Brilliant at the Basics – Episode I
June 7, 2012 by danny · Leave a Comment
Strength Coach Mike Boyle recently wrote a really good blogpost. In it, he quoted Coach Dewey Neilsen:” Be Brilliant at the Basics.”
In the video below, I elaborate…
I was a guest speaker at a basketball camp today, and this whole brilliant at the basic thing, was the “theme” of my speech. Far too often we are in such a hurry (in sports and/or training) to get to the advanced stuff, but we fail to “master” the basics. So my next few blogposts will be real world examples of getting brilliant at the basics. I’ll include both basketball and fitness examples. First up… push-ups.
The first question to come out of ANY young (male) trainee’s mouth is; “how much ya bench?” Well, I like the bench press, but 95% of these guys can’t even perform a proper push-up yet. So why are they worrying about how much they can max out on on the bench press? I guess it’s in our DNA… in order to become a MAN, you HAVE TO max out on the bench! 
I also have some of my young high school guys asking me, “when do we get to bench press with those chains!?!”
While I LOVE that they are excited to try new things here in the weight room, there is no need for those advanced methods just yet. Let’s first learn to master a push-up!
Here are some common push-up errors that I see on a weekly basis…
So, “Be Brilliant at the Basics,” episode I is in the books. Check back in a couple days for some more examples along these lines.
If you have friends that could benefit from this post, please share it with ALL OF THEM!
Training Videos From The Week That Was…
June 12, 2011 by danny · Leave a Comment
What’s up y’all! Another great training week in the books – below, you’ll see me and my clients putting in work…
First up, Coco hitting 155 X 8 in the deadlift…
Overall, great job by Coco. She is fairly new to deadlifting, so we just have to try to make a couple tweaks…
1) Sometimes, her hips rise slightly before her torso – we want them to go up “as one.”
2) Her neck is extended and I’d like to see it in more of a neutral position (in line with her spine).
Brandon nails 300 X 5 in the trap bar deadlift. He made it look fairly easy… not bad at all for a guy that weighs about 135 pounds!
Another video of one of the guys from the Dougherty Valley Basketball team (along with Brandon from above), Kenrick front squats 220 X 5. He easily has more left in him! But I would like to see him get about an inch lower on a couple of those reps, because he is mobile/stable/strong enough to do so.
I’m not sure why the video of Kenrick repeats itself and shows the set twice.?. My learning disability when it comes to computers once again rears its ugly head! One of these days maybe I’ll even learn how to add music and cool other features to my YouTube videos. Maybe. 
Carson (age 10) headed over to the gym with me today to train. In between my sets, I taught him how to perform the basics; push-ups, static lunges, and TRX Rows. My goal was just to drill home proper form, and not even worry about adding weight yet. He did a great job! His push-up form was really good! …
And finally, this was the finishing leg complex to my workout today…
-Jump Squats X 10, Reverse Lunges X 10 (total), Squats X AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible). I got 16 reps on the squats today, 3 more than last Sunday. Yeah boooyyyeee!
I’ll try to get my camera in the gym as much as possible in the weeks to come and continue to post videos of me and my clients working our ass off! Have a great week and stay tuned for more fun to come.
Exercise(s) of the Week
March 11, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
Yesterday I went over “X-Band Walks,” and how they can be use to get your glutes “turned on” and firing on all cylinders. Today I am going to cover the very underrated, push-ups. Most people seem to think push-ups are too difficult, (many newbie females) or too easy (guys that think they’re “Mr. Everything”). Typical guy workout; bench press 2-3 times per week and hit every different angle on the bench – incline/flat/decline/slight incline/high incline/upside down/inside-out. Ok, so a couple of those are made up, but you get the point. I have nothing against any of these exercises, but ALL this pressing, combined with a lack of rowing exercises, and way too much sitting at the computer all day, can lead to shoulder pain/injuries. Well, let me tell you, of the pressing exercises out there, push-ups are the easiest on the shoulders. As a bonus, it also strengthens the serratus anterior (a muscle that is important for posture) and is a great exercise for your core. Check out the video below for some of your push-up options.
While there are more options to make push-ups either easier or harder, this list of pushup variations covers quite a few. Before we go over the different examples in the video, lets talk about proper push-up form. This is important because most people have been doing them wrong for years, thinking they’ve been doing them right. Going forward, don’t let that be you.
The Perfect Push-up
Push-up Variations
Easiest to hardest from the video…
-Bench Push-ups
-Step Push-ups
-Floor Push-ups
-Feet Elevated Push-ups
-Spiderman Push-ups
-Band Push-ups (to make it even more difficult, just use a thicker band)
As I mentioned in yesterday’s X-Band post, I got my bands from Perform Better. The link to right of the screen will take you to the bands and can be found under the category of “superbands.”
That raps it up for this weeks exercise(s) of the week. Make sure to start incorporating X-Band walks for a more sexy booty. And if you’ve ditched push-ups because they aren’t hardcore enough, please think again. Good luck!
