations do you currently work with? How long have you been doing this?
TG - I have been training people since 2002, and currently I work at a
rather upscale (higher end) club in downtown Boston. It’s safe to
say that the majority of my clients are white-collar, articulate, “well
to do” people. But all in all I have trained a plethora of different
people. Everything from 11 year old hockey players to 81 year old grandmothers.
MR - Sounds good; everyone wants to say they work with "elite
athletes" but it's the everyday people who help pay the bills.
Could you tell the RTS readers a little bit about your training philosophy?
TG - I am all about proving to people that they aren’t some delicate creature who can’t lift weights and get strong. I get so tired of people saying, “I don’t want to get big and bulky,” when in fact we both know that they probably won’t work hard enough to get big and bulky in the first place! I can get someone stronger without adding one pound onto their frame, but putting on “some” size is a nice side effect in my opinion. Either way, I find it comical that people ‘think’ they can just magically add on 15 lbs of lean mass in two weeks. Sorry, it ain’t gonna happen.
I spend a lot of time with clients basically de-programming them. Men tend
to think that training to failure on EVERY set is the only way to get results,
and women tend to think that endless hours of steady state cardio is the
most efficient way to lose body fat. Those are just two examples, but two
of the more popular myths I have to debunk. I pride myself knowing that
I try my best to stay on top of things and keep up with the latest research
and information. In the end, I want to get ALL my clients the results they
want, but more often than not that entails me telling them what the NEED
to do, not what they WANT to do (and this usually results in me doing the
complete opposite of what they’re used to).
MR - Ah yes, the life of a trainer. What are your current goals
as a trainer?
TG - Now that I am in Boston, I want to make a name for myself here. I’d like to be known as one of the “go to” trainers in the city and I feel that will get there soon. The club where I work is a great place and there are a lot of resources at our disposal. I’ve already gotten to the point where I am getting outside referrals and I can only hope that that continues to happen.
I’d also like to expand on my writing career. I’ve toyed with the idea of possibly writing a book down the road, but for the time being, I’ll keep writing for various online training sites (namely T-nation). Writing for them has been great professionally in terms of getting my name out there and known. It’s kind of surreal really.
On a side note, I am currently one of the new co-hosts of The
Fitcast, along with Kevin Larrabee, Jimmy Smith, and Keith Scott. It’s
climbing the ranks as one of the best weekly fitness/nutrition related podcasts.
We really like the direction the show is going and we definitely foresee
great things happening with it in the future.
MR - Awesome. Take a second and give the readers any random thoughts
or insights you might have...
TG - Yeah, I don’t know why people still feel the need to defend leg curls. Seriously. I get e-mails all the time from people who go off on me because I always write about how much I despise leg curls. I’ll get e-mails from dudes who say it’s lame to talk shit about leg curls and that everyone does it and it gets old. Okay, so what’s your point? Doesn’t it say something if the majority of industry professionals agree with me?
I haven’t included a leg curl in a client’s programming in over two years. Why?
1. Name me one everyday event where you’re laying on your stomach,
curling a weight to your butt? I HATE putting people in a fixed plane of
motion.
2. The fact that people ARE in a fixed plane of motion only reiterates that
there is little to no CNS activity. There is no “thinking” involved
when performing leg curls. I’d much rather people train in a way where
they will get a ton of CNS activity.
3. People sit all day at work, the last thing I want them to do is perform
movements where they’re either sitting or laying on their stomach
during their training.
4. Leg curls train the hamstrings in knee flexion only. People often neglect
the MAIN function of the hamstrings, hip extension. I can have someone perform
natural glute-ham raises or perform supine hip extensions into leg curls
on a SWISS ball and train BOTH functions simultaneously. Not only will I
be challenging their CNS, but I will also be recruiting more muscle fibers
to boot.
5. Leg curls totally neglect the glutes. A vast majority of people have
totally lost their capacity to use their glutes (glute amnesia), and as
you and I both know this has led to an epidemic of hamstring pulls and/or
chronic lower back pain in many people. Again, I can have someone train
their hamstrings AND glutes together while performing a Romanian deadlift.
Leg curls? Not so much.
I could probably list a few more reasons why I feel the leg curl is a complete
waste of time for about 98% of the population, but I think I have gotten
my point across. Trust me - leg curls suck.
MR - That's great stuff Tony; thanks so much for your time. How
can the RTS readers learn a little bit more about you and your work?
TG - They can go to my website: www.GentilcoreTraining.com, which also has a link to my blog: www.tonygentilcore.blogspot.com. Or they can e-mail me at tgentilcore18@yahoo.com.
MR - Sounds great - thanks again Tony!
New Articles:
Here are Mike's most recent articles:
Plateau Busters! 5 GUARANTEED Ways to Analyze and Break Through Plateaus
Hips Don't Lie: Fixing your Force Couples
Perfecting the Romanian Deadlift
Schedule:
July 20 & 21 - Functional Movement Screen Workshop (Indianapolis, IN)
Stay strong,
Mike
www.RobertsonTrainingSystems.com