Books - The other side of learning!

I just thought I would list all the books I have at the minute, just to show I don't just do my PT course and no further learning after it. I'll put it into categories as to what I have read already etc.

Have Read:
Starting Strength - Mark Rippetoe (Excellent beginning book)
Practical Programming - Mark Rippetoe (Quite good, but very repetitive)
Huge in a Hurry - Chad Waterbury (A few good bits of info...)
Maximum Strength - Eric Cressey (Very good book, Cressey knows his shit)
Built for Show - Nate Green (Just a good read, nothing complicated)
The Art of the Deload - Eric Cressey (What it says on the tin)
Truth About Unstable Surface Training - Eric Cressey (same as above)
The Black Book - Christian Thibadeau (Very good book, esp for oly lifters)

Currently Reading
Science and Practise of Strength Training - Kramer & Zatsiorsky (Complicated)
Basic Kinesiology - cant mind who wrote it (its in the car, very good though)
Optimum Nutrition - Patrick Halford (Boring as shit, stopped reading it months ago)

For the Future
Supertraining - Mel Siff
Muscles-Testing and Function with Posture and Pain - Kendall et al
Arnold - Arnie
Sport Physiology - McArdle, Katch, Katch

I also have a few e-books on my computer but can't remember what they are, lol. I think these should keep me going for a while because some of them are quite complicated and I can only read a few pages at a time before my head is melted.

On other news I found out I passed my last test and am pretty much a PT now, WOOP WOOP!.....back to the work site tommorow though, lol.

Whats Up?

Well its been just over 2 months since I last posted, and like the last post said I was "busy busy". But now I have a bit more time on my hands I thought I would get back to it.
First off, I still have no idea whats wrong with my back. I have been to 2 physiotherapists and an osteopath, none could do anything but tell me it's in my thoracic spine. So now my doctor is sending me to someone else (just do the damn MRI and get it over with), an anthropologist I think he said it was. Hopefully I can get this sorted quick so I can get back to some serious strength training.
Secondly, I am now finished my Personal Training course, although I won't call myself a qualified PT yet. I won't do this as I am still awaiting the result of my last test (nutrition). However even after that, I still wouldn't be happy that I have the skills to be a good PT. The course only gave me basics and I believe you should never train someone with basics only. It will take a few more books and another few courses until I feel I am up to the job.
Lastly, I have a holiday coming up soon. I am flying out at 10pm on the 10th of July to Aiya Napa. This is supposed to be one of the warmest places you can go and I am not looking forward to it, mainly beacause I am as white as dry dog shit and will burn like crazy. However I have been thinking about doing a few sunbed sessions (gay I know, but I really am too white) before I go so the initial burning is'nt so bad. I'm still thinking about this though!

Busy Busy!

With 2 tests this week I have been under a bit of stress, and thats on top of the stress I already have, lol. Now I have them finished I feel a bit better, but I know that I still have alot of tests left to do this year. This week I had my Anatomy and Physiology test for my personal training and my Inspection and Testing test for my apprenticeship. The apprenticeship test went quite well. On the day I got a Distinction for my efforts, although that was kind of overshadowed by the Pass grade I got for the setup of it (done the day after st.patricks so can't you blame me, lol). The Anatomy and Physiology test however was another story, it was damn hard! I don't get the results for it for another 2 weeks, but i'm not going to worry about it too much, if I pass I pass, if not shit happens.
Training isn't going too bad at the minute, my squat is back up to 125kg and my chins are at 35kg. I was also at the physio on Friday and he basically told me to train away and just be carefull about how much weight I deadlift at first. So I went straight to the gym and put 60kg on the bar and started deadlifting. DAMN did it feel good! Even though the weight was so low I wasn't really getting a workout, just doing the movement felt good for me.
With that said, my training is about to change. I am going on holiday over the 12th of July and want to switch to a more hypertrophy style training for the 12 weeks leading up to it. I am not sure exactly what i'm going to do, I have been looking for programs to use that are already out there, but if I can't find anything i'm pretty sure that anything I write for myself will work well. After all I know best how my body reacts to certain exercises.
With my training going so well I wish I could say that training my friend is going just as well. Unfortunatley I have been so busy the past few weeks that I have not been able to train with him at all. I have however been writing his programs up for him to do and I hope he is doing them as they are prescribed. I will be training with him this week however as tech is off for easter, freeing up my Wednesday nights and Saturday evenings. Hopefully all goes well.

As far as im aware (and what common sense tells me to believe when I watch this) this is mostly fake. However some of it is still DAMN AWESOME!!

Training Someone Else!

Its got to the stage in my PT course that I have to actually train someone myself for either an 8 week period or a 12 week period. I picked the former. Turns out we can't just get them on a solid workout and see how they progress, we have to totally change their routine every 2 weeks. Now i'm not saying i'd stick someone on a routine for 3/4 months without changing s single thing, but the people at tech are taking it too far. They say you have to use at least four different training techniques. Some of these things are easy enough to wrok into an everyday program i.e. drop sets and supersets. But there is also things like german volume training and edt, which I don't think should be used for only 2 weeks and then totally changed. However, if this is the kind of thing they want me to do then I will by all means do it, I just won't be too happy about it.
There is also the fact that the person I am training (a good friend) has certain goals and that trying to fit his goals around certain systems is not the way it should be done. I should be using systems that will help him reach his goals, not the other way around. AND because my friend is a beginner I would be keen on using simple progression methods with him for a while, at least until he has built a good level of strength.
Anyways, rant over.
The good thing about training this friend is that he trains in Centaur in town. This means I get to have a look see at what the beasts are doing. It's always good to see how different people train I think, you can always take something away that you may be able to use yourself. I will be posting the routines I make for my friend, as well as my new training routine...when I get to it.

Back at it

Well after 3 weeks off the gym I finally decided it was time to get back to the gym. Of course i'm not doing my old routine, and I am still taking it very easy on my back, but I was going to go crazy if I couldn't get back into the gym. The first week felt fine, no twinges and alot of DOMS. The fact that I couldn't really feel anything in my back while at the gym makes me feel that the injury was definatley work orientated. Well this and the fact that while I am in work I will sometimes start to feel my back go again...so it definatley is work!
I went to see a physio (cheers Ben) after I had to leave work for the second time, and after about 10-15mins of touching everwhere on my back he told me that it wasn't a pulled muscle after all. In fact, it turned out a disk in my thoracic spine had dislodged itself, something the doctors at hospital failed to notice (idiots). Although this might seem serious, it isn't really. The physio told me the gym wasn't to blame and that I could go back to training...which I didn't hesitate to do. This revelation also made me feel alot better about the pain I was feeling when the first accident happened. I mean, when footballers pull a muscle they just limp off the pitch, but when I do I sit on the freezing ground for 2 hours not able to stand back up again. Then again your back is alot more important than your leg, and there isn't much movement that doesn't involve your back. Anyway, i'm starting to feel better and hopefully it won't be too long before i'm up to lifting heavy things again.


I started my Personal Training course 2 weeks ago, and already I know I am going to learn alot from it. So far we have only been talking about the introduction with our clients and how to get as much info (eating habits, injuries, goals etc) out of them as we can. We even did some postural analysis this week to find problem areas (tight muscles, loose mucles ets) that need to be fixed. We are also going to learn about nutrition, which is something I am definatley interested in and NEED to know more about. There is going to be alot to learn, but if the girls in the class who don't know what a clean and press is can do it (no I am not joking), then so can I. lol

Tragedy

Something I thought that would never happen to me is injury. Why? Because I like to think my form is always spot on, and even though someone with good form can get injured anyway, I never thought I was going to be that someone (I'm Superman in my own eyes). And IF I am ever to be injured it should be whilst attempting an amazing feat of strength, like lifting a car over my head...or maybe a really heavy PB.
But the world (not jeebus) had something else in store for me. It watches me lift my weights in the gym every week and thinks nothing of it, but when I try to drill a 10mm hole in the ceiling (work) it decides my back it is a little to strained and pulls it on me. Oh the shame, it made me feel like a big girls blouse.
On the other hand, if you had been there to see me try to stand up after it happened you would probably laugh. I sat on the floor for 2 hours not being able to stand up because it was too painfull, and yes this is my first pull of any kind so I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Its funny how the gym was the thing I was thinking most about when I knew I was going to have to take time off work (and lose money). Just shows where my priorities are, lol.
Anyways, that was a week ago today and I was back in work again for the first time. I was also supposed to be going to the gym, but being in work and having to twist and turn and lift things etc. made me realise my back still is not back to scratch and will need a good while to get there. So I have decided that a course of action is required and quickly. Here are a few of the things that will affect my workouts for a while now:

1. NO Deadlifting (it hurts to even say this)*
2. NO squating (ditto)
3. No heavy loading of the spine at all
4. Core work will be done
5. Light weights

*Hurts not being able to do them, not hurts my back

So training for a few weeks may be a bit boring but shit happens, i'd rather have a few boring weeks than to hurt me back again trying to be hercules. On that note I shall leave, started reading "Built for Show" today and have to say that im enjoying it.