Never Break the (Posterior) Chain

So beyond the obvious Fleetwood Mac pop culture reference, why would this platitude mean much to you? The answer is the "posterior chain", which has become as much a part of the fitness lexicon as "WOD".  Everybody wants you to "strengthen the posterior chain" and that's about the end of it. But what, exactly, is the posterior chain? And why so much emphasis on it? 

From Wikipedia: "The posterior chain is a group of muscles on the posterior of the body. Examples of these muscles include the biceps femoris, gluteus maximus, erector spinae muscle group, trapezius, and posterior deltoids."  

Basically, this definition includes everything from your hamstrings to your neck, which is pretty much the entire "posterior" of your body. So, in terms of building muscle, movement patterns that engage the posterior chain are tremendously effective because they activate a large amount of muscle fibers. This also translates directly into rapid strength gains.  Multi-joint posterior chain movements are also efficient, because they take up far less time than training any of these muscle groups in isolation.  Take the deadlift, for example. It's multi-joint (hips and knees) and it engages every single muscle in the posterior chain. It also is perfectly suited for variation, overload and progression. You can deadlift with a straight bar, a hex bar, a sandbag, or a log you find in woods. It's obviously easy to overload, and progression is literally never ending because you can always get stronger in your posterior chain. Five sets of deadlifts once a week are sufficient stimulation to build strength and gain  lean muscle. 

Deadlifting is also as close to a "normal" activity as you'll find in the gym. Most of us don't lay on our back and push something heavy off our chests, unless we are a farmer and a cow or a bale of hay falls on us. You'll notice that nobody ever asks "How much ya deadlift?' because anybody that asks probably doesn't want to answer the question themselves. But everybody has to lift something heavy off the ground for their entire lives, including - perhaps - each other.  Tactical athletes like fireman base their entire resistance training around variations of the deadlift because it best simulates what they do in real life. That's called "specificity", and I think most of your training should be prioritized in a similar way.  

There are two, less commonly recognized advantages to deadlifting. First, the impact on the strength of your spinal erectors will prevent injury in a range of other movements. Second, if you're a man, lifting something heavy off the floor is the best way to release testosterone. So put that Nugenix away and pull some deadlifts. The release of testosterone will make you feel great and it will counteract the cortisol that gets released under stress, like when you have end-of-quarter financial challenges or major personnel actions to take. For me, personally, deadlifts are "erasers". When I'm over that bar nothing else matters but making that set count.  All other concerns are "erased". Don't we all need some that that from time to time?  

Be well, my friends. 

Bad-assery is not a SMART Way to Set Wellness Goals

"Bad-assery" is when a bunch of tatted-up dudes in black with skulls plastered all over themselves tell you how to do their latest "incinerator", "destroyer" or "brutal" workout. I don't know about you, but I don't interact with that type of person in my professional life, so why am I going to trust them with my wellness?

And what is the obsession with skulls, anyway?  The other day I saw a guy in a video swinging a kettlebell shaped like a skull. All I could think of was "Isn't the symbol for poison a skull?" Let's face it, all this skull stuff got popular after American Sniper, but I don't see how it relates to improving your wellness. In fact, I don't think any of this death star nonsense has any business in the fitness world because it encourages activities that are at cross purposes for making real progress.  In short, they don't encourage the use of SMART goals.

So do you remember the SMART goals? C'mon, at some point in your academic or professional career somebody trotted these out and made you learn them. I can almost guarantee that in some class you had to memorize these things for a test. Well, since my focus is on executive wellness, and we're executives, let's use this as a construct for proving that all of the "badass" stuff is irrelevant for the C-Suite Athlete.


SPECIFIC: The concept of specificity is important.  If your goal is to become a better golfer you don't train like a bodybuilder or Crossfit competitor. You do, however, have to train more in the transverse (rotational) plane, right?  I have NEVER seen a "brutal" workout be effective in this context. "Brutal Golf Workout"? Ask Tiger how that worked for him.

MEASURABLE:  I guarantee that all of you Type-As will be obsessing over your workout logs. That is, however, if you have programming that gives you the data to do so. Notice I said "programming". This means variation, overload, and progression, not "insanity".  You can't manage what you don't measure, and some, certain workouts currently in use are about movements, not progress. Progress doesn't mean pushing the limits of your physical

ACTION-ORIENTED: So why are you training, exactly?Candidly, I do it because it makes me different, and I feel physically superior to those who don't. Is that "bad-assery"? No, it's self-confidence, and the healthier and fitter you are the more self-confidence you will have. It will also help your professional career.  When people see you as fit and healthy they assume you have extra capacity to achieve.

REALISTIC:  The two most common reasons for a middle-aged person to engage with a wellness coach are (1) to modify body composition - either because they want to or they have been told to; and (2) because they have had a health-related incident or diagnosis that forces them to make lifestyle changes. Frankly, it doesn't matter. What does matter is the realization that the changes take time, are incremental, and get more difficult as you get older. "Incinerating" body fat by using a fad diet and going overboard with cardio is not realistic. You will never maintain it and it might make you unhealthy...and even kill you.  Here's what I tell people...at your age you will not become a professional athlete, a special operations commando, or an elite powerlifter, bodybuilder, or fitness competitor. So don't train like one. Train so you can be the "elite' version of YOU.

TIME BOUND: Why have I spent soooooo much time writing about programming cycles? Because I know that the C-Suite Athlete is a planner and an organizer. This is how you have achieved what you have achieved professionally. I'm doing the same thing with your wellness. I'm sure you have an annual plan for your business, department, or business unit, so I think you should also have an annual wellness plan.  You probably are incentivized for achieving the goals in your annual plan. The incentives for an annual wellness plan last a lifetime.

So I'll jump down off my soap box now and focus on what's important: helping you achieve your SMART goals.

Be well, my friends.

Fitness Programming Part Two: The First Macrocycle - Building Strength NOT Testing Strength

A quick update: Daylight Losing Time (DLT) is only a little over a week away (11/5) so let's talk about the first of your four macrocycles for the year - November through January. This is going to be your "building strength" phase. So what does that mean, exactly? 

Most of the wise men in the fitness industry suggest that you spend your first macrocycle building muscle so you can support the strength phase. It's called the "hypertrophy" phase. Well, most of us in our age cohort remember our younger days where that's ALL we did. We got completely polluted by
Arnold and "Pumping Iron" and just wanted to get "swole".  So if I cut you loose on a "hypertrophy" phase I'll never be able to reel you back in. Strength training is also done in lower rep ranges, which means that the workouts are generally shorter and increasing more intense, which leads to greater strength gains. In my mind if you focus on getting stronger the body composition changes will follow, so I don't subscribe to the idea that you have to do a hypertrophy phase first.

If you haven't done any resistance training for a while you will be tempted to base everything on what you "used to do".  That's not reality.  At one point in my early 20s I could bench press 335 pounds at about a 205 pound body weight. That will never happen again. Never. And I dont't care. I'm not trying to keep up with my 20-year-old self because I'm comfortable with my 55-year-old self.  I just want to be the baddest 55-year-old I can be.

So what are we going to do in the first macrocycle? The first thing is to realize is that we are "building strength", not "testing strength". Overload and progression are the keys in this phase, with the emphasis on "progression". I suggest you select five multi-joint compound movements and then make this the basis of your resistance training during the "building strength" phase. So what are the movements? They are variations of the following movements, all with "two hands on the bar"
(1) Deadlift. The king of all strength builders
(2) Squat. The crown prince of strength builders.
(3) Bench Press. 
(4) Barbell Row
(5) Overhead Press

Notice that there are no curls, skull crushers. leg extensions, calf raises or any other bodybuilding exercises listed. That's because they are not core strength builders and I don't think they are useful in this phase. Also notice that I said "variations". Look, I understand that you've got aches and pains and some of them may actually be legit. I have had five knee surgeries, three herniated disks, and arthritis all over the place. So what? If it hurts, go to the doctor. You should not be limited by pain - or the fear of pain.  If you say "I can't squat because I have a bad knee", then get it fixed. If you say "I can't deadlift because I have a bad back", I would say it's because your core is weak. This is an investment in the rest of your life. Are you going to simply deteriorate without a fight?  I"m not, so I'm not scared of any strength movement.

I am a true believer in the 5X5 workout for beginners or those returning to training after a long layoff. Take a look at 5X5 Workout Overview for a primer on the subject. Why do I promote this? First of all, it's simple and easy to track progress.  Second, it's efficient.  You can knock this out easily in one hour, including warm-up and cool down. Finally, it allows you to progress gradually, but in a way that makes you feel like you are getting stronger every day.

In the next episode we'll set up a 5X5 program for the 12-week "building strength" phase that incorporates variation, overload and progression.

Be well, my friends. 

Fitness Programming Part One: It's almost Daylight Losing Time So Let's Ride the Metacycle!

Daylight Losing Time (DLT) is upon us and I thought I would take this time to talk about the basics of fitness programming. Now when you're studying for certifications there are - like in most subjects that are studied - a series of "foundational items".  You'll recall some of this from the slightly boring - but highly informational - tomes I have recently published on nutrition.  Fitness programming is no different, and one of the "foundational items" is "training cycles".  "Programming" is the fitness term for scheduling your workouts so you make longitudinal progress. Most people think of this as linear progress: "If I bench press 5 more pounds every week I'll  be bench pressing 260 more pounds by the end of the year".  Sorry, but it doesn't work that way.  What  really happens is that you build up your fitness level in stages over time, in a similar way to how you transform your body composition over time.  We fitness gurus are trained that there are three fitness "cycles" contained in a calendar year, and they roughly equate to how we keep time: a year, a month, and a day.  The "macrocycle" is traditionally the calendar year; the "mesocycle" is a month; and the "microcycle" is a week. But for me, the mesocycle is more like a quarter, so I have added a fourth term: the "metacycle".  So to summarize:

• Metacycle: Any twelve month period.  It doesn't have to be Jan-Dec. Think of it as your "fiscal" year.
• Macrocycle: This is like your "quarterly results". And we all know how much fun it is to do those Wall Street analyst calls, right?  But a quarter is a good time period to monitor progress.
• Mesocycle: A month. Why not just call it a month? If we did then we wouldn't have to pay all that money for certifications.
• Microcycle: A week.  Why "microcycle"? See "mesocycle", above.

So what's with the Daylight Losing Time, reference? Unbeknownst to you, your body adjusts to the seasons just like all mammals do. You put on extra weight in the winter to insulate your skeletal muscles and organs from the cold. This is likely when you will be the strongest each year. To me, that would coincide with the start of DLT, so think of your metacycle starting on the day DLT starts, which would be November 5th this year.  Similarly, your body wants to shed fat in the summer to keep your muscles and organs  cooler. So don't fight it!  Set up your program to accommodate what your body wants to do. Something like this:

• Metacycle: November - October. This is your "fiscal year". All of your results should be based on this calendar year.
• Macrocycles: November - January (Build Strength). February - April (Build Power). May - July (Build Endurance).  August-October (Build Muscle Density). These would be your quarterly results that you report to "the street"
• Mesocycles: Each of the twelve months of the year. The monthly "close" that the CFO drives you crazy about as is rolls up to the annual projections.
• Microcycles: Each of the 52 weeks of the year. Those weekly status reports are a pain, but you have to admit that they keep you on track.

How we treat each of these cycles will depend on your "training age", which is basically how much training you have done and what limitations you may have.  More to come in part two.

In the meantime, please follow me on Twitter @3Sigmawellness and Instagram at 3Sigmawellness. 
I am beginning to pick up some online coaching clients and would love to help you achieve your goals. I am 100% discreet and honor the coach-client privilege - and HIPAA - as it pertains to health information.

Be well my friends. 

Blue Chip Strength Investments: A Tale of Two "Cores"

Never in the course of human endeavor has a term been more misused than "the core" as it pertains to personal wellness. For about 80% of you C-Suite Athletes, "the core" means the muscles in the front of your stomach, which for some of you means looking at Gray's Anatomy because you haven't seen your own in 30+ years. However, that definition would be mostly incorrect.  In fact, what you are referring to in that instance would be your "abdominals", which are a muscle group that make up a part of your "muscular core". Your obliques, the other most readily identified part of the core, are a separate group, as are your spinal erectors, your serratus anterior, and even your lats.  The primary function of the "muscular core" is to support and stabilize your spine. That's it.

Now the other "core" is not a muscle group at all. It refers to the basic exercises around which every successful strength program is built.  The requirements for a "core exercise" are simple: it must utilize multiple joints, use a two-handed grip on a barbell or other implement- or use bodyweight, and have a closed kinetic chain (NERD ALERT....NERD ALERT).  A "closed kinetic chain" means you have both feet on the ground.   So...with that in mind, how many core exercises are there?  Let's see...Squat, check...Deadlift, check...Clean, check...Snatch, check...Overhead Press, check...Bench Press...ummm...ok, check. Not many.  Now, take away those that will absolutely cause injury in the C-Suite crowd:  Snatch, double-check...Clean, check.  I removed the last two immediately because they are very technical movements that are ballistic; they require a sudden expression of power that can dangerous if not executed perfectly  So here is a declarative statement: I will never include cleans or snatches in a resistance training program for any C-Suite client.  If that's your thing, go do Crossfit. Then call me when you have your rotator cuff surgery. And note that there are no curls, EZ curls, dumbbell curls, cable curls, or curls of any kind.  You don't need them. Ever.

So what are we left with for the core?  Deadlift, Squat, Overhead Press, and Bench Press. Man does that sound boring, right?  OK, you can skip the bench press, too. "Oh, my God...this guy is disgracing the whole bodybuilding and powerlifting canon". That's because you should train like an athlete and not a bodybuilder or a power lifter.  Remember the first "core" above? You know, the muscle groups that support your spine? Well, guess what muscle groups are trained by all three core exercises? Yep, the "core".  "But, dude, what about my back? My knees? My shoulder?" Please note, again, that you are not a bodybuilder, so the intensity used will build your strength, not TEST your strength. 

Now please note that I did not say anything about the "core" exercises being the entirety of a strength training program, just the centerpieces around which the rest is built. Remember, your wellness program is a series of time investments and the core exercises are the blue chips. We will talk about the mid- and small-caps later, but you can go to the bank with deadlifts, squats, and overhead presses. They use the most total muscle mass and the largest muscle groups, which build lean muscle most efficiently. Recall that more muscle mass means a higher resting metabolic rate and more space for glycogen, which means more calories burned and less carbohydrate stored as adipose fat.

Next time we will fill in some of the blanks on programming and begin to put some of the pieces together.

Stay well, my friends. 

Fitness First Steps: Ze Plane, Ze Plane

Sensing that you have all missed the C-Suite Athlete I want  to apologize for not posting since last week. The international headquarters of 3Sigma Wellness are located in Orlando, FL, which, as you know, was directly in the path of Hurricane Irma. Anticipating mass mayhem and catastrophe, we decamped for Atlanta, only to return to a house with no power and worse yet - NO INTERNET.

The place where we stayed in Atlanta during the storm is on a golf course and has an unabated view of the tee box on a short par three. It was sort of like watching an aquarium: I went into a trance.

What I noticed right away was that golf swings come in all shapes and sizes, but older golfers seem to evolve toward the short backswing/short follow-through that looks like there is a brick tied to the end of the club. The  adage about the old guy hitting short but right down the middle of the fairway is likely true, but I'm sure you would trade in some of that accuracy for distance if you're constantly hitting a 5-wood or long iron on the second shot of every par four . The reason it's straight is because of muscle memory and ingrained neurological pathways.  The reason it's short is not because of a lack of strength, it's because a golf swing is actually a movement pattern that is made up of several small, multidirectional movements, and failure to maximize the efficiency of those movements creates a loss of torque, which is why you're hitting from the ladies' tees. The same is true of your forehand in tennis or your softball swing. Brutal. 

So as we begin to build a fitness plan, let's start with the basics. You know, the stuff you don't see in "fitness" magazines or in YouTube videos. I'm going to start with movement. Yeah, I'm going to get THAT basic.

Your body moves in three basic planes: sagittal (front-to-back); frontal (side-to-side); and transverse (twisting). Most of the time in our normal lives we are moving in the sagittal plane. Think of walking, sitting down, getting up, etc. It's all basically in a straight line. So what do we not want to do? We don't want to move in the frontal and - God forbid - the transverse planes. Accordingly, this is where most C-Suite Athletes need to focus. My personal belief is that you should train in all three planes of movement as often as possible, and preferably in a way that integrates all three planes at once.

So what are some integrated, multi-plane movements?

1. Heavy bag training. Think of a traditional 1-2-3 (jab, straight, hook) or front, side and round kicks.
2. Kettlebell training.Renegade Rows   and Turkish get-ups Turkish Get Up
3. Rotational Medicine Ball. There are many, many videos, but you'll get an idea of what's possible from this one Med Ball Workout

Stay tuned for the next episode.  It's going to be about "the core". You'll love it! 

Macro Mania: Now You've Got it So What Are You Going to Do With It?

First off, your author is very appreciative of the support you have shown me. As of today I have 119 followers, which is actually many more than I thought I would have at this point.  It's pretty amazing just how much you track those numbers.

At any rate, we left off talking about macronutrients and their relative importance in terms of body composition. In essence, tracking your macros and tracking your calories are the same thing, because there is a direct correlations between the two: 1g of each macronutrient contacts a fixed number of calories. Tracking your macros allows you to better achieve your goals than simply counting calories because - at the sound of being very, very tedious - most people who try to "lose weight" pick a "diet" (low-carb or low-fat) and then don't reallocate the calories appropriately.  This is why a "food plan" is always superior to a "diet". A food plan based on macronutrients will ensure that if you are in a caloric deficit that the deficit is being created by protein calories. You need protein to maintain lean muscle mass, which is the key to any body modification strategy.

In my last post I presented a copy of the following chart.  As a refresher, take your GOAL WEIGHT and multiply it by 11 and then allocate the macronutrients accordingly. My target weight is 200, so I used my own situation as the example. You all know that I'm 55, so I'm using the far right-had column all the way down. Remember to e-mail me at 3Sigmawellness@gmail.com for a copy of the spreadsheet

ENTER	Goal Weight (lbs)	200
	Daily Calories	2,200
		Allocation
	Macronutrient	Age <40	Age 40-50	Age >50
	Fat (FFA)	20%	20%	20%
	Carb (CHO)	65%	60%	55%
	Protein (PRO)	15%	20%	25%
		100%	100%	100%
		Daily Intake (calories)
	Fat (FFA)	440	440	440
	Carb (CHO)	1430	1320	1210
	Protein (PRO)	330	440	550
		Daily Intake (grams)
	Fat (FFA)	49	49	49
	Carb (CHO)	358	330	303
	Protein (PRO)	83	110	138

Now all of you Alpha-types are like "Dude, how in the heck am I going to keep track of all this, I can't even REMEMBER what I ate this morning, so I sure as heck didn't track it". Well, I thought about that and all I can say is "There's an app for that"!  There are actually many apps for that, but my personal research has led me to  My Macros+ https://getmymacros.com/. This $2.99 app will allow you to set your macronutrient goals, track each, meal and snack, and show you a running total for the day. You can look up specific foods by type, and even brand name. If you can't find it you can create the entry yourself.  There's even a barcode reader built into the app. The set-up is fairly straight forward, but it does take a bit of OJT to get the hang of it. The best part is that the app lets you set up a "circle" of people who can see your data and you can see theirs. I am "3Sigma1" for all of you who want to give it a try.

My Macros+ also tracks two critical elements of your wellness investment that create daily habits that lead to other good habits: your weight and your water consumption.  We will talk about those things in the future, but, for now, it's great to be able to get all of that information rounded up in one place.

That's all for now. To recap, you now have the basic theory of nutrition, a mechanism for creating your food plan, and a tracking tool for collecting and analyzing your macronutrient consumption. In the next episode we'll move on to functional health, which includes mobility, flexibility, and recovery.

Please follow me on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/stevesmithmba-cscs on Twitter @3Sigmawellness, and Instagram at 3Sigmawellness. You can also e-mail me directly at 3Sigmawellness@gmail. com

Stay well, my friends.