Is Show and Go Okay for Females? You Tell Me.

Written on September 23, 2010 at 1:09 pm, by Eric Cressey

I’ve gotten several inquiries about whether Show and Go will be a good fit for women trying to get fitter and stronger.  I guess it really depends on whether you want to be able to do stuff like this.

My lovely fiancee just showing up and banging out eight pull-ups – in her work attire, without a warm-up.

Or Cressey Performance client Natalie putting on a show of her own with some rope pull-ups.

And a little something for the deadlifters in the crowd…

“At the beginning of this program, I was very out of balance, where my lower body was much stronger than my upper body and I will give Eric the credit for balancing me out. I found incredible strength gains in my chest, back and shoulders and was still gaining at the end of my 4 months. Working with Eric I knew the mobility and stability throughout my body would improve in the areas it needed to; I have never had any shoulder issues, but now my shoulders have never felt healthier, more stable or stronger. By the time I got to the third phase, I found my 1RM for the bench press climbed almost 30 lbs and I was working with weight I have never worked with before. Beginning the program I could not do any pull-ups .. I finished with being able to do 3 complete reps for 4 sets … that’s success to me! This program gave my body the perfect base to go in any training direction afterward.”

Kelsey Pettengill – Saco, ME

“My fiance, Mathew, and I completed Eric’s 16 week strength program in June. We were both extremely pleased with our results. I increased my squat by 55lb, my deadlift by 33lb, my 3-rep maximum chin-up by 12lb, my bench press by 8lb and my standing jump by 7.5″- great results in just 16 weeks.

“This is the first intensive strength program I have undertaken. The program will produce amazing results if you are completely committed, determined and motivated for the 16 weeks. I even managed to complete my training with international travel and demanding work pressures.

Mathew was an ongoing source of support and this program highlighted the importance and value of a committed and motivated training partner.

“As a female who up to three years ago focused their entire fitness regime on cardio, I highly recommend Eric’s program and his strength and conditioning expertise for maximizing strength gains and sculpting a lean physique.”

Cassandra Lees – Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

“I have nothing but glowing praise for Eric Cressey’s program. I have been a recreational lifter for many years. Eric’s program has helped me overcome some sticking points in mobility and strength that I wasn’t able to address on my own. Even though I am relatively strong, I have never been able to chin. Now, I can do several sets of chins with various grips.

“Because of all the unilateral work that Eric recommended in this program, my basic lifts (deadlift, squat, bench) have gone up significantly.

“My favorite lift, the deadlift, has gone from 225 to 280 and that’s at my body weight of 130 lbs.

“I was always a good conventional squatter, either free squat or box squat, but was never comfortable with the front squat. This program provided me with the tools to finally perform a decent front squat.

“I could go and on and on and tell you about all the other lifts and how they improved. Suffice it to say…THIS PROGRAM WORKS! Thanks, Eric!”

Arlene Robbins  – New York, NY

“I can’t say enough to describe the positive experiences I had with the Show and Go Program. Obviously, I gained significant strength across the board and got leaner, which in itself is rewarding, but the amazing part to me is that I did so as a 40 year old female with an office job and not as a younger elite athlete with access to more training resources. And my progressions weren’t solely strength oriented as I also made improvements in my flexibility and range of motion in spite of having past issues in these areas. With the enhanced strength and flexibility, I’m now enjoying the best fitness, strength and health I’ve had at any point in my life. And, it’s incredibly empowering to be a strong woman and reach strength levels I never thought were possible for me. There is no question in my mind that I got more than a 16 week training manual from the Show and Go Program. Rather, this program provided a road map for me to be able to continue to optimize my strength and overall health because I experienced the power of mixing of mobility exercises along with innovative strength gaining techniques.”

Rebecca Wilson – Fayetteville, Arkansas

If this isn’t proof enough that this is a great female fitness option, I don’t know what is.  For more information – and a 50% off discount this week only – click here to check out Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.

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A More Than Satisfied Female Customer

Written on July 16, 2010 at 5:05 am, by Eric Cressey

I have to admit: when I first saw this subject line for an email, my mind was a bit in the gutter!

However, as it turns out, it was an awesome review of the Maximum Strength program from a female exercise enthusiast who had undertaken the program from start to finish.  Check out what she had to say:

“My name is Alison Minton, I’m a 25 year old ‘recreational’ lifter.  I was given your book, Maximum Strength, about 5 months ago by a friend at my gym (who happens to be one of your guniea pigs for your next project).  I just finished the program today and I wanted to share my thoughts with you.  A little background: former avid runner, sidelined by unsuccessful bilateral fasciotomies for compartment syndrome in my lower legs 3 years ago, which lead me to really hit the weights.  My workout routines were getting pretty stale in the last year or so and I was getting frustrated and bored from circuit after circuit of moderately heaving lifting.  I had exhausted everything I knew from years of reading about fitness/running/lifting and realized every female fitness magazine I received was going straight to the trash.   I begged my friend at the gym for help and he gave me your book for guidance.  I’ve since read your and Tony Gentilcore’s blogs religiously!

“I know you have gotten tons of very well deserved feedback by satisfied guys who have read the book/complete the program.  I wanted to write to you because when I was thinking about starting it, I searched high and low for any information about women doing the program, and I found very minimal material in the way of feedback, tips or special considerations (if there even are any).  Even after that, I figured, what the heck, if some random guy at the gym can do this, then so can I!  So, I had my friend help me with packing day and the rest is history!  I absolutely loved the program, stuck to it like glue and got some decent results:

Broad Jump: 72 inches –> 78 inches
Bench Press: 100 lbs –> 115 lbs
3 RM Chin Up: BW + 7.5 lbs –> BW+17.5 lbs
Deadlift: 175 lbs–> 190 lbs
Box Squat: 130 lbs –> 135 lbs

“I would loved to see the DL and squat go up a little more, but I did do a bit more cardio than prescribed (in the form of sprints and technique workouts, mostly) and wonder if that hindered me a bit.  My body composition also changed significantly for the better and my before and after pics totally rocked.

“Just wanted to tell you that as a female ‘lifter’ I loved your program and the ideas/concepts that come out of the CP team blogs.  I would LOVE to see a little more encouragement to all the ladies out there!  It didn’t intimidate me to find minimal feedback regarding women attempting Maximum Strength, but some women need a little more persuasion to get over the apprehension of starting a program in a book geared towards men.

“Definitely looking forwards to your next book/program!  Thanks again!”

-Alison Minton

Click here to purchase your copy of Maximum Strength for just $18.95.

Maximum Strength Works for Females, Too!

Written on September 9, 2009 at 5:09 am, by Eric Cressey

I received this email this weekend from a very satisfied female Maximum Strength customer.  It should put to rest any doubts about whether or not this program works for females:

Dear Eric,

Hello, I’m Kelsey Doucette. I’m a 22 year old (female) powerlifter and aspiring Olympic lifter. I just finished your Maximum Strength program. I made splendid gains.

Beginning:                              End:

Body weight: 113                     Body weight: 115
Squat- 200                              Squat: 205
Deadlift: 265                           Deadlift: 260
Bench:  115                             Bench: 135
Pull-ups: 15 lbs extra               Pull- ups: 25 lbs extra
Broad jump: > 5 ft                   Broad jump: 7.5 ft

You’re probably wondering about the squat and deadlift numbers (and why I’m ecstatic about them). Allow me to explain.  Right before I began your program, I just started physical therapy for my hips. Among a myriad of problems (I was considered “a train wreck” by the therapists) one was that I had weak adductors, hip flexors and poor (I mean REALLY poor) glute activation. I also had horrendous hip mobility. I started your program and noticed a difference within the first two weeks just from doing the mobility warm-ups and foam rolling. Not only did your program inspire me to lift like a real strength athlete (I am a former body builder. I decided I liked lifting better than posing) but also to aggressively attack my hip issues both with knowledge and actions.

It was about half way through your program when during a squat I felt my glutes activate. I was so excited I jumped up and down in jubilation once I finished my set. The same thing happened with deadlifts.  So I guess you could say I squatted 205 and deadlifted 260 WITH glute activation, which I consider a major accomplishment from where I started.

My conclusion is that even though my numbers didn’t change a whole lot (at least on the two lifts I really care about. I think i was just sick of benching less than a plate and that’s why my bench went up so much) I feel like a much more efficient lifter. My muscles are firing in synchrony like they’re supposed to and I’m now on my way to busting my former lifting plateaus. I also understand my body a lot more and I’m enthusiastically devouring as much knowledge about strength and conditioning as I can.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Kelsey Doucette

Click here to pick up a copy of Maximum Strength yourself!

EC Finally Understands Women

Written on July 1, 2009 at 6:16 am, by Eric Cressey

Of course not – but, at least the title caught your attention!

Truthfully, as my fiancee can attest, I don’t understand much about women, but I do know a bit about training them.  In fact, I devoted my entire 100th newsletter to this topic; you can check it out HERE.  And, I’ve watched this scene at least 147 times, taking careful notes each time, so I think I have all the relevant anatomy covered.

At risk of digressing, though, the main purpose of this blog post is to give my local female readers a heads-up on a new offering at Cressey Performance: the CP Women’s Training Group.  In case you find me to be boring in describing it, check out Tony Gentilcore’s blog from the other day, as he goes into more pertinent and impertinent detail.  Here’s the basic idea:

1. Women gather at CP to commence training twice a week for 75 minutes per session (or however long it takes to achieve uber-awesome status for the day; we really aren’t that picky with time).

2. Prior to said training, women go through a series of flexibility and stability screens, and technique instruction – and are given individualized programming.

3. During said training, women not only get leaner, stronger, and healthier, but also get nutrition education – and generally, at least one or two rants from Tony on what the latest made-up media garbage is with respect to fitness.

4. Said women leave said training happy.  They may even make new friends and opt to pose in front of the CP logo, engaged in a collective smile.

In addition to our previous female clients, we’ve already got several ladies started up, including some of the CP athlete Moms who thought we were all about only baseball training baseball players.  Truth be told, they’re getting stronger, leaner, and healthier already, and pretty soon, they’ll be throwing dirty fastballs, too (okay, I’m kidding about the last part).

For more information on the group – including a cool one-time only start-up special, drop my business partner Pete an email at cresseyperformance@gmail.com, or give us a call in the office at 978-212-2688.

PS – If you’re still hesitant, check out what some current clients have to say about CP (for the record, they encouraged us to post their ages; we aren’t that insensitive):

“I have trained with the CP team for almost two years now, and I can honestly say they are my favorite people to be around and train with.  They are all well educated in their fields of training, diet, and nutrition.  I travel over 45 minutes to Hudson to every Saturday to get my dose of informed training, humor, and camaraderie.  It’s a bit of a drive for me, but I do it because these guys are special.  I have never regretted the day I walked into CP and started lifting.  I would encourage any women out there, at any age, to do the same.”

Deb DiRocco, 50- Reading, MA

“When I began training at Cressey Performance my ultimate goal to was to “fit into my jeans.”  A year and a half later I have not only surpassed my goal, but have also discovered a newfound appreciation for weight training.  The staff at CP are always positive, energetic, and patient with every one of their clients (take my word for it!). “

Michelle Elwell, 32-Cambridge, MA

Again, that’s cresseyperformance@gmail.com, or 978-212-2688.  Hope to see some of you at the facility!

What I Know About Women

Written on January 17, 2008 at 10:17 am, by Eric Cressey

I’m opening a big can of worms with this subject line… The truth is that I really don’t know anything about women; I just know how to train them and am relatively observant. I actually got the idea for this newsletter when my girlfriend and I returned from our trip to Ireland on Tuesday. On the plane ride back, we were reviewing the photos in our cameras. She had taken hundreds of pictures of everything from sheep, to waterfalls, to rugby matches, to the training we did, to my seminar – and even four photos of our plane ride to Ireland last week. When we had tapped out her camera’s memory card, we turned on mine. I had one picture. It was taken at the Guinness Brewery on the sidewalk – and likely only because we were waiting for the tour bus to pick us up. I guess pictures just aren’t my thing. Anyway, it got me thinking about the differences between men and women in the gym – so I thought I’d throw some out there. Enjoy.

Women generally don’t do well with spring clamps for barbells because many of them can’t put them on with a single hand because their hands aren’t big enough (and they’re actually more awkward to put on with two hands). Muscle clamps are a better bet. Men, on the other hand, forget to use clamps altogether. Women will not add a 2.5-pound plate to the bar until you tell them to do so. With men, you’re constantly telling them to check their egos and take weight off the bar in order to perfect their form. Women respond differently to diets than men in a few ways. I’m just hitting the tip of the iceberg here, but first off, they tend to be smaller absolutely, so fat loss comes slower. Second, my experience has been that while they do quite well with lowered carb intakes, these reductions don’t work quite as well as with men in all cases. Cassandra Forsythe does an awesome job of outlining different nutrition strategies for women in The Women’s Health Perfect Body Diet. Women do not handle comparisons to others well at all, whereas men almost always respond well to comparisons. Alwyn Cosgrove discussed this phenomenon in a previous interview for my newsletter; check out Part 1 and Part 2.

At Cressey Performance, we have a high school male record board – but not a female one – for this very reason. Women will attempt to complete hour-long training sessions in 30-35 minutes, whereas men will drag their heels and attempt to slow things down as much as possible. With women, we often program in more “filler” movements (low-level flexibility/activation/soft tissue drills) between sets to slow them down. With men, we usually just yell at them. Women will wear high heels even if they know they are absolutely horrible for lower extremity health – and even in spite of your desperate pleas for them to lose the heels. If a male athlete wants to wear high heels, though, chances are that he has more pressing concerns than ankle mobility – and this one might be outside your scope of practice. Women typically need more soft tissue and activation work, but not necessarily as much mobility work (ankles being the exception).

Men, on the other hand, are tighter than a camel’s a** in a sandstorm, and need soft tissue work, activation, and loads of mobility drills. Women will generally require a bit more cybernetic periodization – “rolling with the punches” programming-wise – than men at the advanced level. You’d be surprised at how much the menstrual cycle can affect things. Speaking of the menstrual cycle, women need to be cognizant of getting enough iron in their diets, whereas men need to be cognizant of giving blood every so often to control their iron levels. Women are at risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears for a variety of reasons, including an increased Q-angle, quad dominance/hamstrings weakness, differential gastrocnemius recruitment strategies, and a host of other factors. Would you believe that women are also at more risk at certain times of the month because there are estrogen receptors on the ACL? This newsletter was inspired in part by Steph Holland-Brodney, a CP client who is running her second marathon and raising money for Boston Medical Center in the process. If you have a few dollars to spare and want to do something nice this Easter weekend, you can show BMC and Steph some love HERE.

New Article at T-Nation

5 Common Technique Mistakes

Blog Updates

Enhancing Your Pressing Days

Lifting at a Young Age

Rugby Recovery

That’ll do it for this week. As a little aside, yes, I know this is my 100^th newsletter. Unfortunately, given that I just got back from an overseas trip and the baseball off-season just wrapped up on Sunday, I wasn’t in much of a position to throw an extravaganza with clowns, balloon animals, shadow puppets, magic tricks, or even a corny joke or two. I would, however, like to extend my thanks to all of you for your continued support; I’m looking forward to the next 100 installments and beyond.

All the Best,

EC

Female Fitness

Written on January 8, 2008 at 7:47 pm, by Eric Cressey

Seminar Stories

I wanted to start this newsletter off with a thank you to everyone who came out last weekend for the John Berardi seminar here in Boston.  Dr. Berardi put on a great show, and the feedback has been fantastic.  If you ever have the chance to see JB speak, don’t hesitate to jump at the opportunity.

Naked Nutrition

A few months ago, Mike Roussell sent me the preliminary version of his new project, The Naked Nutrition Guide.  Mike went out of his way to contact several industry notables to go over this manual with a critical eye, and this feedback – combined with Mike’s outstanding knowledge of nutritional sciences – resulted in a fantastic finished product.  There are bonus training programs from Alwyn Cosgrove, Nate Green, and Jimmy Smith. Check it out for yourself:

The Naked Nutrition Guide

Female Fitness

Last week, Erik Ledin of Lean Bodies Consulting published Part I of an interview he did with me on female training.  Check it out:

EL: First off, thanks for agreeing to the interview. We’ve known each other for a number of years now. I used to always refer to you as the “Anatomy Guy.” You then became know for being “The Shoulder Guy” and have since garnered another title, “The Mobility Guy.” Who is Eric Cressey?

EC: Good question. As you implied, it’s the nature of this industry to try to pigeonhole guys into certain professional “diagnoses.” Personally, even though I specialize in athletic performance enhancement and corrective exercise, I pride myself on being pretty well-versed in a variety of areas – endocrinology, endurance training, body recomposition, nutrition, supplementation, recovery/regeneration, and a host of other facets of our industry. To some degree, I think it’s a good thing to be a bit all over the place in this “biz,” as it helps you to see the relationships among a host of different factors. Ultimately, I’d like to be considered a guy who is equal parts athlete, coach, and scholar/researcher.

All that said, for the more “traditional answer,” readers can check out my bio.

EL: What are the three most underrated and underused exercises? Does it differ across gender?

EC: Well, I’m not sure that the basics – squats, deadlifts, various presses, pull-ups, and rows – can ever be considered overrated or overappreciated in both a male and female population.

Still, I think that single-leg exercises are tremendously beneficial, but are ignored by far too many trainers and lifters. Variations of lunges, step-ups, split squats, and single-leg RDLs play key roles in injury prevention and development of a great lower body.

Specific to females, we know that we need a ton of posterior chain work and correctly performed single-leg work to counteract several biomechanical and physiological differences. Namely, we’re talking about quad dominance/posterior chain weakness and an increased Q-angle. Increasing glute and hamstrings strength and optimizing frontal plane stability is crucial for resisting knock-knee tendencies and preventing ACL tears. If more women could do glute-ham raises, the world would be a much better place!

EL: What common issues do you see with female trainees in terms of muscular or postural imbalances that may predispose them to some kind of injury if not corrected? How would you suggest they be corrected or prevented?

EC:

1. A lack of overall lower body strength, specifically in the glutes and hamstrings; these shortcomings resolve when you get in more deadlifts, glute-ham raises, box squats, single-leg movements, etc.

2. Poor soft-tissue quality all over; this can be corrected with plenty of foam rolling and lacrosse/tennis ball work.

3. Poor core stability (as much as I hate that word); the best solution is to can all the “turn your lumbar spine into a pretzel” movements and focus on pure stability at the lower back while mobilizing the hips and thoracic spine.

4. General weakness in the upper body, specifically with respect to the postural muscles of the upper back; we’d see much fewer shoulder problems in females if they would just do a LOT more rowing.

EL: You’ve mentioned to me in the past the issues with the ever popular Nike Shox training shoe as well as high heels in women. What’s are the potential problems?

EC: When you elevate the heels chronically – via certain sneakers, high-heels, or any other footwear – you lose range of motion in dorsiflexion (think toe-to-shin range of motion). When you lack mobility at a joint, your body tries to compensate by looking anywhere it can to find range of motion. In the case of restricted ankle mobility, you turn the foot outward and internally rotate your lower and upper legs to make up for the deficit. This occurs as torque is “converted” through subtalar joint pronation.

As the leg rotates inward (think of the upper leg swiveling in your hip joint socket), you lose range of motion in external rotation at your hip. This is one of several reasons why females have a tendency to let their knees fall inward when they squat, lunge, deadlift, etc. And, it can relate to anterior/lateral knee pain (think of the term patellofemoral pain … you’ve got restriction on things pulling on the patella, and on the things controlling the femur … it’s no wonder that they’re out of whack relative to one another). And, by tightening up at the ankle and the hip, you’ve taken a joint (knee) that should be stable (it’s just a hinge) and made it mobile/unstable. You can also get problems at the hip and lower back because …

Just as losing range of motion at the ankle messes with how your leg is aligned, losing range of motion at your hip – both in external rotation and hip extension – leads to extra range of motion at your lumbar spine (lower back). We want our lower back to be completely stable so that it can transfer force from our lower body to our upper body and vice versa; if you have a lot of range of motion at your lower back, you don’t transfer force effectively, and the vertebrae themselves can get irritated. This can lead to bone problems (think stress fractures in gymnasts), nerve issues (vertebrae impinge on discs/nerve roots), or muscular troubles (basic strains).

So, the take-home message is that crappy ankle mobility – as caused by high-top shoes, excessive ankle taping, poor footwear (heel lifts) – can cause any of a number of problems further up the kinetic chain. Sure, we see plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinosis, and shin splints, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can happen.

How do we fix the problems? First, get out of the bad footwear and pick up a shoe that puts you closer in contact with the ground. Second, go barefoot more often (we do it for all our dynamic flexibility warm-ups and about 50% of the volume of our lifting sessions). Third, incorporate specific ankle (and hip) mobility drills – as featured in our Magnificent Mobility DVD.

Oh, I should mention that elevating the heels in women is also problematic simply because it shifts the weight so far forward. If we’re dealing with a population that needs to increase recruitment of the glutes and hamstrings, why are we throwing more stress on the quads?

Stay tuned for Part II – available in our next newsletter.

Have a great week, everyone!

EC