1) Thanks for taking the time to do this interview Steven. Can you please give a little bit of background on yourself and why you got into training?

I came into training quite by accident. I was a three-sport athlete in high school (football, basketball, and baseball) and picked up lacrosse in college. At A&M I also picked up a penchant for beer and pizza rolls. By the time I was getting ready to graduate I had put on about twenty-five pounds - some muscle but mostly fat. I had begun working out but really had no idea about what I was doing. I asked and observed others but was left even more confused. As such, I began reading fitness magazines and became intrigued with the science of training and nutrition. About this time, two fortuitous things happened: I saw a television program on the Olympic Training Center and I enrolled in a course in first aid to finish out some of my requirements for graduation. The first challenged my prevailing belief that great athletes were born and not made. The second changed the course of my future.

I don’t recall how but I had struck up a good relationship with the instructor of the first aid course (which just so happened to fall under the Kinesiology department). She learned of my new-found interest and encouraged me to apply to graduate school. With her letter of recommendation and my GRE score I got in. It certainly wasn’t for my grades. After grad school I took a job at a large, commercial gym, got certified, and soon after got my CSCS. The rest is history I guess.

If not for that one first aid course I never would have gone to graduate school and thus would never have embarked on a career that I am so passionate about. I also would not have met my wife and would not have the same two wonderful children. I owe that instructor my life and even made a trip back to College Station a few years ago to tell her as much.

2) At a time when so many want to specialize in working with athletes in just one sport, you seem to be more of a generalist; working with athletes in everything from motocross to football to lacrosse.  What is it about being a generalist that really sets you apart and allows you to hone in on the athletes needs?

I guess you could consider me a generalist. I love all sports and, fortunately for me, all athletes need a foundation of strength, power, speed, flexibility, mobility, endurance, etc. Sport-specific training is merely a manipulation of the modes and methods used to develop these qualities and knowing which ones need emphasis and when. Having done this for so many years and being a student of sport, I have a pretty good understanding about how to develop sport-specific fitness whether I have played the sport or not.

Case in point, I trained Supercross rider Heath Voss to a World Championship in 2004 even though I had never been on a motorcycle. Interesting side note: his main competition for the title that year was Damon Huffman who was trained by none other than Alwyn Cosgrove. Anyway, knowledge, observation and, most importantly, dialogue with the athlete are the essential elements for putting together a successful training plan. Having played the sport is merely a bonus.

My success as a “generalist” lies in my 15 years of experience and broad knowledge base. When you work with athletes from wildly varying disciplines, you have to spend considerable time studying areas that you might not be concerned with when working with just one sport. Doing so gives you the ability to see things from a different perspective and reduces the likelihood of being biased by tradition. Being an “outsider” does come with it’s own challenges but once the athlete buys in the results ultimately speak for themselves.

3) You have a great interest program organization and understanding how to manipulate training variables to improve strength and power. Can you tell us a little bit about your overall approach to training and philosophy?

Yeah, I guess you could say that I am obsessed with the planning and organization of training. From the single workout to the annual plan, I want to know how to best fit everything together to optimize the training process (wow, that sounds very guru of me). I’ve read just about all there is on the two-factor (fitness-fatigue) theory of adaptation and the various forms of periodization. Zatsiorsky, Verkhoshansky, Issurin, Siff, Bompa, Rippetoe & Kilgore, Loren Chiu, Dan Baker out of Australia are all guys that have a had a huge impact on my training philosophy. I’m particularly interested in post-activation potentiation in the form of complex training and the short and long-term delayed and/or residual training effects.

The cool thing is that, using my Micro Muscle Lab, Just Jump mat, and Brower timing system, I can test a lot of these theories. Not to sound too much like Dietrich Buchenholz but I can also use these tools to “autoregulate” my training. For example, I can use the vertical jump as a measure of preparedness for the day’s training or I can use a predetermined drop in power to terminate an exercise or a workout. These devices also allow me to individualize the training as well as quantify performance over time. I’m a total geek in this regard.

4) You’ve been in the industry for a long time. Looking back, if there were one thing you know now that you wished you knew then, what would it be?  What should young coaches in the field focus on if they want to be successful.

As an athlete, I wish I had known that you can get faster and jump higher with proper training. In high school, we lifted weights but it was all about getting bigger and stronger not necessarily about getting more explosive. At that time (mid to late 80’s), it was believed, by our coaches anyway, that you were either fast or you weren’t. You could jump or you couldn’t. There was no emphasis on power. Hell, there was hardly any emphasis on strength for that matter. The weight program was haphazard at best and voluntary. There certainly wasn’t any thought into injury prevention. What a waste.

Come to think of it, not much has really changed. I get kids in all the time that are weak and slow or strong and slow. Very few are powerful or fast. They either have no strength or can’t express what strength they do have quickly. I routinely put six inches or more on a kids vertical jump and shave several tenths off his or her forty-yard dash in a couple of months simply by having them train for speed and power. It’s not rocket science. Or, maybe it is.

As a trainer, I wish I had been taught the importance of quality of movement (over quantity) early on. It wasn’t until a few years into my training that I came across the work of Paul Chek. While he has gone a bit mad these days, the material that he was putting out in the late ’90s radically changed my approach to training and changed my mind about what a trainer could and could not do. He was a pioneer in the melding of exercise and therapy and much of what is being taught these days about “functional” training is the direct result of Paul’s work. There are a lot of guys doing that sort of thing now - Gray Cook, Stuart McGill, to name a few - but back then he was on the cutting edge. I actually spent a week with him in Miami getting his golf certification and was tested by the man himself. He is quite a character. Speaking of characters, I also had the good fortune of attending one of Mel Siff’s Supertraining camps before he passed away. The influence that these two men had on my career cannot be overstated.

I have spent the last fifteen years working “in” my business and it’s only recently that I have begun to work “on” my business. I have always sought the respect of my peers more than financial gain. Unfortunately, getting better means having to routinely find new peers and so I always feel like I still have so much left to learn - and I do - but this mindset can be paralyzing professionally. There must come a time when you just have to feel confident in your knowledge, move forward, and market yourself a bit. That’s not to say that you stop learning but honestly, after a while, the details can become a bit trivial. Practically speaking, how can you share your expertise with someone if they don’t know who you are? Fortunately, my clients appreciate my dedication and my ability to help them achieve their goals and have always been more than happy to refer others. My business has been and will continue to be built on these relationships. I think that’s the secret to any business success.

5) Steven, thanks for taking the time out of your day to answer these questions for us.  Could you please tell the readers where they can find out more about your articles, services and where they can get in contact with you?

My pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity, Patrick.

Although I don’t get to update them as often as I would like, I have two blogs: stevenbubel.com and mxconditioning.com where people can learn more about me and my training philosophy. I’m on Twitter if anyone cares to follow my ranting and I can also be reached via email at steve@stevenbubel.com.

Kidding.

On the surface, these appear to be very simple questions requiring very simple, straightforward answers. However, if I’ve learned one thing in all my years of training it’s that there is no one single answer when it comes to exercise and nutrition save for “it depends”.

Should I stretch before or after getting on a cardiovascular machine? Well, it depends. Most would recommend that you stretch AFTER when your tissue is warm and less resistant to stretch. However, if you have muscular imbalances that affect your gait (e.g. tight hamstrings, hip flexors, weak glutes, etc.) making you prone to injury then it is in your best interest to stretch before AND after. Then there’s always the question of dynamic vs. static stretching.

Should I lift weights before or after getting on a cardiovascular machine? It depends. What are your goals? If you are interested in increasing strength then it is probably better to lift before doing cardio. Something as easy as a long slow jog can affect your strength while higher-intensity efforts can totally sap you.

If your goal is to increase your cardiovascular fitness (i.e. increase VO2max), however, then you’d be better off doing cardio first.

If you’re not concerned about maximizing either then it probably doesn’t matter too much.

How long should I strive to stay on a machine? Again, it depends. If you can handle the intensity of interval training then you may only have to be on a given machine for 20-30 minutes. If not, then you will have to accommodate the lower intensity with longer efforts (45 minutes to one hour, for example).

Is it OK to break up my cardio workout between 3 machines? Absolutely.

How important is intensity? “Intensity” is relative but I’m a firm believer in effortful training. Raising your maximal abilities (e.g. VO2max, maximum strength) makes all of your sub-maximal work much easier.

Interval training, for example, is a time-efficient way to elevate your fitness and lose weight. Not only is the rate of calorie expenditure dramatically increased while exercising, the biological adaptations that take place impact long-term aerobic/anaerobic conditioning and body composition. Time and time again research has shown that high-intensity efforts are more effective for fat loss and performance.

Unless I am working with an endurance athlete I rarely, if ever, prescribe steady-state training. It’s just not an efficient use of one’s training time.

How accurate is the calorie counter? I’ve actually looked into this question before. Some research has shown elliptical readouts overestimate energy expenditure by as much as 33%! In other words, if the machine tells you that you burned 500 calories you probably really burned somewhere around 335. Take those estimates with a grain of salt.

Should I wear a heart rate monitor? Knock yourself out. I personally don’t recommend heart rate monitors to my clients and I certainly don’t use heart rate to structure or guide my workouts. Individual heart rate is simply too variable and susceptible to influence – caffeine, stress, heat, etc. RPE (rating of perceived exertion) is just as valid and reliable a measure of total training stress and it’s free.

Furthermore, the linear relationship between HR and VO2 (oxygen consumption) is lost at intensities above the lactate threshold. As the vast majority of my cardiovascular programs are interval based, heart rate isn’t going to provide me with any useful information. Not only that, but when you consider the fact that it takes about two minutes for heart rate to stabilize, I may already be finished with an interval before my heart rate has reached any pre-determined value.

Ah, but here again, it depends. With sub-maximal, steady-state efforts, heart rate can be used as an estimate of “intensity” and energy expenditure so if you train in this range heart rate monitors might be of value. I know a lot of endurance coaches rely heavily on them to prescribe and evaluate training sessions. Too much so in my opinion but that’s a topic that deserves it’s own post.

Should I hold hand weights and perform upper body exercises when I walk on a treadmill? It’s a trade-off. Using hand weights will increase the amount of energy expended but the high number of repetitive efforts may lead to overuse injury. Not only that but you’ll look ridiculous. I’d advise against it.

What about a weighted vest? I love weighted vests. I use them in the warm ups of my athletes and on the long walks of my older clients. The hyper-gravity effect can prime the nervous system for explosive training (e.g. vertical jumping and sprinting) and has been shown increase bone density over time.

What machine gives you the most bang for your buck? If I had to pick one I would say the rowing machine. It utilizes about 25% more muscle mass then lower-body dominant machines like bikes and treadmills. There is a reason that most of them sit idle in the gym, though. When done with effort, workouts on the rowing machine can be quite uncomfortable.

When it comes right down to it, the effectiveness of any routine is more about application and less about mode. For example, intervals done on an elliptical will be more effective than walking on a treadmill.

In the end, it all depends.

One of the few individuals whose opinion and knowledge I still respect after 15 years in this business is Lyle McDonald. Lyle tells it like it is and his unwillingness to sell-out only lends more weight to his training and nutrition advice.

Do yourself a favor and head over to his website - bodyrecomposition.com. Browse his article section. It is a wealth of free and practical information for trainers/trainees of all levels.

He even has a free forum where you can find like-minded individuals and ask questions. Do your research before asking though. There is such a thing as a stupid question and patience is not one of Lyle’s strongest virtues.

Here are a few interesting articles to get you started:

Steady State and Interval Training: Part 1
Steady State and Interval Training: Part 2
Stead State vs. Intervals: A Conclusion

Meal Frequency and Energy Balance

I use the dolly primarily for three moves:

1. the jackknife
2. arcs
3. pushbacks

The jackknife is the easiest of the three. The idea is to flex the hips as much as possible while limiting lumbar flexion. I do a so-so job in this video. Although not a huge challenge for me anymore, I still like to use this exercise to warm up my hip flexors prior to doing any lower body work.

Arcs challenge the oblique system as well as the quadratus lumborum. Do your best to minimize rotation of your pelvis when performing this exercise. Don’t be surprised if you have more difficulty swinging one way than the other. It’s very common. If you have a good eye, you can actually use these exercises as diagnostic tools for establishing hip/pelvis asymmetry.

The final exercise, the pushback, is by far the most difficult. Don’t let the limited range of motion fool you. This exercise is tough. Watch your back. If you experience pain when performing this exercise - stop!

How early is “early”? According to the position stand of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), “if a child is ready for participation in sport activities, then he or she is ready for some type of resistance training”. This can include children as young as 7 0r 8 years of age. Some parents might think that a bit too early. Most, unfortunately, give the idea no thought at all.

For the vast majority of young athletes, their first exposure to resistance training comes during their freshman year in high school. Research shows that that may be a little too late - at least when it comes to injury prevention.

In looking at the graph above we can see that the incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries spikes quite dramatically from 15-19 and more so in females. The reasons for this are quite varied and beyond the scope of this post but the take-home message is two-fold:

1. the liklihood of injury (especially ACL injury) is greatly reduced with a properly designed resistance training program
2. waiting too long to get started can be detrimental to your child’s health.