Training Truth: Greg in part one we talked a little about changes you made that improved your own lifts now I'd like to switch topic to those that you coach. What's the range of athletes/lifters you work with and are there any common issues you tend to see?
Greg Nuckols: I've worked with
pretty much everyone. Coaching at mash
elite, the majority of our athletes are high school or college aged guys and
gals, but there are also quite a few adult classes and several 60+ year old
one-on-ones and a few kids.
With kids, the biggest thing you see is just undeveloped motor
patterns. They just aren't at a place in
the heir motor development where they've mastered many patterns for either the
gym or their sport. With them, it's just
practice, practice, practice. Until they
hit puberty, they're simply not going to be able to put on an appreciable
amount of muscle. For example, check out
the videos of Chinese kids clean and jerking a bunch of weight. They're no more jacked than an American kid,
they've just mastered that motor pattern very young. The trick is dreaming up
different drills to keep them engaged while still getting in the reps they need
to develop proper firing sequences.
With high school and college aged kids, we get two types. There are the kids who train year-round. They'll get in a session or two during their
season, and make it to the gym 3-4 times a week from the day their season is
over. With them, we can really take more
time working on ironing out little form flaws, setting up an 8 month off-season
plan, and making huge progress year after year.
The second type are the kids who only come during summer break. If you only have 12 weeks to work with a kid,
that's not enough time to make an enormous difference structurally, but it's
more than enough time to make a substantial functional difference. If you teach them how to do some
self-myofascial release work on their hips, how to open up their hip flexors,
and how to properly utilize their t-spine and scapulae, you automatically made
them better athletes. On the training
end of things, most kids can run a linear periodization scheme all summer
without plateauing. It's not uncommon to
see a kid put 50+ pounds on their squat and deadlift, 30+ on their clean and
bench press, and shave three tenths off their forty time, but I'm convinced a
large portion of that is simply teaching them to use their bodies more
efficiently. That's not to say we don't
have kids putting on a good bit of quality mass over a summer, but you'd be
shocked at how few kids are willing to eat as much as they need to. Most of the ones who are dedicated enough to
dial in their diet are the same ones who are dedicated enough to train
year-round.
One more note there - with baseball players, half kneeling landmine
presses are golden. It teaches them to
use their core to stabilize and transmit force from their hips in a rotational
pattern more effectively, allowing them to throw faster and hit harder, and by
training the weak side as well, it helps iron out the rotational imbalances
that always develop in baseball guys.
You see imbalances in any sport, baseball and softball players tend to
be particularly gnarly.
With middle aged people it's a balancing act between fixing structural
and functional problems that have developed over decades and still training
them hard. Most people show up the first
day with their upper back and hips locked up from sitting at a desk all day for
20 years. There's not much they can do
without potentially hazardous compensations.
For them, you need to improve the quality of their movement, but you
also need to give them tough workouts (or else they get bored and stop
coming). Early on, the prowler and the
sled are invaluable ways to get in someone work, while using a sizeable chunk
of the session prehabbing them. If you
do it well, though, in 2-3 months they should be moving better and have
well-conditioned energy systems, and past that point they can essentially train
like the athletes, with just minor tweaks here and there to accommodate old injuries. There are some things that necessarily
decline a bit with aging through middle age, but a 50 year old can and should
sill be able to move essentially like a 20 year old. Maybe a little slower and a little stiffer,
but qualitatively similar. Once they
realize that and start seeing it in themselves and the other middle aged people
they're training with, it's a huge confidence boost that carries over to every
facet of their lives.
With older people, it's mostly about quality of life. Myofascial release work is important since
their contractile tissue starts to be replaced with collagenous tissue. As for strength training, you just want to
make their day-to-day activities as easy as possible. Step-ups to help with walking up stairs,
balance work so they won't fall, light farmers walks to help with carrying
groceries, laying down on the ground and standing back up, etc. They're usually taken aback at first since
their only exposure to lifting is usually old bodbuilding stuff, jack lalanne,
or worlds strongest man on TV, but a month in when daily tasks are becoming
noticeably easier and their joints creak a little less, the absolutely love you
for it. Honestly, they're probably my
favorite people to work with. I'm an old
soul anyhow, so we get along splendidly as well. Really, a lot of older people are really
lonely and appreciate the companionship and having someone to talk to just as
much as they appreciate the training.
Training Truth: That was a pretty
succinct snapshot on your client demographics. I couldn't help but chuckle
reading your description of training middle age people…describes me
perfectly.... hips and upper back constantly need work!
I get a sense from that you have a genuine enjoyment working with
others. Taking that a step further what does the ideal job look like then for
Greg Nuckols?
Greg Nuckol’s: You know, that's a
really really good question and, since I'm graduating college soon, it's one I
need to figure out an answer to.
I'm a bit of a dreamer, and I want to make an impact on a large scale,
disseminating fitness information to the masses. That would mean getting myself into a
position when income doesn't matter much.
People who have something to sell will always be suspect, because people
won't know if they're legitimately trying to help, or if the need to promote
their information and their brand to make some coin. I know a lot of guys who are doing well in
the fitness industry. Some people (a
lot) are just in it for the money.
Others are just trying to help people, but have to charge something so
they can earn a living and have time with their loved ones. People like you and I who do our homework can
usually spot the difference. A casual observer,
not so much. One reason I think a site
like Examine.com has been able to make such an impact in the world of
supplements is simply because it's a distributor and arbiter of information,
not a salesman. In essence I want to
accomplish the same thing on the training side of the equation. No clickbait.
Minimal opining. Just solid
information.
On the other hand, I don't ever want to be far from the practical side
of things. I love coaching people, and I
think there's a lot you learn under the bar and from hands-on experience that
you can't glean from any other source.
If there was a way to be a gatekeeper and a coach while still having
enough personal time to devote to meaningful relationships (and my pet
Newfoundland and black bear I will have one day), that would be my ideal
job. Now, how I'm going to go about
getting to that place... I already
admitted I'm a dreamer. haha
TrainingTruth: Dreaming is not so
bad! It’s that old chestnut about making your vocation your vacation but as you
allude to we still need to pay the bills and look after our loved ones. Always
that challenge but you sound like you are starting off on the right plan! Now
the black bear I am not so sure about but I figure if you hit those totals you
can probably take the bear if you need to!
By the way I agree about Examine.com, what a great site, I picked up
their PDF book the other day, a great read and good succinct resource. As business analyst
by trade my first thought is always about the data and evidence so having a
single supplement resource without the hype and devoid of the conflicts of
interest is great.
So that's a wrap for part 2 of my chat with Greg coming up in the final instalment I ask Greg for his contest day tips.
Stay Strong
Thomo
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