Can You Go?: Assessments and Program Design for the Active Athlete and Everybody Else

by Dan John

strength training, focus on Janda’s phasic muscles: the glutes, deltoids, triceps and ab wall.

Correctiv...

done between strength training sets.

mixing strength with mobility and correctives—can keep your client’s HR in a training zone of cardiovascular conditioning.

Sevens are wonderful. Anything we can get them to do is going to

This can be as simple as getting them to commit to drinking two cups of water a day.

Seek mastery.

Fewer pillows, a smaller waistline and more time in the plank are always good and noteworthy. If your client’s standing long jump and farmer walk have improved, you know your program is working. Keep doing it.

Stretch what is tightening—pecs, biceps, hip flexors, hamstrings. Strengthen what is weakening—glutes, abs, delts, triceps. Eat like an adult. Seek mastery.

move without pain, to move well and to move often.

Intelligent, repeatable workouts over years trump injuries and surgeries.

Recovery is when adaption occurs, so plan it int...

Nutrition and caloric restriction Inefficient exercise Strength training Hypertrophy and mobility training—the Fountain of Youth Mental set

support the technical work with a reasonable program focused on the fundamental human movements.

first tool, nutrition and caloric restriction,

middle three tools—inefficient exercise, strength, hypertrophy and mobility training—involve movement of all kinds.

matters. One person’s inefficient exercise might be another’s mobility movement.

The First Tool: Nutrition and Caloric Restriction

“Intervals are the biggest bang for your buck.”

What do all the ways of eating agree upon for daily consumption and daily avoidance?

Cut back on sugar. Cut out cardboard carbs. Get rid of Frankenstein fats. Eat colorful vegetables. Let’s all find what to agree on before we seek perfection.

I’ve looked, and I can’t find one good argument for eating more sugar or maintaining the amount of sugar we’re currently eating.

Cardboard carbs are any carbohydrate found in a bag or box.

Every diet agrees on the value of colorful vegetables. Those green, yellow, orange and red veggies will do wonders for you. Eat them.

Eat vegetables. Eat lean protein.

“Obese people and those desiring to lose weight should perform hard work before food. Meals should be taken after exertion while still panting from fatigue. They should, moreover, only eat once per day and take no baths and walk naked as long as possible.”

“Meat for strength. Veggies for health.”

veggies. The

Second Tool: Inefficient Exercise

Tim Ferris found seventy-five swings, three days a

The Third Tool: Strength Training

The body is one piece. There are three kinds of strength training: putting weight overhead, picking it up off the ground, and carrying it for time or distance. All training is complementary.

if you have diarrhea, today is not a good day to squat heavy. If you’re doing a chest exercise like the bench press and I stick your calf with a fork, you’re going to be in trouble with a bar across your neck.

Frankenstein’s monster. Arm day. Leg day. Chest day.

one digestive tract, one cardiovascular system, and one magnificent nervous system.

dynamic mobility warmup,

“eyewash.” What’s eyewash? It’s all that pomp and circumstance and grandstanding

“Simplify, simplify,” says Thoreau. “You didn’t need the second ‘simplify,’” replies Emerson.

My suggestion: every

day.

means “repetition.”

Hypertrophy and Mobility Training

That’s the value of machines. For post-youth hypertrophy, it’s hard to argue with how well machines work.

A few sets of eight to ten reps with a few

strength moves and a touch of stretching to top things off may be life changing for the elderly.

Strength training for lean body mass and joint mobility work trumps everything else.

tonic, which tend to shorten when tired (or old!), and phasic, which tend to weaken under stress (or age, I dare say). Tonic Muscles (Shorten) Phasic Muscles (Weaken) Upper Trapezius Rhomboids Pectoralis Major Mid-back Biceps Triceps Pectoralis Minor Gluteus Maximus Psoas Deep Abs Piriformis External Obliques Hamstrings Deltoids Calf Muscles

Sadly, most trainers work this backward. They tend to emphasize the mirror muscles like the pecs and biceps—with, say, bench presses and curls—and ignore the muscles that really are the muscles of youth.

Push: Deltoids and Triceps Pull: Rhomboids Hinge: Butt Squat: Butt Loaded Carries: Butt

“butt” appears. Training the glutes intelligently may be the fountain of youth!