IOL Strength and Conditioning

by Mike Robertson

This past year, I’ve stuck to my traditional routine of constantly bombarding myself with new information.  It just so happens that I’ve gotten a chance to review Dan John’s new book Never Let Go, as well as his 4-disc DVD series. As a result, I came to a fairly major conclusion:  Dan John is smart. I’m definitely not the brightest bulb in the bunch, but I can say this with a fair amount of certainty.

While I’ve taken away a ton of nuggets from Dan over the past 8-10 years, here are four of my favorite tips from the man himself. I’ll do my best not to mangle his words!

#1—Goblet Squats are Sweet

I remember first hearing about goblet squats several years ago, when Dan gave his infamous squatting presentation at the LA Sports Performance and Nutrition Seminar in Los Angeles.

He rambled on and on about how important goblet squats were, how they could teach how to squat safely and effectively, blah, blah, blah. At the time doing in-home one-on-one training, there was plenty of time for me to teach people how to squat.  Who needs another tool?

When we opened our gym, Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training, I started training in small group settings again. These weren’t one-on-ones anymore; I had groups of two to four people at a time to supervise.  Along those same lines, there were often up to ten other people training on their own in the gym.

Those goblet squat things I totally ignored a while back? All of a sudden they became an integral part of my programming.

Not only do goblet squats teach how to squat properly, they do so with a minimal amount of coaching effort.  A few quick cues and the clients are off and running. So yeah, those goblet squat thingies work pretty well.

Well played, Danny, well played.

#2—Reflexive Core Training is the Real Deal

I’ve been turned on to offset loading for years, but it wasn’t until hearing about it from guys like Dan John and Stuart McGill that I considered making it a bigger part of my programming.

The basic principle here is this:  If you don’t have to coach or cue someone into the right position, if you can “trick” them into doing what you want, that’s a powerful exercise.  I like to call it reflexive training.

We know  goblet squats teach how to keep the chest up and out, open up the groin, and squat between the legs.

Waiter’s walks and offset farmers walks cue to stay tall and activate the core, all without having to think about it.  The action is reflexive in nature: Hold a weight on one side of the body and the body has this weird tendency to turn on the opposite side of the core to stay upright.
This single Dan John concept has revolutionized our training at IFAST.  Beyond waiters walks and farmers carries, we’ve extended offset loading and “reflexive” core training to bilateral lifts, unilateral training, and just about everything between.  If you take a second to review my Single-Leg Solution training package, you’ll see reflexive/offset training is a huge component of how we do things.

#3—Attack the Zipper on Your Kettlebell Swings

One of the biggest issues we see with new clients who perform kettlebell swings is the inability, or unwillingness, to “tame the arc.”  Instead of keeping the kettlebelll tight to the body, especially in the bottom of the lift, they’ll have a tendency to get loose.

Attacking the zipper may be one of the single best cues in our coaching arsenal.  After a quick description of how the lift should look, I simply tell my clients to “attack their zipper” —not only actively pulling the kettlebell down, but pulling it directly at the crotch.

The result? Their swings are tighter, more explosive, and balance is improved immeasurably.

#4—Punch and Crunch Your Way to Turkish Get-up Success

“Punch and crunch” is to the Turkish get-up just as “attack the zipper” is to the swing.

Time and again, the most challenging portion of the Turkish get-up is the start.  There are many different cues to get people to do this properly—lead with the chest, lengthen the straight leg, drive with the down heel… And while all of those are great, coaching is often defined by how few words you can use versus how many.

Punch and crunch effectively describes exactly what we want people to do.  The moment people hear this cue, the light bulbs turn on and get-ups immediately look better.

Summary

Dan John is the man.  He’s quickly become one of my strongest coaching influences in the strength and conditioning world. Don’t be an idiot like me – listen to what Dan says and apply it immediately.  The guy knows a thing or two about training.