Ep 70: Core Training and The New Rebel Performance Training Team with The Rebel Crew

We’re mixing it up a little bit on the show this week with a few of the Rebel Performance coaches joining me: Ryan Patrick, a physical preparation coach for athletes and powerlifters and the owner of Peak Fitness & Sports Training, Ryan L’Ecuyer, a strength coach with a primary focus on hypertrophy and bodybuilding, and Keiran Halton, a personal trainer and Brunswick HS Strength & Conditioning Coach and former Division 1 athlete. We’re first going to dive into our new Rebel Performance Training Team and the different program pathways and changes that will be offered in this new launch. I’m not lying when I say we have a program for everybody: those who want to be the total package or the fire breathers, those who are busy professionals, those who want to get swole, those who are a recovering athlete or want a modification of powerlifting, or those who want a little bit of everything and would like to try it all. I also brought the Rebel Crew on today to discuss core training misconceptions and what the core actually does from a functionality standpoint.

Ryan L’Ecuyer and I start off by sharing why the core’s main purpose is to control the position of the rib cage and pelvis and how we can use those muscles to present good movement everywhere else; this will help us work the muscles we’re intending to work. Keiran then does a deep dive into how the core is your foundation and getting your core into a good position will 9 times out of 10 help clear up any pain and issues clients may have, and it will also allow them to actually feel the targeted muscle groups. Ryan Patrick discusses his take on keeping the diaphragm and pelvic floor stacked in order to get the hips and shoulders moving better, which will allow overall higher training volume.

Listen in as the Rebel Crew shares their approach to different positions and breathing mechanics that may work for some, but not for others and understanding the difference. One of the approaches we do discuss is phasing in a mixture of different variations and traditional core exercises to create a happy medium for clients who enjoy seeing ab exercises in their programming. Ryan Patrick shares a general rule he typically follows, which is, “Give them what they want in the context of what they need.” We close out the episode by answering listener questions regarding nutrition, how biomechanics can impact physiology, and percentages for sprinting.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

[03:40] Rebel Performance Training Crew Intro and the Program Pathways They are Offering in This New Launch
[22:09] The core’s true purpose is to control the position of the rib cage and pelvis
[27:40] Keeping the diaphragm and pelvic floor stacked is a recipe for driving up your training volume
[29:54] Much of “core” training is about creating appropriate timing and stiffness
[41:18] Some of our go-to exercises to help you build a strong core
[48:27] Listener questions like how do biomechanics impact physiology

Want to get jacked, move well, lift heavy, and become a better athlete in 90 days? Then CLICK HERE

James Cerbie: So, this will be the first Rebel Crew podcasts minus Lance who recently moved to Arizona and haven’t heard from him a little while. So, it’ll be the crew here. So, you got me on board here and home. Ryan. Your Ryan. Patrick, the performance coaches, first one of these that we’ve done. Thanks, guys, for hanging with me and doing it on a, on a Sunday.

We won’t do that moving forward. But yes, this will be a fun one today. So, what we’re going to do largely is have a roundtable discussing this really big concept or topic of core training, air quotes for the people that don’t watch the video. Yeah, just kind of talk about some misconceptions, how we think about core training, what the core actually does from a function standpoint, et cetera, et cetera. Hopefully, it is clear some up for people that are listening and then they can walk out of here with a better idea of how to go about maybe approaching training their core.

But before we get there, where we are going to start is that the announcement of the new Rebel Performance training team, which I am super jazzed up about. So, we’ve had our Apex Athlete Training Team, which has been an amazing experience. This is like the evolution, the upgraded version of that to the apex athlete training team is becoming the Rebel Performance training team for the Dragonball Z fans. This is like when Goku first became a Super Sayan, that’s the step that we’re taking here.

And so myself, Keiran, and the two Ryans are all going to be coaches in this rebel performance training team. And we had a lot of really big changes that were going to be making such a big change, number one is obviously now we got more coaches on board and you will get a personal coach that is 100% dedicated to your success. So, you get a coach, you have a private D.M. thread, whether it’ll be me, Keiran, or one of the Ryans, depending what program pathway you choose.

And that’s the next big improvement is we’re bringing way more programs, program pathways to the table to help you become this true, like total package that we’ve talked about at length on this podcast before. So, what we can do here is quickly introduce ourselves the programs that each of us are going to be running, and so it’s kind of this. We have one team with four coaches, seven different program pathways. The one team get you access to all of it.

Introducing the Rebel Performance Coaches and the Program Pathways They Offer

And I’ll talk about some of the other really cool bonuses and features that are going to be blended into this as well. But I’ll kick off first, so I’m going to be running two program pathways. Pathway number one is going to be called total package. This is a continuation of that Apex athlete training team stacked pathway for people that have been doing that goal of this is really simple as the name entails. Just help you become the total package. You’re going to get strong, jacked, powerful, well-conditioned, and you’re going to move really, really well.

You’re just going to be an Apex predator, pathway number two that I’m going to be running is called tactical. So similar. It’s a total package in concept, but with a major bias towards endurance in particular. You’re going to be doing a lot of met cons, a lot of medley’s just become a total, complete firebreather. So those are two pathways I’m going to run Keiran why don’t you hit yours next and just kind of introduce yourself, say what’s up?

Keiran Halton: Yeah, absolutely. I’m Keiran. I’ve been a rebel athlete myself since 2018. Maybe the first silverback, the beta silverback.

James Cerbie: Somewhere in there.

Keiran Halton: So, it’s been a while, but I’ve been coaching close to a decade. Somewhere up there I’m going to be running two programs, mostly geared towards the busy professional you know family obligation work obligation, loves the gym but might not have as much time. And they are the burn, which is again for the busy professional who’s probably looking to tone up shed some of the corona 15 or the freshman 15 that’s been hanging around for a while.

Keiran Halton: And then we have built where somebody who is a little more concerned with building muscle, taking their shirt off at the beach, getting nice and strong and all that stuff, they would go on the build track. So, burn build both for the busy professional, whether you’re looking to tone up or to get big and jacked for the summer.

James Cerbie: I love it, and all of those, the big one in that is that it’s perfect for someone who is on a time budget.

Keiran Halton: Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, everybody’s got to work, family time, you know, we’ll get it in and get you in and get you out, get you the results you’re looking for.

James Cerbie: Huge. And so, if you join either of those pathways, they’ll be paired with you as your coach, and so unlike a lot of these online coaching programs where you just get a program, then you’re off and running, doing your own thing, like you will actually get paired with the coach who’s running that pathway. You have a private D.M. thread with that coach so that you can actually get input, feedback, ask questions, get eyes on coaching you way more touch points. It’s like having an individualized coach is exactly what it’s going to be like, essentially.

James Cerbie: All right, let’s go from what order? I want to go here in our square videos. Let’s go to Ryan L’Ecuyer. We’ll just kind of circle it.

Introducing Ryan L’Ecuyer

Ryan L’Ecuyer: All right. I’m right Ryan L’Ecuyer I was baptized at ten years old in the squat rack, so I’ve been training for quite a while now. I started training professionally, as in taking people’s money when I was eighteen. So, it’s been about eleven years now. I’ve been doing that. So, I’ve done a lot, a lot of sessions in person, got a big passion for building muscle and strength as kind of a secondary focus. So that’s really what Swole is all about, is exactly what it’s going to be able to really stretch out those T-shirts, those shorts, hopefully all the right ways to build some strength along the way.

We’re basically going to attack virtually from every pocket. Will angle that we can, that’s the goal man it’s going to be a lot of pumping, a lot of getting strong and hopefully will be some nice selfies that go up on the Internet for the team to see. So, I’m excited.

James Cerbie: Well, yeah, just go get jacked. Cracked sidewalks don’t fit through doorways.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: You learn how to walk out the door sideways.

James Cerbie: That’s in week thirteen of the program. We have an entire day devoted to how to walk through a door sideways.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, that’s all there.

James Cerbie: And maybe a lat posing seminar.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: That’s coming whether you want it or not. And that is part of the program. We are going to see some last threads.

James Cerbie: So, I love it. New t-shirts, new shorts. New pants, new wardrobe. Yeah, beautiful man. All right, Ryan, Patrick, bring us home.

Introducing Ryan Patrick

Ryan Patrick: All right. I’ve been a Rebel athlete myself since 2018 like Kieran and I got two paths that we’re going to take people on. So, the first one is the strong path. So, it’s going to be somewhat of the total package with a very, very strong strength bias. So, I’m thinking more plates, more dates for those you guys.

So, it’s a little bit of a modification on powerlifting. We’re going to keep just enough of the other elements of training in there and make sure you guys move well, make sure you stay healthy, can do this for a long time. So, it’s about just continuation of PR’s, and if you ever want to specialize or transition from that into more specific meat prep meat preparation, you’ll be ready to go. And then the other one is going to be Field Demon. So, this is pathway Uncle Rico for the recovering strength athletes who were athletes in a former life. It’s getting you back out onto the field, running, jumping. We’re going to be working on acceleration mechanics. We’re going to be working on max velocity. It’s going to really transition you out of the weight room and kind of restore some of that athleticism. However, we are not going to let anybody lose the precious gains that they’ve made. So, you will be maintaining size and strength along the way. But it’s definitely a different spin on training.

James Cerbie: Beautiful. I love it, man. And then just even on the podcast, afford to so people listening, if they’re like, I don’t know who this dude is, maybe let’s give a quick background here. So, you’ve run your own facility now for quite some time. You have a pretty successful background as a strength athlete. I would say so just so you can bring kind of like that legitimacy and credentials to the table. Let’s hit that and we’ll go we can go back the other direction and all that.

Ryan Patrick: Yeah. So, I run peak fitness and sports training. We’re right outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. So, we cater primarily to adults who love to train and are athletes ranging mostly high school and not so high school, college and our professional guys, which right now are just all the NFL guys from the Bengals. So that’s kind of the day-to-day job that I take on. So, we’ve got a lot of experience kind of working with the guys who need to be strong, but also need to just have a ton of horsepower.

And then for myself as an athlete, I was the champion of the 20019 tactical strike challenge. I had a six seventy deadlift, did 30 or 31 pull ups continuous and then did a five-minute snatch test with the 32 lb kettle bell for 121 reps. So, it was definitely a hybrid approach. I’ve done some powerlifting meets currently hold the state record in my weight class in the USAPL, so I’ve been around the block, done a little bit of everything and I just love training hard. So that’s where I’m at.

James Cerbie: Mic drop, I love it. OK, circling back, Ryan L’Ecuyer, why don’t you give us a quick background after baptism in a squat rack, where did your life take you?

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I’ll start now. Can I work backwards? I currently hold the backyard record at my gym for the barbell by several hundred and five pounds. And I mean, it’s maybe not quite as impressive as the 670 lb deadlift, but I’m working my way up. But no, I started training at 10 years old, started competing bodybuilding at 17 and I’ve been competing every two to four years and that since then, just chasing those to glutes every time, competing a little bit in powerlifting on the platform.

I think my best lists were like a 545 squat, 352 bench and a 640 deadlift or something like that. So, I actually can improve on that in the next few weeks if I can make it to this meet two weeks from now. Yeah. I mean the primary focus is just been trying to get as big as humanly possible and that’s taking me down a lot of different roads educationally, which has been really, really cool. So that’s the goal. Just trying to figure out this muscle building puzzle and just keep stacking on more useless mass. Take it as I can.

James Cerbie: I love it. Yeah. And then you want to be the person that no one wants to sit next to on an airplane.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, it’s yeah. I just go on flights just all day. I’ll just go somewhere and come back just so I can get that ego boost. I just sit around the middle every time I even have an agenda. I just want to sit next to people really close.

James Cerbie: So, you compete as a natural bodybuilder and got your pro card there back in. I don’t remember what year it was.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, 2014. And I didn’t pay the dues to hold it. So, I’m now an amateur again because that’s how, that’s how natural bodybuilding works. You’re only good enough to be a pro if you have one hundred dollars a year to pay for it and then they kick you out. But I think you’re actually supposed to compete like every 2 years you got to compete as a pro or something like that. Like, the funny thing is, is like my whole life revolves around bodybuilding and I just don’t really care about bodybuilding competitively.

I just don’t really give a shit about anything. I really just enjoy just pushing the needle forward and not pushing the needle in. Because like you mentioned, I am a natural athlete. I just want to keep driving things forward as much as I can, and whatever happens competitively in that amount of time is cool. But it’s really just the science project at this point. That’s really interesting to me. So that’s why I’m super psyched about this group seems to have a huge group of people that say through some of these protocols and, and just see what kind of useless mass we can build and really, that’s it.

James Cerbie: Yeah, it’ll be cool. Like the more this gets cooking, we’ll be able to start getting some really interesting, really interesting data.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

James Cerbie: All right, Keiran, you can hit next.

Introducing Keiran Halton

Keiran Halton: Yeah. Well, I don’t deadlift as much as those guys don’t even have a backyard gym, so I don’t hold any records out there either. But I work in with my private clients. A lot of the people who would sign up burn or build a lot of the busy professionals. I work with them privately during the morning, midday, and then I actually work at a high school where I boost my ego and I try out bench all those kids.

Doesn’t always work either. But I work at a private school in Greenwich, Connecticut, after school where I get to do the strength conditioning with those guys after school. So, it’s fun. I get my adult time, we get people results there and then we go to the high school, keep everybody healthy, keep them on the field, keep them feeling fast and strong. Yeah.

James Cerbie: You were casually a two-sport athlete in college, so I’ll brag on you for that a little bit.

Keiran Halton: Yeah, I can jump pretty good so I…

James Cerbie: Still can, still can don’t make that a past tense.

Keiran Halton: Well yeah. So that’s when everybody, all the really strong people try to out dead left me. Then I’ll just walk downstairs to the court and I’ll just dunk a couple of times and drop the ball and walk out. But yeah. So, I got to play college basketball and then one season ended, I would join the college volleyball team and try to make a run with those guys.

So, I got pretty banged up. I had a couple of knee surgeries. I couldn’t really train the way I wanted to. So that’s how I actually made my way to rebel, learn a bunch of really excellent technique, got to train with a bunch of really strong, smart guys and learned a lot from guys like Ryan. And so, I’m just really excited to be able to help out everybody else out who joins the program with that.

Right. Like, everybody is really driven. They want to get results, but there’s usually something holding them back from an injury standpoint or time management. So definitely going to be taking a lot of the things we learned within rebel and spreading the gospel, so to speak, with everybody who comes on board.

James Cerbie: Oh, yes, just build a whole bunch of life proof humans.

Keiran Halton: That’s it man, and just do what you like whenever you want.

James Cerbie: Yeah, go kick a life in the testicles and take no prisoners while you do so cool. So, all around this former division one athlete fell in love with the weight room in high school. I am the perfect example of a shiny object syndrome person because I leave college where my entire life at that point had revolved around strength, conditioning and competing in my sport and having a locker room and a team and all this other jazz and then right the Thanos finger snap moment you leave college and it’s like, oh, that’s all just gone now bye.

And so fortunately I had the weight room, the hard part for me that was figuring out where I was going to put my effort and energy because I loved elements of a lot of things that I tried to like. I dabbled in Crossett, which was probably my very first love, to be honest. I love the community, the camaraderie of the competition. Like if you have a competitive bone in your body, you will enjoy going into a CrossFit gym.

Right. But don’t really love all the Olympic lifts, the exercise selection, the gymnastics at just not for me, love the strength from powerlifting did not love losing my athleticism and blowing my back out, love the size from bodybuilding. But again, like if I can’t do athletic things, if I can’t have some work capacity and a big engine, if I can’t sprint, jump and cut like I was always very unhappy. So, it all circled back to me of, well, I don’t see this thing in the world, so I’m just going to make it.

And that was when Silverback started, which ran in here and you guys ran and. Right, and that was the total origination of this total package concept. Right, it’s like I want to be strong in the big three. I want to be jacked. I want to be powerful in the sense that I can sprint, I can jump, I can cut. I want to move really well so that I’m not in pain. And then I want to be able to do Metcons and Medley’s and have a really big engine.

More Information on the New Training Team

Right, and so that’s essentially what I’ve started creating for myself. And then Rebel as a whole is largely built around trying to just bring that and spin it out to more people, which is why I’m so excited about this training team, because the way I try to describe this concept to people is think of yourself as a video game character and you have kind of like this attribute spoke wheel that you see in video games sometimes. Right? Like, I think that your six attribute bars on that Spokes for you, strength, hypertrophy, power, endurance movement, and then the last one being fusion, which is like Metcons Medley’s, your ability to put all these other pieces into one, into one unit.

And so, it’s fun about the training team is that once you’re in like we’re going to be able to grow this spoke we offer you this attribute wheel in all directions.

At all times. OK, well, maybe I want to focus more on hypertrophy right now. Awesome. Cool. You’re going to go see Ryan. We’re going to hammer that for as long as that’s the primary goal. Right. But we’re going to do it in the sense that we’re not going to let everything else just totally fall off. Similar thing with hey, I want to focus more on powerlifting getting really strong in the big three right now. Awesome. Go see Ryan Patrick’s plug into the strong program, getting a stronger shit in the big three. But you know what? You’re still going to be athletic and you’re not going to be in pain if you really want to just do this hybrid, total, well-rounded approach, you’ll be with me if you’re super busy. You don’t have as much time plugging with Keiran. You’re still going to get incredible results, right? You’re still going to be working on these attribute bars.

And that’s the goal here, right? It’s a push the attribute bars as far as we can in all directions for you, based off of your goals, your interest and your priorities right now. And so, we can pass you around as needed, which is going to be really, really cool. And so, few other things in the training team worth mentioning. And we’re going to talk core training one. So, you join one team, you get access to all four of us, all these program pathways, and you get a private personal coach totally dedicated to your success.

We’re going to have four Zoom calls a week, one of us running each of those to be 30-minute calls we want on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So, you can log into Zoom, talk to any of us, get input, get feedback right away. The goal of this is for you to not have to really think too much. You just get to focus on execution and then we’re going to be there to help you with the implementation and all of it.

Right, cause most people listening to this probably overthink things all the time. They are their own worst enemy. They just get in their way. So, our job is to remove you from that process and make the execution and implementation as easy as possible for you. Another one I’m really excited for as part of the training team, you have access to three training camps a year. These will be in-person events. It’ll be free for you to attend. All you got to do is pay for your travel and pay for your food.

Otherwise, we’re going to go to different gyms around the country, will spaces out. So that makes sense on a calendar. We’re still getting those dates locked in, but we’ll have three in-person training camps a year. They’ll be over the course of a long weekend. There’s a really cool opportunity for you to come actually get hands-on in-person coaching from us to interact with all the other cool people that we have on the team. Right. Because in the team, you’re also going to have the forum.

You get to compete pretty much every day. We’re going to have competitions. You’ll have this awesome online environment. The training camps are going to be a great opportunity to come in person and bring all that to life for you. And then the last thing we’re going to do is twice a year we’re going to have our in-house competition, our in-house throwdown, what we’re going to call the total package athlete challenge. So, these are events that we will put on for all of our members.

These can be your game days that we put on the calendar, the thing that you can train for over the course of a year. And we’re going to test out of everybody in our family, out of everybody in our tribe who has the biggest attribute wheel write and we’re going to test you across all these metrics. It will be a remote event as well as an in-person event so everybody can participate. They’ll be scaled divisions for people that want the scale bit right.

And if it’s not something that you’re ready for at that time, then you can just keep doing your normal training. Right. But I think it’s important to give people a competitive outlet with the way that we’re talking about training. So, trying to think if there’s anything else worth mentioning there one team, four coaches, seven program pathways in-person training camps, private team forums, everything delivered and trained, heroic personal. D.M. Thread with the personal coach four weekly Zoom calls lots of good shit I’m super pumped for.

It’s going to be the best online remote training experience going again. I’m just like really, really excited to see where this is going to go. Last bit on this and then we’re going to talk core training is if you sign up this week, the week at the 26th, we’re running a special discount so you can get 20% off the normal price as long as you sign up this week. And that price will stay with your account as long as that account stays active.

So, if you’re listening to this, if you like the sounds dope, I totally want in the link to join is going to be in the show notes. So, all you do is go in, click. That will take you to the page or you can register and sign up. And again, that will be at a twenty percent lifetime discount as long as your account stays active. That’s good. Through Friday at midnight and then the prices are going to go to the normal, the normal price.

OK, so check the show notes, click the link there to go get registered to sign up and get training. Otherwise, let’s go and talk about core stuff. The core is one of those things that is a massive buzzword. I don’t really love the word core, but everyone knows what I mean when I say it. So, if you want to argue with me over semantics, then I think you should probably go find a way to get busier

Understanding the Core’s Purpose of Controlling the Position of the Rib Cage and Pelvis

So, let’s start here. We’ll roundtable, listen to see wherever it takes us. When I think about the core, like for me, the core, the core purpose of the core is to control the position of a rib cage in the pelvis. I think if I was going to try to. Whittle it down to just one thing, that’s what I would say, that you have a core to control the position of a rib cage and the pelvis so your arms and legs and biomechanics can actually take place.

Let’s just round table that and see if we’re all generally kind of in a similar place. And we can add layers to that however we want to. So, anybody just jump right in, whoever wants to go.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I thought Keiran was going to go. You’re wrong about the way you lead. I was like this.

James Cerbie: The lean in.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: You got me.

Ryan Patrick: We’re just a bunch of polite guys. Nobody wants to go.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I can go first. Go. Yeah, do it. I think the only thing that you really need to know is one word. It’s called the squeem. And you just wrap that thing around you as tight as possible. It’s going to make your look super tight and small and have all the curves in the right places and flat and all the right places as well.

James Cerbie: So, what is this thing?

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I think it’s basically like a corset that you just put this fucking thing on and it just collapses your internal organs. But you look great for a while now. That’s actually like a big thing and like bikini competition and stuff. You know, not that I know anything about that, but it’s absolutely terrible. And so, I just probably stop talking now. But that’s just the way I hear the word tour. I just immediately think of the scream and I just think of all these poor people to have collapsed internal organs.

James Cerbie: You don’t need those. Those organs are overrated, bro.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I mean, you want to look good or what do you what

James Cerbie: Do you remember the belt, that thing that they used to sell in the infomercials where, oh, you want a six pack and it’s like you put on this belt and it just like does stem contractions and it’s like, oh, this is how you get a six pack.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Dude I mean, if I had like the $40 at the time, I would have bought one of those things for sure. I mean, I bought at least like two infomercial ad things in my life. I’m not super proud to admit that, but I have I would say like that’s a really good a really good start. I mean, I’ll speak to some of the questions I get a lot with, like core training from a bodybuilding perspective is I think people they look at it like similarly as they would to other muscle groups in that it needs to be trained and they need to do like a bunch of loaded exercises to develop it the way that they want, which is kind of weird because it just doesn’t seem to actually produce the same type of results as like your bicep would.

And I’m not exactly sure why that is, maybe because we can’t really get those muscles into really lengthened positions to load them eccentrically or something. But it doesn’t really seem like your abs hypertrophy that much, nor would you want them to. I would, I would think it’s kind of a weird thing when you actually think about it. It’s like, how big do you want your abs to be? It’s kind of weird. So, I find that I don’t really program a lot of stuff directly for ab training because a lot of it is just going to create just shitty movement.

And a lot of ways if we do it in the traditional sense where we’re loading things and doing a lot of sit ups and crunches and whatever other stuff people like to do, and I tend to approach it from that perspective genes, where it’s more like how do we use these muscles to control the thorax and the pelvis so we can present with good movement everywhere else and actually work the muscles that we’re intending to work. So that’s kind of the approach that I’ve taken lately.

I don’t know what you guys thoughts on that stuff is.

Keiran Halton: Yeah, I think I kind of would approach it the same way we’re like for busy professionals coming in and stuff like that, like, you know, just to end with little abs, like direct ab work is like so they leave feeling like they really like crushed their abs and whatever is fine. But I think most of the clients want to just throw the weight at me when they’re done because even like squats or pressing or deadlifting or whatever, the usually the first question is, did you feel like a little bit of side abs?

Did you feel like your core, whatever you want to call it? And it’s always the first question even before we go to like the targeted muscle groups, usually because people are coming in with like low back or something tensioning or something like that. And when we can get the core, the stack or whatever you want to call it in a good position, nine times out of ten, that’s going to clear up a lot of the issues. Plus, they’re going to feel the targeted muscle a little bit more.

It’s almost liked the analogy I’ll use a lot is it’s almost like the core is your foundation, the foundations off a little bit for a house. Right. Might not be a big deal, but by the time you get out like the shingles or the chimney. Right. That’s where the issue comes in. So, the pinch in the shoulder or the elbow or whatever, if you can just come back to the foundation, straighten everything out a little bit, everything kind of falls into place a little bit better, less injuries, more pump to whatever you’re trying to hit.

But then, you know, end of the day with some dead bugs or some other variation. So, they oh, man, it feels really, really sore now or whatever. So that’s the last thing they remember walking out of the gym. So, they’re ready to come back and get some more next time.

Keeping Your Diaphragm and Pelvic Floor Stacked for Higher Training Volume

Ryan Patrick: All right. I’ll jump in on the same page with you guys. James, I definitely look at it in terms of you know creating that. I think Zac Cupples calls it ventral cavity control.

So just keeping the diaphragm in the pelvic floor stack, I think for most people, most of the time it just unlocks the ball and sockets. So, the hips start moving a little bit better, shoulders move better. And I think that just begets better training volume to allocate in other areas. At least that’s the way that I try to use it. Now, I’ve kind of had I’m kind of gone a little bit the other way in the sense that.

The lower rib cage is definitely one spot that people are going to compensate the first so on some of those athletes that I have or even guys who just train a lot and got a ton of muscle mass. It’s really hard to create enough tension through that area to get other areas to move the way that I want. So, I’ve up the core work and some of those populations and I’ve seen some pretty good results. And I’m not opposed to doing some traditional core work.

I mean, we do quite a bit of reverse crunches just because I think it’s one way that people can pull their hips back under them. I mean, we don’t do a ton of crunches because I don’t want to jam their sternum down. But that re-core work does seem to help to some degree. And, and kind of Ryan’s points, like, I don’t know how much it doesn’t respond quite the same as other muscles. So, it’s not like I’ve seen anybody really get themselves into a ton of bad positions from doing it.

And I think the people are generally like to do that stuff anyway, usually train. So, they’re I mean, they’re just more malleable when you get them into the training room doing the right stuff anyway. So, yeah, just some thoughts on that. And then, you know, I’ve kind of been tossing back and forth with some of the plank work because, you know, there’s some research out there, especially with the guys on the doing their change of direction stuff that you actually the ones who are faster have a little bit more movement through the trunk, less traditional stability in what you would expect to see when people talk about changing direction and having the stable core.

Well, the guys who are the fastest are actually moving a little bit more. So, do I want to splint them when they’re in the weight room with palate presses and tons of planks and side planks? You know, it’s a spectrum I’m sure there’s some is necessary so that they’ve got ownership of the position, but they’ve also got to be able to demonstrate that they can utilize it. And I kind of hate this word, too, but in a functional way. So, that’s kind of where I’m at with that. What are you guys taken from that?

Understanding the Appropriate Timing and Stiffness for Your Muscles

James Cerbie: Yeah, I think one of the points that, that’s really important is that like everything else, we’re talking about, appropriate timing, the appropriate stiffness at the appropriate time, especially when you start getting into change of direction or like if we’re going to get loaded movement. Right. And I think an important point here, when we start talking about the muscles involved, like, let’s just go ahead and say it. Erectus is a show muscle and pretty much brings almost nothing to the table.

Like if you think about the capacity of erectus to actually control what a rib cage and the pelvis are doing is pretty minimal. Right. I have a really small, little, tiny attachment site up here on my xiphoid process and have a really small attached upside down on my pubic semis. And that’s all I got to bring to the table. Meanwhile, you go look at an external oblique and internal bleeding, transverse abdominals. These things grab like lots of ribs and they grab the whole, like, top-side of the anatomy.

It’s like, OK, just from an attachment site, surface area standpoint, which one of these is going to be better leveraged to do the job that we’re talking about? Right. And it’s just like, OK, well, these side abs are the show, but I don’t think that you have to just like what you’re saying. Right. You don’t need to do tons of side planks and all this stuff. It’s more about teaching. You like the timing, the appropriate stiffness, like that’s where exercises such as a wall pressed, like lowering can be important.

Can I Velcro my low back to the floor with a leg that’s going from flexion and extension? At this going into extension, I’m going to get a pull from a lengthening quad. Can my side as oppose the lengthening quad if I put you in a half-kneeling position, similar thing to my side abs oppose a lengthened quad on that downside side, or if we’re going to do a credible plug, a three month pullover, can my side abs oppose and manage a lengthening lat that’s trying to drive me and push me this way and do more extension?

So, that’s a lot of how I think of it, is can it show up at the right time to help manage stiffness in tone coming from these other really big movers? If you think about it as certain things, open the mouth. So, the top of the ribs, sorry, the ribs of the top of the mouth pelvis is the bottom of the mouth. I would love a closed mouth. Right, but you have big movers like quad’s and that that would really love to open that mouth.

And so, for me, again, I don’t want to be Deadhorse, but it comes back to that timing and appropriate stiffness at the right time to manage the fact that I have all these muscles showing up and pulling on different attachment sites and insertion points, et cetera. Can they all fire at the right time and the right stiffness to make sure that I don’t just turn into a train wreck?

Keiran Halton: So, in terms of timing, you mean the five-minute playing series that my soccer guys do isn’t the best option for them?

James Cerbie: It sounds awful, sounds like a terrible idea.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: It’s great as a coach because then you can just check out.

James Cerbie: That’s the time filler, right?

Keiran Halton: It’s just like this just isn’t over yet.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Push-ups can actually sort of your computer right on one of the athletes. And you can check some emails. They’re doing the play properly. Yeah, I feel like one of one of the big determinists for me with whatever exercise I’m going to use is. I think most exercises can work pretty well, but when we’re talking about core specifically type of exercises, just being able to go through a full respiration cycle while you’re holding that position or whatever thing you’re doing, I think that’s pretty important because otherwise I think that that’s what we do really get into, just increasing rigidity.

And then it’s like, what do we what do we do not really know that that’s super helpful for anybody, that a lot of ways if we can hold positions and actually be able to breathe and not see significant changes in the ribcage and pelvis while we’re going through those breathing cycles. And I think it can probably work pretty well. And just certain exercises lend themselves better towards that. I think, like really anything and this is kind of what Keiran saying anyway, is pretty much we can put that into just about anything.

And then if they want to do like a little bit of direct stuff at the end or whatever, they just want to get that feel then we can. But they’re already getting that so much just by getting in good positions and then going through a full range of motion and being able to breathe while they do that. And I would think that at least what I found is it doesn’t seem to promote as much rigidity as other things may. And they can still actually move pretty well, because even like for me and the clients that I work with that are interested in hypertrophy, I don’t actually want them to turn into a cement block.

I still want them to be able to do stuff, be able to rotate and bend like that, because I think that that if you’re only strategy is just to block everything down every time you do anything, then eventually that’s going, I don’t think we’re going to feel the muscles that we want to use. I think we to be using the muscles that we were trying to use anyway. And I think eventually we’re going to get ourselves into some problems with some overuse type injuries or are just pain syndromes from the same just doing the same damn thing all the time.

James Cerbie: Ryan, can you just give an example for a frame of reference in terms of just an exercise, I’m sure maybe like to set up an execution just so that everyone listening has an idea of what we’re talking about? Cooking it in because I agree, like I don’t really provide much direct AB training for a lot of my people. And that’s where I usually get emails when they first start on like, hey, where’s all my ab work? It’s in all here order.

James Cerbie: It’s every movement that you’re doing.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

James Cerbie: But just maybe give an example so we have a little bit of context on that for somebody.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, I think a good one would be like a cable fly like against the bench and just where you’re putting your feet in my mind, there’s no reason to put your feet on the ground when you’re doing a cable fly because you’re just by foot. Unless you just have crazy amounts of hip extension, which you don’t if you’re listening to this, you don’t like just being able to reach your feet to the ground without going into without just completely losing your pelvis and your ribcage.

Might as well put your feet on the bench, get a little bit of a tuck, get some proximal hamstring glutes, abs, and then go through that, that chest line. I like a lot of times people actually feel their pecs more because they’re just in a better position to contracts from the get-go. So I think that things like that, when you’re doing a competition style bench press and you’re competing in powerlifting, the goal of powerlifting is just to cheat as much as possible.

Like I mean, it’s like taking advantage of like trying to move it as little as possible. That makes a lot of sense to put your feet on the ground and extends. And I don’t think that’s bad. Like, I think you should do that if that’s your sport. But when it comes to other stuff where you’re actually trying to get hyper speed from a movement or you’re just trying to maintain good moving quality, why not just put yourself in a position that’s a little bit more advantageous for both of those things?

Instead of just doing the same thing I think is like when left, their own devices are stress response is always going to be just like this extension pattern. So, if we know that we’re battling that all the time, like I want to try to throw as much stress into the system without having to go to that strategy. And I think that leads to some really long-term success and just a recovery and ability to just pile on more work, like Ryan was saying, to just be able to allocate that volume toward something else and have more ability to accumulate good work.

Keiran Halton: Yeah, I don’t know if it’s because I’m older or just, you know, I’ve been doing this a long time and got banged up. But the process of developing versus demonstrating strength is going to require much different technique. When somebody is going up to the platform or they’re trying to show out. I don’t care if they give up their core. I don’t care if they find that extension. And in fact, in some regard, that’s it’s the strongest that they can be doing that.

So, by all means, do that. But I don’t want that to become a regular part of training because it does take away some of the foundation and the capacities that they need to really layer in adequate volume for a long time. And that even goes to just like selection of how the RPE set over said, you know, some of my younger, just not experienced lifters. They just they don’t have a good gauge on that. And they train so hard in the first couple sets that they can’t even make it through a typical session.

It seems like so much volume, but really it’s just a lack of understanding what an appropriate training looks like and managing the technique within the context so that when the time comes to demonstrate you have that available, you can find that extra gear and Ryan of the things I wanted to jump on is that in our place, the clients we work with, we even step back on some of the core training that we’ve done, because I know even for myself, I do a traditional dead bug or some other well-meaning exercise like that.

I get a diastasis because I’ve got a broader rib cage. It’s already pulling me apart. I’m just not able to actually get in that position. So, we’ve gone a couple of steps back with a few people and just done some band resisted hook line breathing where they’re on the ground and they’re able to find that position and actually work on getting a dynamic ribcage, making sure that they can close during for sternal angle or open it if they’re narrower.

Just something that simple, I think was an oversight. It’s like, oh, it’s a dead bug. It’s good. That’s how you build abs. But I know for me, like, it wasn’t working at all. I mean, just basically ripping my ab wall apart. And some people are like, yeah, I really feel that. I’m like, yeah, since is ripping apart. So, you know, it was just. Yeah, it was.

I mean it’s just being OK with stepping back and just teaching people how to breathe and really recruit abdominals without just relying on the exercise or a ton of leverage to create that response.

Ryan Patrick: It’s funny like how far such simple positions and doing the basics like just savagely. Well how big of a rock that could be for some people. Like I know for me and a lot of the high school athletes. I work with you just to your point. Right.

You just know, extension, that’s all you know, and it’s like jumping high run and fast, all that stuff, but then like to actually feel the ground underneath you. When I started going down and getting a little more into, like the breathing mechanics and all that other stuff that we’re all talking about. I remember for the first time like feeling my whole back on the floor and just being like, oh, that’s what that’s what that feels like.

And just like how everything loosened up and I still got like a killer ab burn or whatever. And to your point, it was like just a basic banded pullover like hook line or like ninety position. You couldn’t make it simpler for somebody and throwing that in either, you know, my private clients or the athletes at the school. It’s such a simple movement, but it just carries so much weight. Everybody moves cleaner after it. Everybody feels better, they feel their abs.

It’s just like such like an offshoot of vanity muscle or I want to do a little abs. And it’s just you guys are talking about more training volume, a bigger training stimulus, feeling better, moving better. So, they’re coming at it from the vanity perspective. We’re coming at it from all the other stuff. But it’s everybody’s happy at the end. And again, the simple stuff just goes so far with that.

Moving Away from Traditional Core Exercises by Throwing in Different Variations

Ryan L’Ecuyer: So, Keiran have you found that people are just as satisfied with that, or has it been difficult to make that transition when you start like it?

Ryan, you started pulling back on some of the core exercises or maybe some of the perceived difficulties, some of them and Keiran like you just throwing in different variations where they don’t really necessarily look like traditional core exercises. You find your clients are just as satisfied with that stuff from like a feeling perspective and just being, like, happy thinking that they got the work that they wanted.

Keiran Halton: Yeah, I think so. As long as you’re coaching it up really well and stuff like that and hitting on, like, just the big rocks.

A lot of times they’ll feel it. People ask all the time, oh, well, what? I just had somebody ask you, oh, what happened to just good old sit ups. Right. So, like, sometimes you have to bring it back or something like that. So, you know, we’ll like throw in some traditional, like, ab exercises, but we’ll probably provide a lot more references, squeezing them and ball behind the heel on the hips or like maybe adding a little bit of a reach or like a little bit of a banded resistant thing.

Sometimes you got to give them a little sizzle with their steak, so to speak, and like bring it back to what they’re familiar with. But as long as we’re, like, coaching up those, you know, reach here, try to talk a little bit or, you know, coaching the breastwork like, I think it, I think it makes sense for them, and again, as long as they feel it at the end of the day.

Ryan Patrick: So, I mean, my clients inherently, they trust us. A lot of them have been with us for a long time, but I still get what I just called the eyes. And they just kind of look at it like, this is, this is it. This is this is the thing that I’m doing. So, I think, like Keiran is we have to bake it in a little bit. I can’t just I can’t totally go one hundred and eighty degrees and make them do these things that are, I mean, more or less warm up type activities when they want to train.

So, it’s kind of phasing it in with some other things and like here and said I think if we coach it well, if we can integrate it quickly with other activities where maybe they’ll use that skill of breathing in a particular way or, you know, finding the position that they need to, then they start to gain just a better understanding. And I know everyone just like the breathing, for instance, some people just I almost feel nothing because they don’t have adequate, I guess, strength to really recruit the abdominals doing something that’s so low level.

So, it’s just it’s it is completely noble for them to struggle with something like that that isn’t loaded, that isn’t, I think, difficult right out of the gate. But, you know, one of the general rules I always tell my guys is give them what they want in the context of what they need. And once you just bake it in there, then most people can buy in because they’re still getting the things they want, kind of like here and says you just you got to marry these two things and, and go forward so it can never be all, you know, my way or the highway.

And we’re also the professionals, so we can’t let them write the program either.

James Cerbie: Yeah, I think in that realm, it’s tough because you do get certain people. I just want to do direct core ab work and I just there’s definitely still some benefit there. Like, I’m not going to say it’s a waste of time by any means.

And so, like, for me, the ones that I kind of have a handful of bread and butter that I go to, I like roll out variations. Probably not on a barbell, because I would bet that if you’re listening to this, you’re probably not ready for it. I was starting a physio ball. I got really well executed, physio ball rollout. You should feel tons of abs any at all. Like lowering variations are huge, especially if you want to give it like a kettlebell reach to the upper leg when it lowers.

Like that’s going to absolutely blow upside abs, reverse crunch variations sometimes. Just so I know that they’re going to get an ab pump, if you want to call it that. I really still like half-kneeling tops and lifts. You can even essentially put them in a step-up position and still do chop’s and lifts there. Those are kind of like my bread and butter when people like I want to do more core work, like, OK, cool, that’s really where I live and had a lot of success with because I think sometimes just getting them to be able to actually feel a side ab contract and work can be really hard.

So, I’m trying to chase the sensation for them of, oh, I feel this thing working and I want to be able to feel this thing when I go do other exercises. That’s what a lot of it is for me a lot of times. And the warmups or even on the back end of a workout, it’s less air quotes training the core as much as it is making them sensory aware of the fact that it’s there and I want them to be able to feel it.

I don’t know if that rings true for anybody else in here.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, absolutely. Like throwing that one or two in the warm up and then, like, always coming back to it like I love to kettlebell front rack squat, like that’ll crush abs nine times out of ten. But then, you know, you bring it back to, hey, remember the wall press dead bugs or whatever we did in the warm up, did you get that same sensation? And then, like, it’s pretty cool because some clients who were like thinking that way a little bit more like you’ll actually see the light click and then like you have to you get to talk less down the line because they you’ve already made that connection for them.

And they were just like off and running at that point.

James Cerbie: That’s the biggest thing, once they actually make the connection and they can turn it on or off when they feel OK, tuck belt buckle to belly button, exhale your ribs down when they feel side abs working to help control that position, then things that way easier. I don’t really need to spend a ton of time there because now I’m just cool. Let’s go train more, let’s go accumulate more volume someplace else, because that’s the whole goal here.

And I think, Ryan, when you said this earlier, is totally spot on as I want to try to stack the deck in your favor where I can. So, for example, a kind of benched cable chest fly, why not just put your feet on the bench? Let’s stack the deck in your favor. Let’s make it a little bit easier for you to get in a position that we’re chasing. We give you the sensory reference of having Velcro your low back to the bench.

So, you have to get a little bit posterior tilt. You can exhale ribs down into a bench. OK, cool. Do you feel these side abs working on them? Now hold that. And now we’re going to do this chest fly. And now we’re in a position because the name of the game in training and pretty much anything is the accumulation of more volume over time. At its core, that’s what we’re trying to do, almost regardless of the physical quality that we’re chasing.

But I think having a distinction between I want to do things that enforce this position versus I’m going to choose things that are going to challenge this position, I think that distinction in choosing exercises is really important. Are you the type of person that needs more enforcement? Awesome. Let’s get you on the ground. Let’s lay you on a bench. Let’s give you something to actually have a sensory input on your backside. Let’s maybe put you on the hook line so you can feel some proximal hamstring working.

Right. Or if you’re the person that maybe needs more challenging, if you’re someone who’s just really big and stiff, then yeah, maybe. And the warm up and on the back in a training, I’m going to spend more time helping you challenge position and getting side abs to help oppose quads, lats, whatever. We’re going to essentially take that in terms of muscle groups. Anybody have any other thoughts there? We got three questions that we could also go to from the crowd.

Well, I chose three out of a handful.

Keiran Halton: Let’s see what they got

Listener Questions and How Biomechanics Impacts Physiology

James Cerbie: Beautiful. OK, so, all right. The first one is outrageously broad. So, we’re going to keep this one really simple is like how do you handle nutrition for your clients?

One, I will probably refer you to some of the other nutrition-based podcasts we’ve done with either Dean Guido, Gepps or Johnson or the one we just have a Xenon was really good as well. Coming up with your macro’s is not hard. And I think people think that’s really complicated. It’s not just use Harris Benedict equation, get an idea of what your total calorie intake should be. Throw yourself at a gram per pound protein, fat point three up to point seven grams per pound, I believe, and then let’s fill in as many carbs as we can outside of that.

And it’s OK, cool there, macro. Like, that’s your macro consumption. Those are your calories. So, on the nutrition and lifestyle front, that’s where the coaching becomes so important. Right. And so that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited for the training team to bring that back in is because we’ll be able to spend more time having those conversations with people, because like the training, the programs, we got well over a year’s worth of programing written for all these different pathways with different phases, different emphasis, so we can put you where you need to be at the right time.

That frees up our time to be able to focus on implementation, execution, helping you on the things that are going on outside the gym, like your nutrition, your lifestyle, et cetera. Like, let’s get all that stuff Bowdon for you. So that may not have answered that person’s question, but it’s like the macro bit is really, really easy. It’s purely an execution game. I don’t know if you guys have different opinions or thoughts on that.

Ryan Patrick: I guess with a lot of the professionals know, it’s tricky sometimes, like this week, Tuesday night, I got to take clients out to dinner. Thursday night I got to do the same thing Saturday. I have a wedding, the whole life thing. So, I think it’s just one. I will refer to my fiancée, Gianna, and the stronger you for the macro stuff just because they do a really good job with that. But then what I can help out with on that is we’ll talk about like planning ahead.

I think that is such a big thing. Like can you bring your foods, you’re controlling what you’re eating versus like going out to the bodega or deli or wherever you’re out to get lunch. So, planning ahead and definitely just like trying to put you in environments that it’s easy to make those decisions. So, you could just kind of autopilot, maybe don’t have a six pack in the fridge and keep all the beer out of the house and you know so planning and environment, I think, for me and my clients are the biggest things.

James Cerbie: Yeah, I think our family is stronger, you do a really, really, really good job in this realm. And so generally speaking, if you really want nutrition coaching, then yeah, I probably seen you to stronger. You maybe look at the Renesys periodization diet app is actually quite good in terms of what is it like 12, 15 bucks a month? Whatever it is, it calculates off before you, tells you when to eat. The timing maybe is a little bit off sometimes. I have had clients use it, like, hey, it has me eating dinner at nine o’clock. I want to go to bed at nine thirty.

It’s like, yeah, we can let’s yeah. I’m not allowed to say we have the flexibility. We could move the timing around, but it’s a really cheap solution and it kind of does all the work for you and it makes things a little bit easier. And then yeah, the stronger you people I think are the best we know in the nutrition coaching realm, and then if you really want to get in the weeds and you want to get into blood, work, land and hormones and gut tests, then like you’re either going to go see House or our friends over at Nourish Balance Thrive are also fantastic in that realm.

Anything else that we feel pretty good on that once we go to the next one? The next one’s pretty interesting, actually. I’ve had not long ago focus on that. So, the next one is how biomechanics can impact physiology. That should be an entire podcast in and of itself.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: They deferred it to Evan Peikon.

James Cerbie: I say go listen to the podcast with Evan a handful of weeks back was really good. But how biomechanics and impact physiology. The first place I go, because this is where most of my training is, is an oxygen consumption like your ability to get into different positions to actually be able to move gas flow, to use the right muscle at the right time to say, well, I actually have a diaphragm that’s leveraged and I’m not going to have to just accessory muscle myself to death to try to get Erin. All those things come into play, like if a muscle is better leveraged, maybe it’s better positioned and now it’s on having to work overtime so it’ll consume less oxygen by consuming less oxygen, it doesn’t need as much blood flow.

So, I can send more blood flow someplace else. And it’s like biomechanics can have an absolutely enormous impact on that side of the physiology realm in terms of blood flow is the game. I got to be able to get blood flow to muscle so I can get oxygen in there so I can carry carbon dioxide away, and biomechanics can have a huge role in terms of how you’re delivering blood flow, how much oxygen a muscle is demanding, and then can also impact things like the respiratory steel.

Like if you’re in a shitty position, you’re having to recruit more accessory muscles to inhale and exhale. You will have to divert more blood flow to respiratory muscles so less blood flow can go to active skeletal muscle. You’ll see a decrease in performance. So, like the biomechanics realm and the physiology realm are very tightly married. They’re by no means separate. That’s a very symbiotic relationship.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, that’s a fucking great summary. The thing that it can get interesting to, I think and I’m just as you’re talking about thinking, just like if you’re if you’re deconditioned in those positions, I’m sure that there will not be as positive of an effect from the start because you’re going to require more blood flow. You’re going to be just moving through more energy at the local level when you’re just deconditioned. So, I think that’s where it kind of started.

This is actually a good podcast to start with, a good topic with the core stuff, because I think it kind of starts there. So, you need to build some conditioning with those able to hold those positions, because if you just try to do that for the first time in like a medley or something like that or some type of metcon, I don’t think you’re going to see that performance benefit, something you have to get over time. But I don’t know. Does that make sense?

James Cerbie: Yeah. I love how you brought that full circle for us. That was wonderful.

Keiran Halton: I’ll give you just one little piece, because, James, I remember the first time you program something like this, and I still use it quite a bit. But Ryan to kind of tag along your point, there’s you know, if you find somebody who’s there in a position that’s inefficient, you can almost see that disproportionate effort and fatigue just climb when they’re doing an activity. So, I know for a lot of the clients that we work with, you know, and they don’t have that integrity through the core, they tend to be chest breathers.

So, when we do any kind of front-loaded carry godless squad to rack stuff within a metcon, they just crash because they don’t have anywhere to get air. And it really exposes that.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Mm hmm.

James Cerbie: For sure. Yeah. I love throwing that at people. If you can’t get ribs down the pelvis under, if you can’t drive air posteriorly, you’re about to be in a world, a world of hurt and you’re just going to, you’re going to pass out, you’re going to die really quickly.

Ryan Patrick: Yeah. That’s when they start getting like way out here.

James Cerbie: Add some guy post that the other day because in the train heroic in the forum like when they do challenges that the video themselves and post them, like we ran it with Silverback and yeah, I gave some wanted to get him off front rack and like, I’m watching this dude, like the cowbells ended up like on top of his shoulders. Eventually, it’s like, bro, quit fucking cheating to backtrack.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: What are you doing here?

James Cerbie: Yeah. Oh, man. I think I’m going to star that one. Yeah, that’s a good topic because that would be a fun one just to do like a whole podcast on.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I would love to talk about that, and I’ll just add another.

James Cerbie: Yeah, because we could yeah. Maybe what we’ll do is I’ll see if I can dig up a bunch of papers, send them out, you can read them and then just have a chat about them because that’s to.

Yeah. I mean yeah. Because that can get into realm of you can start looking at the ATP cost per contraction, auction cost per ATP, things like that. So that’s where I can get really pretty cool.

Keiran Halton: To show you out on that site, if any of the coaches are listening, any time you open up the oxygen course, I know, like we kind of get into that and it kind of ties together nicely at the end. But you’d like to go down that rabbit hole.

And it’s a pretty interesting one when you start looking at some of the research. So that was a great course to talk about some of that stuff.

James Cerbie: Oh, yeah, I’ll throw a shameless plug in there. The oxygen course, is on the website. If you are interested in that realm, if you like oxygen, necessary physiology, cardiovascular physiology, metabolism, energetic, pretty cool course. That’s the one created. I’m biased because I made it. So, take that for whatever it’s worth.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I second it.

James Cerbie: Last one here is going to be percentages for sprinting. So, I’m blanking on the author.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Zero percent of the time. Just wasting energy to get it done. Done.

James Cerbie: Answer. Concluded.

Keiran Halton: You know Ryan and I used to be afraid to walk across campus because it was too much cardio. Back when I was bodybuilding.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I just have a step count. If it hits eight thousand, I just sit down and like someone’s taking it that I hit it.

Ryan Patrick: I just imagine one of the little like Wal-Mart cards that you just scooter around, and all day do what you got to do.

James Cerbie: And I imagine and often you guys have plenty of those.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I was going to reference that, but I thought no one would know what I’m talking about, but yeah, for sure. Yeah. If I’m on a walk and I hit my eight thousand, I get a scooter.

James Cerbie: I just, I just sit down immediately and then I text somebody like this is an emergency situation trying to bring me a battery powered where

Ryan L’Ecuyer: You want to uber point two miles away.

James Cerbie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you’re going to have to lift me into the car because I can’t take any more steps.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: I mean, I’m living this life again. We’re fully in. This is my favorite podcast. This is the first anti-step count conversations I’ve ever had. I have talked to people all the time actually. And you move too much like you do the amount of food you need to eat just because obviously moots are actually an issue.

Keiran Halton: Yeah, you’re so catabolic.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Catabolic. You walking is catabolic. Ryan you will appreciate this. I was at the gym the other day with Wexner and he was doing his workout. I was doing my workout. And so, the way that the gym is laid out Excel, it’s really big. And so, he using the cable machines on one side of the gym and then having to walk all the way back to the dumbbell rack over here. That’s about a 50-yard walk.

James Cerbie: So. I remember, I’m sitting there, like, watching you go back and forth, my bro, calm down. All this cardio if you’re going to lose all the gains.

Ryan L’Ecuyer: Yeah, that’s true.

James Cerbie: OK, so but percentages for sprinting, I will link. To a paper in the show notes, there’s a really good review paper, I’m just blanking on the authors, but really good review paper showing percentages, total volume, et cetera, for different types of running protocols, acceleration tempos, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There’s like one chart in this paper that is pure gold. I will find that. I’ll put it in the show notes because it’s just.

Yeah, it just tells you exactly. But here it is. Unless Keiran or Ryan, you guys have anything off the top of your head that you want to add or hit home on there?

Keiran Halton: I think I know the paper that you’re talking about. I just I’ll see if I can pull it out really quick, but yeah, probably better just to link it.

James Cerbie: Yeah, because it’s a really nice table and it’s a really nice table. I mean, I think the only thing that I would say in percentages for sprinting, if you haven’t read Charlie Francis, then that’s required reading that you need to appreciate this Hilo split concept, you’re wasting if you want to get faster, if you do anything between probably 70 to 90 percent effort, you’re wasting your time. You’re not getting faster and you’re not recovering. So don’t do it.

You either need to be above 90 percent or you’re doing tempo work below 70 percent. If you just do that right off the bat, that’s going to help the vast majority of you out there. So don’t waste your time in the middle. But for the specific recommendations, I will link to that paper. I’ve got to go pull it up and my end note. So, I’ll find it as soon as we wrap up here.

Keiran Halton: Yeah, I’ll say this, it doesn’t take it you don’t have as many high output efforts as most people expect, and I know especially just talking about like the Field demon, it’s is you transition into speed and power where you’re the terminal rep on any set has a much different feel than when you’re training for strength and hypertrophy, because the velocity loss is no, it doesn’t matter.

And in powerlifting at all, I mean, ideally, you want to get that as low as you can. But to really work on the contraction velocity, you have to end those sets with what which feels like you’re still fresh, even though there might be some kind of decrement. And if you’ve never had the opportunity to use velocity-based training, it’s hard to really appreciate. But when you see those numbers pop up, you start to develop just a little bit of a sense for what that actually looks like.

James Cerbie: Yeah, I would agree. In that realm, having like the last few months of my training has been solely around returned to sprinting because it’s something that I miss being able to really do. And yeah, I guess you’ll walk away feeling like you’re leaving a lot on the table, but that’s where you need to be because it’s such a different feel. But if you love the train and you love getting a pump, which anybody listening to this I’m imagining, that’s you.

They can feel really weird walking away from something that’s more speed based because you’re like, well, shit, I just I feel really fresh, like my muscle doesn’t feel pumped out. I don’t feel totally trashed from hitting really heavy doubles, triples, etc. It’s just you almost feel like you didn’t do work. But that’s not the case. You did. You got be patient. That’s where the patience bit on the speed side I think is more important than any place else.

Ryan Patrick: Feel like the first time they feel like that, the neural fatigue, if you want to call it like it, just like you just took like the SAT’s is like back-to-back where you’re just like kind of zonked versus like the muscle fatigue of like, oh, man, that was a good shoulder like pump or whatever. Like, I feel like until you experience that, you’re like, oh, I actually something happened. I just it’s not what I’m used to from the physical side.

James Cerbie: Yeah. One hundred centigrade people. Right. That wraps it. The first the first rebel crew team podcast will do one of these a month and we’ll usually have some core topic that will focus on and then we’ll have a Q&A on the back end. So just keep an eye out on the newsletter and on social will post up kind of an ask me anything. A few days before we go live on these so we can have a couple of questions. But yeah, guys, thanks for doing this on a Sunday.

Getting a kick started. Yeah. Go sign up for the training team this week, 20 percent lifetime discount one team, seven program pathways for coaches and person training camps and health challenges. And throwdowns Weekly Zoom calls. It’s going to be amazing.

Keiran Halton: Yeah, let’s get it. Let’s do it, fellas.

James Cerbie: Yeah, all right, let’s wrap this up. An amazing week, everybody. I’m going to hang up now. All right. Bye.

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Click to read more about percentage for sprinting: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31754845/

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Introducing the Rebel Performance Coaches and the Program Pathways They Offer

Introducing Ryan L’Ecuyer

Introducing Ryan Patrick

Introducing Keiran Halton

More Information on the New Training Team

Understanding the Core’s Purpose of Controlling the Position of the Rib Cage and Pelvis

Keeping Your Diaphragm and Pelvic Floor Stacked for Higher Training Volume

Keeping Your Diaphragm and Pelvic Floor Stacked for Higher Training Volume

Understanding the Appropriate Timing and Stiffness for Your Muscles

Listener Questions and How Biomechanics Impacts Physiology

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