Training Videos From This Past: Lower Body…
December 26, 2012 by danny · 3 Comments
I hope everyone had a great Christmas! The entire McLarty clan had a great time… grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, sons, daughters all gathered at my parent’s house. As the family grows, each year it’s getting louder and crazier! Fun times though. And I can’t wait ’til next year when my little twins start to get the whole Santa Claus thing! It was especially nice to be all settled in our new home for the holidays…
Our new house "put together" just in time for Christmas!
On to a few training videos from the week that was.
Me performing Anderson Squats from a higher pin setting, 1-Leg Hip Thrusts, and Dragon Flys for the abs…
And below you’ll see Anderson Squats from a deeper position. I generally recommend that a trainee squats as deep as possible while maintaining proper lifting form. For the Anderson Squats above, I went down to a few inches above parallel just for a little change. But below is the depth I usually hit (or even a bit lower). It ended up being about 4 inches lower and is MUCH more difficult the first version!
Notice how I DRIVE up and FINISH off each rep. That’s the way you should lift so that you get the absolute most out of each and every rep.
Above you saw 3 great exercises for the “posterior chain” (backside of your body). Want to improve the way your glutes and hamstrings look and perform?
Well developed glutes!
Then be sure to incorporate kettlebell swings, hip thrusts, and glute-ham raises (if you have access to a glute-ham raise at your gym).
So there you have it, a quick peek into me and some of my clients working our lower bodies this past week at the gym.
2012 is about to wrap up, and I’ll have some of my thoughts on the year that was. Make sure to pop back in to get this always fun end-of-the-year recap. See you soon…
My Leg & Ab Training Session from Yesterday…
May 19, 2011 by danny · Leave a Comment
I thought I’d share with you my leg and ab workout from yesterday. If you read my blogpost from last week, you’ll recall that I am generally not a big fan of random workouts. But due to the fact that our babies are due any day now, and I never thought we’d make it this far (today is exactly 37 weeks, which means full term!), I didn’t get into a new training block as I figured it would get cut off 1/2 way in. I thought I’d be in the hospital for daysssss by now. So, here yesterday’s “random” leg/ab workout…
A) Hip Thrusts – 3 X 8-10
B) Walking Lunges – 3 X 10-12/leg
C1) 1-Leg RDLs – 3 X 10/leg
C2) Foam Roller Supine Torso Holds – 2 X 30 seconds & Dragon Flys – 1 X 10
D) Jump Circuit consisting of 10 Jump Lunges (total – 5/leg), 10 Jump Squats, 10 Reverse Lunges (total), and 30 squats … quads were ON FIRE!
Overall, the volume is pretty low. I have kept it this way because of the increased chances of extreme soreness when you do random workouts (again, a big reason I’m not a fan of random workouts). For the last 5-6 lower body (or full body) workouts I have done a squat (usually back squats) and/or a deadlift variation (usually trap bar deadlifts). So I thought I’d take a little break from those on this day. I captured one of each of the above exercises on film (except for the dragon fly), so here you go…
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… and today my ass and hamstrings are killing me! Damn it! 
My Visit With Bret Contreras
January 13, 2011 by danny · Leave a Comment
My friends Marci Nevin, Jason Curtis, Anthony Truck, and I headed down to Arizona a couple days ago for a couple reasons;
1) To watch Marci’s favorite team play in the National Championship Game (Anthony is a former Duck football player himself, so he loves Oregon as well). We went to an “Oregon bar” in Scottsdale to root on the Ducks. Well, they cheered on the Ducks but I quietly (I cheered in my head) cheered on Auburn, as a Tiger victory would win me some money in an office pool. I never thought I’d say this, War Eagle! And the more important reason for the trip to Arizona…
2) To get a visit in with Bret Contreras before he makes the move to New Zealand. For those of you who don’t know the “Glute Guy,” let me introduce him;
Bret is a trainer that has taken the industry by storm over the past year. He has a very popular blog and probably knows more about the glutes than any other person in the world. But, he is definitely more than just a Glute Guy. His knowledge is deep and he gets his clients results, plain and simple. Here is a picture of Bret’s clients, Karli, Katie, and Kellie…
Marci and I had the chance to talk shop with Bret and have him coach us through a few new(er) exercises for a few hours. But when you have so much to talk about, that 3 hours goes by way too fast. With that said, we still got a lot out of our visit, and it was definitely worth the trip! Below is a summary of the “highlights” (at least in my eyes) of our time with Bret in his garage gym (aka, BCSC). I’ll paraphrase (in red) what he had to say to Marci and myself. And at times, I’ll add my 2 cents …
-Which is the best way to train? Is it full body, an upper/lower split, or a body part split? None of these necessarily. Each person responds differently to training. You have to experiment to find out which is best for you. For example, if I don’t hit a muscle group/movement often (i.e. with full body training), I get weaker. But my training partner is just the opposite. He definitely gets his best results while hitting each body part one time per week (i.e. body part split).
Danny’s note: I feel that with all the different splits I’ve tried over the years, that no particular split has gotten me considerably better results than the other. For this reason, over the course of a training year, I incorporate all three “types” (full body, upper/lower, and body part split).
-When it comes to females however, I prefer full body training for the majority. They recover quicker and most likely detrain quicker. Therefore hitting a muscle/movement frequently is probably best for the majority of females (to read Bret’s thoughts on training females in more detail, check out this blog post - http://bretcontreras.com/2010/10/training-women/).
-Simply getting people stronger (in a smart, progressive manner) is not only great for athletic performance and physique enhancement, it can be very powerful in preventing injury. Awhile back, my buddy told me that he was scheduled to have back surgery in two weeks. So I asked him, ‘why haven’t you come in to see me!?!’ He decided to give it a shot and not only were we able to avoid him having this surgery, he now has ZERO back pain!
Danny’s Note: While there are a million examples of how strengthening the entire body can help prevent injury, here are a couple common that I see: Running one mile is essentially 1500 repetitions (in the same repetitive fashion) at two to five times your body weight (depending on your speed). Do you think strengthening the muscles around the hips, knees, and ankles will provide those joints some extra support to help with all of this pounding? I sure do! Another example: people that have weak glutes will call on the syngerists to perform a task (i.e. sprinting). If the glutes are not doing their job, the hamstrings will have to work overtime which could lead to a hamstring injury (this is called synergistic dominance). Getting the glutes stronger will often spare the back, which I suspect is one reason that Bret’s friend no longer has any back pain. Ahh, the power of the glutes!
-People seem to be forgetting about muscles. I know the nervous system is important, but lets not devalue the importance of our muscles.
-Band Hip Rotations…
Danny’s note: Bret went over this exercise with Marci and I. It is great because it works the hip external rotators (including the glute max as an external rotator). Marci and I also noted how much we felt it in our core. Talk about a big-bang-for-your-buck movement!
-Quite often, we set the bar way too low. Danny, if I look at you and think, ‘hey, you look like a 225 bench presser, then that is probably all that I’m going to get out of you.’ I expect big things from my clients, which has been very helpful in getting them great results!
Danny’s note: I wasn’t sure if Bret really thought I was a 225 pound bench presser. So after he finished making his point, I quickly chimed in, “by the way, my bench is 300!” Marci and Bret thought it was funny that it was important for me to let him know that me maxing ONLY 225 pounds was NOT TRUE!
-Let me show you two what my life is like. Come take a look in my bedroom. You see ALL OF those bodybuilding magazines on the floor by my bed? I’m always reading bodybuilding mags. We can learn a ton from this group! Too many coaches/trainers dismiss the methods of bodybuilders. I think that is a huge mistake. Believe me, I also learn from the powerlifters, olympic lifters, and athletes. But we can take a little something from each group and use it to optimize the training of our clients, and for our own training. The key is to know how and when to implement these different methods.
-Over the years, I’ve read a ton of bodybuilding magazines. When I hear over and over and over again that the pump has been very important to them in achieving unbelievable results, there HAS TO BE something to it.
Danny’s Note: In my opinion, to achieve optimal results, a lot of it comes to how you interpret information. And more importantly, how you apply this information. If I had three guys tell me their opinion on “da pump,” it may sound like this.
Person 1 – “The pump is everything. If you don’t go to the gym and achieve a BIG pump, then you’re wasting your time!”
Person 2 – “The pump doesn’t mean anything. Getting stronger is all you need to achieve size.”
Person 3 – “To achieve maximum hypertrophy (muscle size), it is important to get stronger. But it is also important to get a good pump. This combination will yield optimal results.”
Person 1 and 2 are only speaking in half-truths. While person 3 “gets it.” He/she knows how to interpret and APPLY information! I like person #3 and would like to play dodge ball with him (I don’t know, first thing that came to mind).
-Too many people in this field get so emotional with training. If you and I disagree on something, that is ok. I’ll still have no problem hanging out with you. I’ve seen people that literally hate someone because they disagree with them on something regarding training. Ridiculous!
-Trainers/coaches need to “palpate” their clients glutes. How else are we going to know if they are getting them firing the way we want? I’m not saying that we should molest them, but get in there and push into their glutes to see if they are firing during various exercises.
-Static assessments are important and can give us some indications. But watching them move is way more powerful.
Danny here again: There was more to this visit, but above are some of the things that stood out to me. I want to reiterate, the above is me paraphrasing what I took from our conversation. Bret, if I misrepresented you in any way, feel free to call my glutes soft and squishy on your website – although we all know that is NOT true. 
What Else?
Bret talked to us quite a bit about crunches and sit-ups and how he believes that they are being thrown under the bus a bit. The research of Stuart McGill has made many of us stop (or greatly reduce) performing crunches/sit-ups. For the most part Bret doesn’t buy into the research but admits that a lot more research needs to be done. I played devil’s advocate with him and said something like; “since we all sit way too much (with rounded-back posture and shortened hip flexors) crunches just reinforce that poor posture. And as McGill has pointed out, it seems we have a fixed number of flexion/extension cycles on the lumbar spine before we herniate a disc (although this thought process may be flawed since this study was done on dead animals that do NOT have the recuperate abilities that us live humans have), I prefer to error on the side of caution and strengthen the rectus in other ways” (i.e. ab wheel rollouts). Bret said that he wouldn’t blame a person for thinking this way and has no problem with that. This is one thing that I really like about Bret; he is open-minded enough to listen to many different ideas and is not married to one philosophy.
Since crunches/sit-ups were one of the first topics Bret brought up, I got the impression that he is passionate about this subject. So stay tuned to get his thoughts in future blog posts on his ’site.
Bret’s client, professional baseball pitcher Steve Hammond came into train while we were there. While he was training I took a video of him doing a single-leg hip thrust. It was his first time trying it. His first comment was that he felt the “up leg” (this is supposed to be the non-working leg) working quite a bit (too much). But after getting the hang of it he started to rip off reps while fully activating the working glute (the down leg). Here is the video…
Repping out 225 on his first day of trying these is not bad. Especially considering that there are many people that can’t do one single leg body weight rep properly!
Marci and I both got a chance to try Bret’s invention – the Skorcher! It is great for putting you in proper position to really activate those glutes! Plus, with the deep stretch that it allows at the bottom of the movement, you can really feel your hammies firing. For some reason, I didn’t get tape of Marci and I using the Skorcher. But am I happy to say that I got 445 pounds for 10 reps! (or was it just single leg body weight reps that I did – can’t remember)
For those you that haven’t seen the Skorcher in action, here you go…
Well, that will just about rap it up. Thanks again Bret for letting us invade your garage. I’ve learned a ton from you and look forward to continue learning from you! In true Bret Contreras fashion, I’ll close with a picture of his favorite girl on his website. Enjoy…
This post is brought to you by Sears Fit Club.
Exercise of the Week
May 3, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
This week’s exercise of the week is the quadruped hip extension. I used to laugh at my little sister when she did these at home while following along to her Buns of Steel tape (no DVDs back then). Come to find out, this is a very good exercise that really hits the glutes. So Tootie, it looks like the joke is on me. Go ahead, laugh at me and call me names, I deserve it. 
Anyway, Strength Coach Bret Conterashas done a great job of letting us (us = those interested in achieving a better booty) in on his glute studies. Bret has been doing some experimenting – he places electrodes on different parts of the body while measuring the EMG activity in the various muscle parts. His experiment shows that the peak activation is very high in the glute medius and upper glute max while performing the quadruped hip extension. And here is how it is done…
At the top of the movement SQEEEEEEZE the glutes for a second and make sure NOT to hyperextend your lower back.
Getting a Sexy Butt Looks Easy
Not so fast. Simply throwing in some quadruped hip extensions is a great way to improve your butt. But it will take a lot more than this body weight exercise to maximize your bootylicious potential. I still want you to perform different squat variations (back squats, front squats etc), different single leg variations (bulgarian split squats, reverse lunges etc) aBduction variations (X-Band Walks), and hip extension variations (RDLs, glute bridge, etc). As you can see, the quadruped hip extension is an effective tool, but it is only one tool. You need to use all of the above from time-to-time to complete your tool box.
Do you want to run faster for your sport? Do you want to keep your body healthy? Do you want a much more round, shapely back side? If you answer yes to any of the above, make sure you are incorporating the quadruped hip extension into your program.
Overrated and Underrated Exercises: Part III
April 26, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
Installment # 3 in this series is here. Just as I did in the previous overrated/underrated posts, I’ll start off by explaining what I mean by “overrated” and “underrated,” when it comes to exercise selection… I think Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. BUT, if the general public was to make this statement; “You give me Michael Jordan with 4 guys off the street, and I’d take Jordan’s team in 6 games over the ‘86 Celtics.” Well, IF that was the thinking of the majority of people, then I’d have to say that even Michael Jordan is overrated! So, if one of your favorite exercises gets tossed in the overrated category, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should never perform that exercise again, and/or call me mean names. It just means that in my opinion, this particular exercise is way overused by the majority of trainees, often times at the expense of an exercise that could be a much better option.
Bulgarian Split Squats
Out of the hundreds of clients that I have trained over the years, I believe I’ve had 2, maybe 3 of them say; “We have bulgarian split squats today? Yes!” This is an exercise that is generally NOT a crowd pleaser. Why? Because they are hard. Yeah, but they are very effective. Most of us don’t spend enough time performing unilateral (one leg at a time) exercises. And bulgarian split squats are a must, if you are looking for big-bang-for-your-buck exercises. To perform them, keep your chest high, abs tight, and the weight on the heel of the down (working) leg. Do not add weight until you are able to get nice and deep (hip down to knee height) on each rep. The glutes come more into play the deeper you get. If you want a nice round, firm booty, work on getting low! Perform all reps on one leg, before switching legs. It will look something like this…
Again, not enough people are using this movement in their training, and it is as very effective exercise. Soooo …
Underrated!
Tricep Kickbacks
The tricep kickback – an exercise that I see people performing in the gym all the time. And usually, it is a female using the 3-pound pink dumbbells. To top if off, if I was to ask her; “what are your goals?” She would probably respond; “to lose fat.” Well, with such a little movement, and with such light weight, the tricep kickback is NOT going to burn a whole lot of calories. Would I ever be ok with someone using this exercise? Acutally, yes. If you have put at least a couple of years into training and have gotten a lot bigger and stronger, then go ahead and throw in some kickbacks every once in awhile. But if you are fairly new to training, and/or have a main goal of fat loss, do yourself a favor and ditch the tricep kickback.
Definitely goes in the overrated category.
Going forward, make sure to include bulgarian split squats in your training! And ask yourself; “with my experience and my goals, are tricep kickbacks a good choice for me?” Only you can answer that, but make sure to keep my above comments in mind when making your decision. Best of luck in accomplishing your goals!
Overrated and Underrated Exercises: Part II
March 16, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
In the first installment of overrated/underrated exercises, I covered bicep curls, and rows. Just as I did in that article, I’ll start off by explaining what I mean by “overrated” and “underrated,” when it comes to exercise selection… I think Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. BUT, if the general public was to make this statement; “You give me Michael Jordan with 4 guys off the street, I’d take Jordan’s team in 6 games over the ‘86 Celtics.” Well, IF that was the thinking of the majority of people, then I’d have to say that even Michael Jordan is overrated! So, if one of your favorite exercises gets tossed in the overrated category, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should never perform that exercise again, and/or call me mean names. It just means that in my opinion, this particular exercise is way overused by the majority of trainees, often times at the expense of an exercise that could be a much better option
Upright Rows
First, let me clarify. I’m speaking about barbellupright rows in particular. If you perform dumbell upright rows, you can adjust the plane of motion and grip, making this movement less risky. Ok, back to barbell upright rows.
When you perform a barbell upright row, you are doing so with your humerus maximally interally rotated. (palms facing towards your body, like the lady’s hands in the picture above) This is especially problematic when you are abducting/flexing the humerus with this hand position, (pronated grip) which is exactly what is happening when you raise the bar towards your sternum. Can upright rows contribute to better looking shoulders and traps? Yes. Does a snickers bar have protein in it? Yes. Do you see where I am going with this? Just because there is some good that comes along with upright rows, (and snickers) there is also a whole lot of bad that could come your way. So, my advice is to pick exercises for your shoulders like push presses, shoulder presses, and lateral raises. Don’t forget, ANY exercise has the potential to be harmful. But when looking at the risk:reward ratio of the barbell upright row, it just doesn’t make much sense to me to include these in my programming.
Conclusion: Barbell Upright Rows = Overrated
Single Leg RDL
The single RDL (Romanian Deadlift) is an exercise with many benefits. It works the often neglected “posterior chain.” (back side of your body) This single leg version obviously has you working one leg at a time. This is important because single leg exercises work your stabilizers way more than a bilateral lower body exercise does. Plus, the majority of sports are spent with one leg on the ground at once. Even if sports aren’t your thing, RDLs do wonders for your butt and hamstrings, from an appearance perspective. So, if you want to look better, perform better, and keep yourself healthy, I highly suggest incorporating the single leg RDL. On the occassions that I go to a commercial gym to train, I rarely if ever, see people performing this exercise. So, the single leg RDL gets a BIG, fat…Underrated.
In conculsion, if have been using the barbell upright row, please give this exercise a second thought. And it’s time to add the single leg RDL into your toolbox. You can’t, or shouldn’t, only perform exercises that work the “mirror muscles.” You do have a backside of your body you know!
