Bret often produces mammoth links posts where he tells us where to find good reads for the week. This week, it’s his turn in the hot seat, as I pick out my favourite selection of his articles.
- I am the glute guy and here are my secrets! Start here. Buckle your seatbelt and settle in for the trip of a lifetime into the deepest, darkest secrets of the glute guy. No, really. As a woman, you’ll find the secrets to getting a great set of glutes. As a trainer, you’ll discover the training methods your clients have been looking for. You’ll see why the celebrity trainers have got it all wrong and you’ll find out that Mike Boyle was right all along (again). You’ll learn about Bret’s EMG research and which exercises show the highest mean and peak activation of the glutes. You’ll find beginner and advanced programmes just waiting for you to take away. You’ll find instructional videos on how to perform the glute bridge and the hip thrust. And you’ll see more pictures of the female behind than you possibly considered was decently necessary.
- Gluteal goddess workout: if you found that first article intimidating then this short and sweet post is the answer. In this article, you’ll find a brief outline of a beginner glute workout and an advanced glute workout, along with a short video of one of Bret’s clients going through her workout. And you can see the great results she is getting, too…
- Load vector training: if I had to pick the most unique article for the whole of 2010 in the strength and conditioning field, then this would be it. Bret discusses the concept of load vector terminology, which can be used in place of planar terminology to describe movement and, obviously, exercises. Why not use planar terminology? Bret explains: “in planar terminology, jumping, running, and backpedaling are all sagittal plane movements even though they are quite different as one action has you moving upward, one has you moving forward, and one has you moving backward.” Bret explains the implications for thinking in terms of load vectors and even manages to reference two of my favourite concepts, Wolff’s Law and Davis’s Law, as well as MacGyver in the same article!
- Basic screening and assessment: Bret notes that most trainers don’t have an adequate screening skill set. He discusses genuine “red flags” for dangerous conditions, the FMS and runs through some basic table assessments with Keats Snideman.
- How to get rid of chronic back pain: this is a topic that I am extremely passionate about as I know several people, including a close friend, who have suffered seriously from lower back pain. Bret explains: “at some point in time, 80% of people will suffer from low back pain. The root of the problem is this: People move with their low backs instead of their hips! When the low back moves and the hips stay locked up, the gel inside of the lumbar discs propels toward the outside of the disc and can cause bulges or herniations. This is often the source of lower back pain.” Bret then explains a seven-step process for removing lower back pain.
- The deleterious effects of sitting: if you’ve got your head around how to get rid of chronic back pain, let’s now look at how to avoid it in the first place! In this hard-hitting article, Bret notes that it has been known “since a study was published by Kelsey in 1975 that those who spend over half their day sitting experience higher incidences of herniated discs.” Well, I didn’t know that. Bret then goes into huge amounts of detail to demonstrate just how bad sitting is for your health. I mean, he explains all of the biomechanical implications, how the lumbar spine compensates, gives suggestions on how to mitigate against the ill effects of sitting, gives suggestions on how to reverse the effects of sitting and finishes up with recommendations on how to bullet-proof yourself against sitting full stop. Stop a moment, now, and realise. This is the biggest health issue of our generation. We should be printing articles like this out and handing them to people on the street. Unfortunately, all some people could do was complain about the hard-hitting image that Bret uses involving puppies. Priorities people!
- Sprint research: Bret shows that he’s ready to get up and hustle to provide great content for his readers by interviewing Matt Brughelli, a PhD researcher who studies biomechanics, strength training, and sport training. Brughelli had recently published a study that examined the effects of running velocity on running kinetics and kinematics and his findings had created quite a stir in the strength & conditioning and track and field worlds. If you want to know more, go read the interview!
- Interview with Matt Perryman: Bret isn’t afraid to go back to the people who influenced him and share them with his readers. He interviewed Matt Perryman, explaining the four reasons he was such an influence as follows: “first, he has helped me realize the value in reading research journals. Second, he has helped me identify logical fallacies when debating on internet forums. Third, he has helped me realize that the human body is capable of more training frequency than most of us believe to be ideal. And fourth, he has helped me reinforce my views on certain methods such as auto-regulation. I find myself “nodding in agreement” quite often when reading Matt’s work which is a rare occurrence when I read strength training blogs.” Check out the interview to find out more about Matt.
- 25 random thoughts for strength coaches and personal trainers: this is a great little article for demonstrating the sheer breadth of issues that Bret comes out with. Any one of these would be cause for celebration for me and would certainly lead to a lot of shouting about how great I was. Bret talks about loads of different things including the interrelation of squats and deadlifts, the amount of “glute” in a glute-ham raise (not much), the effect on the hamstrings of anteriorly rotating the pelvis and why Elvis was the king.
- So you want to be the next strength and conditioning guru? I deliberately put this article at the end, because if you’ve not read all the articles above it then there really isn’t any point in you reading this one, because you clearly don’t have the right mindset to be the next strength and conditioning guru (joke!). But seriously, I think Bret answers this question in the articles above by setting the standard that now has to be reached. I mean, if you read his article about sitting and thought “I could write that this evening” then your name probably starts with Gray and ends with Cook. But for the rest of us, it ain’t quite so easily done. However, helpful as ever, Bret sets out what he sees as the key characteristics of the great guru, including a love of fitness, knowledge and innovation, inspirational and motivational skills, leadership, experience, professionalism, integrity, philosophy, language, communication skills, humour, marketing, dedication, awareness of strengths and weaknesses and the ability to put it all together.
If you enjoyed all of these articles, don’t forget to check out my interview with Bret too.
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