Proof a great gym can (and probably should) be built from scratch
I am not sure what will happen Combat Workshop now. I will remain working with athletes competing and training in various combat sports but that will most likely be under the South Dublin Strength & Conditioning banner. The change felt like the right thing to do and for now that is where all my efforts and energy will be channeled.
So for the time being, you can see whats going on over on the new site or check out the facebook page
Just a quick note that from this week the Fundamentals classes will be moving from Monday and Wednesday evenings at 8-9 to Tuesday and Thursday evening at 8-9.
Fundamentals: a great chance to build a strong foundation
This is the perfect entry point for people looking to get started at the workshop. For more information contact us on info@combatworkshopdublin.com or call 086 8649732.
Firstly, I’m sorry for the lack of blogging and updates recently. We have had a hectic couple of weeks in trying to find a new premises and then getting everything moved in time. We are still ironing out a few issues but classes are in our new home from this point on!
Once again thanks to everyone for the support so far, and to those of you reading this and thinking about coming down – do it! Why would you not want to train in an environment that is conducive to great training alongside great people and no ego’s!
I’ve been getting this a lot from people lately. I can’t do this because…I amn’t able to do that because… I can’t eat that due to … the list goes on. It’s easy to sit back and blame stuff, circumstances or events. They don’t have a voice, they won’t argue back.
But deep down everyone knows this is bullshit.
I wonder if some people just think that struggles or difficulties are unique to them and no one else. Maybe they think that others manage to get great results or break through plateaus because their life is stress free and they’re ‘lucky’. Of course it would have nothing to do with the fact that these people are busting their asses to achieve their goals. They have their targets in their sights and nothing is getting in their way…WAKE UP, everyone is stressed right now!
I’m coming across more and more people that are stressed up to their eye balls. Work is shit, their relationships are shit, the recession is shit, blah blah blah. Yea I get it, there’s a recession – my gym is in a garage for f#ck sake. Do the best with what you have, once you stop making excuses you’ll be amazed with what you can do. I heard a great quote from Nate Green and it really applies to me, ‘It’s ok with things not being perfect, you can still get the job done. Perfectionism is a good way to waste time!’.
I’m not immune to stress or never pissed off (those that know me well will vouch for this!). In fact, the other day I was warming up to do a session and wasn’t feeling it one bit. Would I rather have been at home eating junk food and watching tv or playing xbox? Hell yes. But would this have made me stronger? No. So instead of making excuses I used my shit day as motivation to kick some ass. I’m not really in the mood for rolling over and letting life beat the shit out of me. I’ve done that in the past and bad things snow ball quickly if you let them.
I’m using this tough time to stay focused; to stay hungry and not be content to settle with what I have (being grateful is different). I’m looking after my injuries better, making sure my diet stays clean, getting back on the mats and clocking up the hours of jiu-jitsu practice. I’m not looking for a medal or a pat on the back but instead challenging people that when the going is tough, do the same. Get stuck in.
Use adversity as a motivator! Make the decision in your head to take charge of the things you CAN control, if you’re not happy with your fitness right now DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Don’t be like the masses. Think about it, when was doing what everyone else is doing ever been a good thing? Be different, stand out from the crowd.
Anyway, here is the end of that session I was talking about. Trust me, I was in no mood to start this, I knew it was going to suck but I just got my head in the game and soldiered on. Sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do, not only does it build physical strength it builds mental strength too!
Well done to everyone at the gym that crushed this workout earlier in the week.
And yes, that is me panting like a dehydrated dog in the last round…
So the 6 month anniversary has come and gone and without being too clichéd, it certainly has been a roller coaster!
Before I relive all of the gorey details of our first half year in business I just want to say thanks to everyone for heading out on Saturday night, it was great to see everyone relaxed and enjoying themselves without having to do any burpees or a 400m run – as Clare said at one point, ‘everyone looks so much better!’.
Well where do I start? Things have been consistent in the gym and its been on an upward curve since January (and long may it continue!). Behind the scenes things have been a little more crazy. If in January, someone had told me that we would still be going strong in the garage come the end of June, I’m not sure if I would have laughed or cried at them.
This seems like such a long time ago
First evening open for business .... bleak
As I have said on numerous occasions, the gym really has no right to be here after the start it had (weather, delayed deliveries, lease disputes etc.) and at this stage it is no secret to all of you that I probably wasn’t blessed with much business acumen but I have always aimed to bring the best coaching that I can and I love what I do and I think (hope) that is apparent to everyone.
For a long time I have wanted my own gym. A gym where the training, atmosphere and camaraderie is second to none. A place where everyone looks forward to coming and not only to train but to hang out and catch up with friends. I want to create an atmosphere similar to the gyms that I have trained at in America and Australia. There is still a bit of a way to go but already I see a great atmosphere building and new friendships being made and this is as important to me as the results everyone is getting.
This brings me on to the next point, the progress I have seen you guys make from January to now has been amazing and fills me with pride. Even if you all take a moment and think back to what you were doing in January and compare it to now, I’m sure you’ll be feeling proud too. More recently we have had more people coming in from different training backgrounds and various levels and they have added to the place with everyone getting stuck in and encouraging each other. It has definitely brought the gym forward.
Going by the clean walls, this was probably taken around January
The growth of the gym
It’s interesting for me too, seeing the gym grow. Its a term that gets thrown around all the time – letting a business ‘grow organically’ but its fascinating to take a step back and really watch it happen. My hand was forced into the location we are currently in and I wasn’t in a position to pour a lot of money into it nor get a loan – who want to support a guy starting a ‘gym’ in a garage at the end of someones garden?? But it really has been crazy seeing the progress. From the equipment coming in, to the growth as athletes that everyone is making to more subtle things like the timetables evolving to cater for the ever increasing standards. Even my own evolution as a coach, the amount I learn each class and again, I will be making the short trip to America in September to increase my own knowledge and bring that back for you guys. I can’t wait to see how the next 6 months will pan out and how everyone will be doing then!
I think another example of how the standard is rising was a definite shift in my own attitude that occurred for the first time last Saturday afternoon. After the class I was finishing cleaning the gym and it was time to train. From the warm up I knew I was going to have to dig deep, I wasn’t feeling it (yes this happens me too, quite frequently!) and I was trying to find an angle to motivate myself to get the job done. Pretty quickly I found one…I have a few people breathing down my neck in the gym now and I really have to try and stay on top of my game (because sooner or later some of you guys will be kicking my ass) and this got me through a pretty decent workout in the end. That was something that I never experienced before and it was a great motivator for me and I guess a sign that things are going well in the gym.
Everyone is getting stronger!
I was probably saying it (shouting it) more than once on Saturday night but it really has become a great place to train and like I was saying to most of you in an inebriated state, it really is like just hanging out with mates for the evening and training. I have been lucky with everyone that has come through the door, everyone is so receptive to what we are doing and really giving it everything, I couldn’t ask for anything more. It is true, but it is you guys that make the place.
I am really excited to see how the next 6 months unfold and I am going to save the 1st year anniversary post to blog more about what went on behind the scenes, complete with photos and videos but until then, it’s back to the hurt locker for more laughs and tears!
In my quest to make my humble garage gym a Mecca for perfect human movement, I am going to take a look at the Front Squat today or most importantly, the Rack Position.
Front Squats and Cleans have featured a lot in the gym recently and a few people are having trouble getting into the rack or ‘elbows up’ position. This is a common problem for a lot of people and most don’t do much to correct it or else if they do try and do something about it, they often tackle it from the wrong angle.
Good Front Squat set up on the top, not so good on the bottom
I had a discussion recently with a powerlifting friend of mine and the topic of the rack position came up (Yes, I know I need to get out more). He was asking why the arms folded position gets such a bad rap and is it down to some type of fitness snobbery. I’m not sure if that’s the case, I can only speak for myself and in my own experience and I don’t like it for the following reasons:
1. It almost always causes the athlete performing the lift to round their upper back.
2. It has zero carry over to a Clean.
Normally people can’t get into a good rack position due to a tight upper back. By going into this folded arms position, what happens? You round your upper back. So we are compounding the issue. This is the last thing we want when we have a weight out in front and if you find you can get into a squat like this, you will most likely chase the weight forward as you stand up.
The folded arms set up - Upper back is rounded, bar falling forward, not good
Look at the picture on the right. I am struggling to achieve full depth because the bar is beginning to come away from my shoulders (due to my rounded upper back) and in order to save the rep I will have to cut the ROM short and chase it forward on the way up. This is most often the cause for missing a lift on either the Front Squat or Clean. The athlete needs to maintain an upright back.
It’s not tight wrists or poor shoulder flexibility. Most of the time (not all of the time) – and with the people that train at my gym, it is usually a tight upper back (the Thoracic Spine) that is causing the problems.
Wrist flexibility is usually the fall guy in all of this. It makes sense, you struggle to get into a decent rack position, and you don’t quite make it but you’re strong enough to make a good effort at the lift. And what happens next? Your wrists hurt.
So the wrists must be weak or inflexible. Far from it, the wrists were doing more than their fair share, digging in for those lats that weren’t really doing much work at all. I have said it many times but if you can bend your wrist like in the picture below… wrist flexibility is not your problem. When in the rack position, it helps to let the bar roll back onto your finger tips – keep your grip open.
This is all the wrist flexibility (90 degrees) you should need for a good set up
It is almost impossible to try and look for more extension from your back at the bottom of the squat then if you had achieved good extension at the top of the lift and held it there throughout the rep. Don’t leave it late and try to recover from a bad rep – it’s all in the set up.
Stand tall, chest lifted. The body holds the bar – ‘racked’ on the chest and shoulders. There is no space between the bar and your chest / shoulders. Fingertip grip (hands open) otherwise your wrists forearms are supporting the bar and this hurts.
Our warm up for the clean/front squat includes foam rolling the upper back and lats, overhead squats with a PVC pipe, cobra push ups and maybe some extra shoulder mobility work.
Preparing properly means that you will be limited more so by weight than by poor mobility.
Some useful prep work for the Rack Position
Stretching and mobilising the right parts, for a start – foam roll the Upper Back and Lats
Foam rolling the Upper Back and Lats
Here is another great Lat stretch courtesy of the Mobility Guru Kelly Starrett. Even get on the Triceps and stretch them too.
Cobra Pushups, working on the back extension, particularly Thoracic (upper back) extension, needed to maintain a tight rack position.
Cobra (Hindu) Pushups, great for prepping thoracic extension
Overhead Squats with a PVC pipe are great for working shoulder mobility and thoracic extension (but this movement may need a post of its own).
Overhead Squat
I have also found partner stretching in the rack a great way to improve flexibility quickly.
In Conclusion
All of these little details mightn’t seem important but the subtleties of the lifts become apparent through practice. The main focus on this article was the start position of the Front Squat (and the rack position on the Clean). If you take your time and set up properly, you have a huge chance of finishing the rep well. Like other lifts, it is very hard to correct mid rep. Get mobilising and stretching folks, make sure it’s the weight that is the limiting factor rather than not being able to get into the position.
I’m not sure if the title for this post is appropriate. I’m not sure if the squat is just an innocent victim caught in the crossfire or else a willing subject eager to demonstrate that partial range is a crime and should be eliminated from all gyms immediately (unless of course there is a valid reason, such as an injury).
Either way, let’s focus on the squat. The squat is a magical movement. As a coach and an athlete of sorts it is a movement of which I have experienced the results and benefits first hand. It has improved my overall strength, tenacity and most importantly I attribute this one movement to rehabbing my knee 100% after I detached my MCL.
On the other hand, it is the one movement that has given me the most heartache from a coaching perspective. It is the one movement that seems to be butchered, half attempted and vilified beyond any other. And to be honest, squats are just making me cranky these days.
Before I go any further into the dark depths of this rant, lets clarify what I am looking for…
What is full depth in a squat? And what the hell do I mean when I say ‘go deeper, lower, past parallel, etc.’ because I’m really beginning to wonder if people understand these words at all, let alone their context in relation to a squat. Full depth is when your upper thigh breaks past parallel to the floor or your hip crease goes below that of your knee crease.
Why do you need to go that far? For a start, if you don’t, not only will it make me really upset, it is guaranteed to piss your knees off and WILL lead to knee pain.
By skipping that all important end of range, you are getting your Quads to do all the work and the Hamstrings and Glutes don’t bother kicking in much or at all. This means that when you half squat, it’s mostly Quads and this pulls your Tibia (shin bone) forward all without the guys at the back kicking in and working to give a balance. That forward pull causes shearing on your knee (even that word sounds painful!). Once you get your ass low enough, the Adductors, Hammies and Glutes (the back of the thigh) kick in, causing a backward pull of sorts and this negates the forward pull and thus the shearing on the knee. Squatting low is good.
Kelly Starrett of mobilitywod.com - good squat on the right, obviously
In workouts I regularly see people performing partial squats and this kills me, especially after I have spent time talking about the benefits of squatting regularly. I have coached and supervised thousands of squats at this stage. I am by no means an expert but I know a good squat when I see one.
Maybe this post should be more about doing things properly but, like I said, I see this problem arise more with the squat than anything else.
I felt compelled to write about it after recently reading a very good article on t-nation by Mark Rippetoe. (I also noticed my good friend Pricey over at Crossfit Dublin had done the same thing recently and is obviously feeling my pain or at least the universal annoyance of seeing a perfectly capable person cheat on a rep).
Squatting high is easier, but easier doesn’t work…
Squats below parallel are your homework. The result of doing them is that you get stronger on all the other exercises, even the pressing movements, because squats make your whole body stronger – if you do them correctly. I know it’s harder that way, and one of the ways you know it’s wrong to do them high is that everybody else does them high. When was the last time that thing everybody else was doing turned out to be the right thing to do?
Deep squats done with a weight that’s a little heavier each time you train affect your body in a way that no other exercise can. And believe me when I say that “other methods” have been tried. They just don’t work. And it’s not that they don’t work as well, they don’t work at all.
From Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe
Honestly, nothing pisses me off more than having to repeat myself (well, not many things) and no matter how annoying you may find me saying ‘deeper’ or ‘go lower’ for the 100th time, I find it ten times more annoying hearing my own voice that much.
Maybe this article isn’t really about squatting. Squatting is merely the vehicle used for people to display their laziness. Maybe this should be about stepping up to a challenge and meeting it head on and then overcoming it, and becoming a better, stronger person both physically and mentally.
Every week I am proud and amazed by the effort I see you guys put in and ultimately I want you all to reach your potential but it won’t happen if you are holding yourselves back in reps or movements. Let’s smash those reps. Full range. Be consistent and maintain the standards in the gym that we have set so far and going forward this will help everyone progress at a faster rate and make sure it remains a great place to train.
….Just to balance out my angry tirade, here is an excellent video of the very mellow Chris Spealler demo’ing an air squat.
And another of him coaching the squat – some usefull homework here
Ok folks, I’m just informing everyone what is going on at the gym at the moment. Numbers are up and were all still at a stage where PR’s are coming thick and fast and everyone is making gains. Something I plan to keep going for as long as possible.
Unfortunately due to a lot of your work commitments etc. your attendances can be a little chaotic, where you are getting in a cluster of sessions and then messing the best part of a week. It’s not uncommon for people to miss critical portions of cycles or not touch base with certain movements for an extended period of time.
We are already 2 weeks into the new timetable and the numbers are up but already I am seeing some people getting a little battered by the volume. For reasons I have mentioned above, I cannot really program de-load weeks effectively as some of you will still be firing on all cylinders whereas others may be feeling the beginning of burn out and this will just slow down everyone. With this in mind I am looking to change the Saturday sessions.
Instead of a Fundamentals at 11 and a Mainstream at 12, I am going to do a more relaxed ‘catch up’ session from 12 – 1.30.
There will no longer be an individual workout programmed for this day, instead it will be a day where either people can hit a workout that they may have missed during the week, work on their weaknesses (which will be partly chosen by me) or else go through an ‘active recovery session’. This is something else I want to underline. You are far better coming down to the gym and doing some light work, stretching or foam rolling than staying at home waiting to heal up. By coming to the gym and doing something at lower intensity, you will actually heal quicker.
Brian Mackenzie over at Crossfit Endurance was adamant about this in his cert in London and he regularly programs deload days into his training cycles. It’s all about restoring joint mobility and muscle function ASAP, going through compound movements performed at a lower intensity that normal will help you back to normal far quicker than even the standard ‘light jog’.
Chris in the early days, feeling the pain
I am always looking for signs in people that they might be heading towards burnout and will help scale things accordingly or prescribe a specific warm up or prehab routine but even with this, I still need you guys to communicate with me and let me know if things are hurting or if you aren’t feeling 100%. We all go through this and with experience and a little help from yours truly, we can decide if its just a slump we need to push through or else something that is telling us to take a step back and approach our training from a slightly different angle.
The other trend I am beginning to see is that people want to put more weight on the bar no matter what. This enthusiasm is great! BUT it is something that gave me numerous injuries early on in my training days and is in fact, something that I still battle with regularly.
A lot of the movements we use require a good level of flexibility and mobility and these are two components of fitness that NEED to be worked on. Get mobile and THEN strengthen! This is hugely important and something that will ensure you can keep progressing in the months to come.
As I have already mentioned, the new timetable is coming into effect from May 2nd.
Even though it is a bank holiday, there will still be a mainstream class at 7 – 8 and a fundamentals class from 8 – 9.
Tuesday 3rd Classes are as on the timetable.
On Wednesday 4th there will only be a fundamentals class at 5.30 – 6.30.
***The gym will be closed on Thursday 5th***. This is due to Ross (edge) getting married – on behalf of everyone in the gym, I would like to wish Ross and Laura our best wishes.
Ross getting in shape for the big day!
Everything will be back to normal after that. I’m sure Ross apologises for any inconvenience caused…
Finally, here are the new times, starting from May 2nd. As I have mentioned before, the numbers are growing (thanks!) and it is at the stage now where a lot of new people are coming in and in order for them to get the best start (appropriate levels of intensity and a good grounding in the movements) I have decided to set up fundamental classes 3 times a week.
times from May
So what exactly are fundamental classes?
These classes are designed to give everyone that comes through our doors a proper grounding in all the movements that we use and a chance to perform them at an appropriate intensity relative to their levels. I would like to clarify that fundamentals doesn’t mean novice. I have had people from different sporting backgrounds come in and literally get crushed doing a workout. This isn’t my aim (although I want everyone to work hard).
My aim is to have everyone prepped and coached properly in all the movements we use (Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting, Bodyweight, Gymnastics, Kettlebell movements, etc) There is a lot to take in and I want everyone to have the chance to do so and not have anyone disheartened, frustrated or worse still, injured.
For this reason, the fundamental classes are now compulsory for anybody that wishes to join the gym, regardless of their training background. New people will no longer be able to drop into the mainstream classes. If there are issues regarding times, we can set up a small fundamental group (numbers allowing) at a different time – or alternatively 3 personal training sessions.
I would strongly recommend that if people haven’t been training for a while, due to an injury or other factors, that they attend a few of the beginner classes to build back up to the mainstream ones. Again, if times aren’t suitable, people from the mainstream classes can attend the beginners classes BUT the class will be tailored for athletes starting out, i.e. plenty of time spent on technique and working on obtaining perfect standards on all the movements.
Regarding the time needed before a person can attend the mainstream classes. Generally it would be a month to 6 weeks of fundamentals but it depends completely on the individual. No one will be pushed too soon either.
The mixed session on a Friday is more an open gym set up. A chance to work on anything you may have missed during the week, or even just some flexibility and mobility work and a workout will be put up on the board if anyone wants to have a crack at it.
Thanks everyone for all the support so far, we’re all in this together – if times don’t suit or if anyone has any issues regarding the new set up, please get in touch. I have no doubt these changes will help everyone improve and hit their potential and no one will get frustrated or left behind.
