The Big 4

Back from blog purgatory with the keys to awesome. Has it really been 3 months?

I get asked fitness and training related questions all the time. The moment I'm out at a restaurant or at a friend's office and someone realizes that I train people for a living the next question is always "How do I get abs?" "How many miles do you run a week?" and "What about a raw food diet?". I realized that usually the questions are superfluous or inconsequential to the person's goal. I also realized the advice I normally gave was universally disappointing. I decided to write a blog post on what I consider the four essentials for being awesome and accomplishing almost any goal that I could refer people to. Sure, the exact amounts will vary and there are other things that go into accomplishing goals but, the following four principles will lend themselves very well to any goal.

1. Get your protein intake squared away -

Think about it this way: any part of an animal you can eat (and some you can't) that contains dietary protein is also made primarily from protein in your own body. Things like skin, organs, muscles, etc. I don't know about you, but I want those tissues well-maintained and in optimal working order. Aside from basic health, protein plays a huge role in satiety (for those trying to lean out) and muscle gain (for you skinny people). To me, it's the number one nutritional priority and always pays dividends when prioritized. Aim for 1-1.5g/lb. of bodyweight per day.


2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

The bulk of you body is comprised of water. It's no shocker that it's super important for a whole load of bodily processes related to both performance and health. The better hydrated you are, the easier the tissues of your body move (you want your tissues sliding and gliding, not sticking to each other) and the better everything else works. Aim for 96oz a day. Count non-water beverages for half their total volume toward your water goal. For example, a 20oz coffee would count for 10oz. This is a completely arbitrary rule that I made up to make things more simple.

And for you hard-training athletes out there, invest in a mineral/electrolyte supplement like Drip Drop Sport. (not an affiliate link, I just dig the product)


3. Get as strong as you can without getting divorced or fired -

I kind of re purposed Robb Wolf's advice on sleep with this one. Strength is the underlying trait of all other physical capabilities (strength endurance, power, speed, etc.). If you want to be great at sports, you need to be strong. If you want to be able to walk up stairs when you are old, get strong now. If you want to lean out, getting strong will make you burn more calories around the clock(due to increased work in the gym and the neurological demand). Strength is your engine. You need a bigger engine.

To find out if you are strong you should refer to Dan John's Strength Standards and get crackin'!


4. Sleep -

Do I really need to tell you to sleep? Stop Facebook-stalking people and get to bed. Your endocrine system will thank you.

Just in case anyone doesn't know, I live in San Francisco, Ca now. So, anyone who needs to kick-ass better GET AT ME!

30 Day "New Years" Training and Consultation Sale

Hey Everyone,

I've been super busy with bobsled training and prepping for my relocation to San Francisco, CA from NYC. I've had some BIG recent successes and I want to spread the wealth and make sure that everyone gets a kick-ass jumpstart to their new year. For the next 30 days I'll be offering my consultation and personal training services at HALF OFF the normal rate. Huge savings and a huge step towards accomplishing your goals.

If you want to:

• Get back in shape
• Become a better athlete
• Gain muscle
• Get lean

Now is the time! Email me at Dom@DominicCrucitti.com to schedule your Consultation or training sessions now!

5 Winning Warm-Up Drills for Sprint Workouts

One of my favorite topics is how to make slow people fast, or relatively fast.. This article will expand on that and it was inspired by my most recent stay at the Olympic Training Center. I always end up getting a lot of ideas every time I'm at the OTC from talking to the athletes and coaches from the various sports. Apparently when you get a lot of athletes together you do the following three things: talk training, play video games, and eat tons of food.

I just returned from doing some bobsled training in Lake Placid, NY. While at the Olympic Training Center the topic of how to make slow people fast came up. I have a ton to say on this topic because I believe this is a more important aspect of training than making fast people faster. It may be more exciting to talk about taking a guy from a 10.0 to a 9.8 but the reality is so few of us actually work with/are world-class sprinters. High-end track and field techniques rarely apply to other athletes, even those whose sport requires a lot of speed (like bobsled).

I refined a lot of my warm up techniques in the last year or so. Parring down the movements to what I found the most useful and discarding those that I found redundant or unnecessary. Below I'll outline the 5 drills I use for sprint warm ups and some popular ones that I don't think have much of a place in an athletes training.

Sprinting requires a good warm up

5 Winning Warm up Drills

1. Leg Swings - Front and back and side to side. I like these for loosening up the hips. Make sure on the front and back swings that you are getting movement from the hip and not just overextending the lower back.

2. Single Leg Glute bridge - Knee bent, non-working leg up in the air, squeeze the butt, push through the heel and bridge up. Again, move through the hip and don't overextend the lower back.

3. Backward Running - Also a great hamstring rehab exercise. This move gets the hamstring ready to contract at a rapid pace (like sprinting) but with less demand for force production. I rehabbed my last hamstring injury a few years again by doing nothing but backward running for about 6 weeks.

4. Easy Jogging/strides - You warm up for sprinting with slower sprinting. Not confusing and it gets blood flowing to all the right muscles. Easy enough, right?

5. High Knees - Warms up and strengthens the hip flexors and reinforces the high knee action of sprinting. I think a lot of high knees should be done in the early phases of sprint training.

A Couple I Would Skip (crappy pun alert)

1. Skips - People really like the various skipping drills for some reason. Skipping drills were originally popularized by Polish sprinters who used them during Winter when they couldn't sprint outside.If you break it down a skip is just a high knee with a hop. I don't believe you get any enhanced benefit from them that you wouldn't get from strides or high knees alone. I've never seen anyone hop in between sprint strides, have you?

2. Plyometrics - Plyometrics look awesome, sound cool and the Russians did them, which makes them even cooler. I feel additional plyometrics work outside of sprinting is unnecessary. Sprinting is already the most dynamic, explosive movement you can do. Adding depth jumps and so forth is really rather redundant. I don't feel the risk reward is there.

Do you need to get faster? Why don't you email me and find out how Dom@DominicCrucitti.com


Also, check out this video of me in the back of a Bobsled. Pilot Jay Noller is on the D-rings and navigated me safely down the track. Thanks Jay!

Mass Gain Nutrition and Training Part 1

How to get yoked, swole, jacked, etc. I get a ton of questions regarding mass gain and this first installment of Mass Gain Nutrition and Training should get people moving in the right direction.

I've been on a big mass gaining quest over the last few months. Some of you may have noticed that I've been tweeting and instagramming most of my efforts. Today was my last day of the program and I made it all the way up to 227, my original goal was 220, but I upped it to 230 because it went so well. Mass gain is a goal that leaves a lot of people confused so I'd like to make it a bit less confusing. I've helped a lot of people gain a lot of weight and I've noticed mass gain comes down to two key things -

• Nutritional consistency
• Adding weight to the bar

That's pretty much it. Eat your calories everyday and get a little stronger here and there. If that's too simple I have one nutritional guideline and one programming idea for you. 

Nutrition Guideline for Mass Gain #1 - Forget about eating "clean"

This may not be popular, but it's true. So-called "clean" eating is a completely arbitrary term that doesn't mean a whole lot. The distinctions of what foods are clean and what foods are unclean are mostly based on emotions, rhetoric, "broscience" and a bunch of other stuff that people interested in kicking ass shouldn't be concerned about. If you try to eat 6000 calories a day of chicken breast, sweet potatoes, and broccoli or other "clean" foods you are going to be hating life and spend most of your time doing dishes. People tend to think that the more something sucks, the better it works, which is usually not the case. I don't know about you, but I started this whole lifting/training thing because I enjoyed it! So when you're mass gaining, eat the foods you like and won't get sick of, your body doesn't really care if you get your carbs from rice crispy treats or brown rice anyway. As discussed in my previous post about fructose and sugar, fructose consumption is really only a concern to the sedentary individual who eats way too many carbs in the first place. 

Training Guideline for Mass Gain #1 - 2 Big workouts a week

Here is a template I really like for building mass. It focuses on 2 big workouts a week and a 3rd day for targeted bodybuilding work for weak areas.  Remember, mass gain is not a skill, like strength, it is more physical than neurological so you can build muscle with a lot less frequency than most believe is necessary (not saying that higher frequency training won't work). 

Day 1+2                                               

• Compound upper body lift 3x5-12 (you could also mix it up with something like 5, 3, 2, 5, 3, 2)                                                      
• Compound lower body lift 3x5-12
• Barbell complex or clean and push press/jerk  5x5/3  

Day 3    

You could add in anything you want on this day. Keep the reps high and do some bodybuilding for whatever you want to work on. I focused on traps and arms (because I've long neglected them) on this day for a 3-5 sets of 10-20 reps per body part. 

As always, feel free to hit up Dom@DominicCrucitti.com with questions. You can also go to the Services tab for remote or in-person consultations. Now go forth, get big, and don't make things to complicated! 

Do The Rules Even Matter - Part 2

In this follow-up to Do The Rules Even Matter Part 1 we tackle the demonization of sugar, fructose in particular. I'm not going to site any research. Deal with it. 

Rule - The cause of the obesity epidemic in America is sugar, primarily fructose. Sugar should be avoided, especially high-fructose corn syrup. 

It's very trendy to point the blame at sugar for the alarming obesity statistics in America, the primary culprit being the omnipresent HFCS. There will be a lot of talk about glycemic index and insulin and the fact that fructose is primarily stored as hepatic (liver) glycogen. It's gotten to a point that even reasonable people are avoiding bananas in fear of their "high" fructose content. Consider this:

• Does the fact that glucose raises insulin level rather quickly really matter? 
• Does it matter where fructose is stored?
• If HFCS were abolished, would everyone be ultra-ripped super humans? 

My instincts tell me no on all three accounts. Indeed, sugar consumption has risen astronomically in recent times. Illustrated by this graph.

Note: 160 lbs of Sugar equals about 72.5K grams of sugar consumed per year

I'll do the math for you. 160 pounds of sugar per year is about 198 grams per day, per American, each year. The equivalent of 5 cans of regular soda. That may sound shocking, but 200 grams of carbohydrate is not an unreasonable daily total for an active individual.  

It is no secret that the bulk of sugar consumption in the US comes from soda and other sweetened beverages. It is, however, unlikely that someone is eating a lunch consisting of exclusively mountain dew. The sugar in the soda is most likely paired with some other carbohydrate containing food or some sort of sugared baked good like donuts or cake. Let's look a typical meal: subway sandwich with chips and a soda. A 24 ounce soda contains approximately 84 grams of sugar, adding in the sandwich (which has a carbohydrate content at least equal to the sugar content in the soda) plus the chips that's about 168 grams of carbohydrates. Multiplying that across 3 meals, we are looking about 450-500 grams of carbohydrates a day. 450-500 grams of carbs a day is a fantastic daily amount of carbs....if you are actively trying to gain weight...and already weight 220....and train all the time.  

So of the 450-500 grams of carbs the average American consumes per day, 200 or so grams are sugar. HFCS and standard table sugar (sucrose) are for all practical purposes the same food, both being about 50/50 fructose/glucose. So of that, about 100 grams a day is fructose, an amount that, contrary to what some people will tell you, the liver is able to handle just fine, especially if you are active.

It is unlikely that the increase in fructose/sugar consumption is to blame exclusively for America's obesity problems. It can more than likely be attributed to total carbohydrate consumption and general inactivity. Think about that the next time someone tells you not to eat bananas or grapes because of their "high" fructose content. No one ever got fat from eating too many bananas. Ever.

I'm giving you permission to eat bananas again. 

How To Do A Chin Up (or a pull up)

This a follow-up to a post about developing a legitimate push up titled Easy Money Pushup Progression  and will discuss how to develop a proper chin up or pull up. 

Everyone remembers that one kid in gym class who could bang out 15 chin ups in middle school. I definitely wasn't that kid. I couldn't do a chin up until I was well into high school. I was cursed (or blessed) with muscular legs and long arms. Chin ups are elusive for many, but like anything, they are a skill that can be developed.

The problem, of course, is that chin ups usually disappear from someones training the moment the person realizes that they suck at them (this is generally true of any movement). This leads to a weak upper back/lats, crappy posture, and a lot of weak excuses. I'll outline below an easy formula for developing a proper chin up or pull up.

The key to it all is the much-maligned lat pull down machine.

Found in nearly any gym (except for a particular brand of gym that shall not be named), the lat pull down is the most efficient way to develop a chin up. They are far superior to pull ups with band assistance because banded pull ups develop the strength curve backwards, add kipping or body english to this and you have an excellent way to not get strong (and possibly catapult yourself across the gym). 

Once someone can do 80% of their bodyweight for 8 good reps, they can do 1-2 chin ups.  This is the only sentence you have to read of this article. Read it again, I'll wait. 

How you get to 80% for 8 is entirely up to you, and I don't have much of an interest in writing a lat pull down specific program here. If you need help with specific programming issues you can email me.

There you have it, the easiest way to develop a chin up or pull up. Thank me later. Now get to work!

What To Do If You Don't Have A Neck Harness

Every power, collision, and combat athlete knows that a strong neck can be the difference between victory and unconsciousness. Unfortunately, most trainees find themselves at gyms that don't have a neck harness or the seldom-seen 4-way neck machine. Everyone is aware of the need for neck training, to not be rendered unconscious, but without an efficient method neck training often gets skipped all together. Below I outline 3 variations for strengthening the neck that only require a swiss ball and a dumbbell. I believe these to be superior to the tradition wrestlers bridge because these variations have less compressive forces on the cervical spine and mimic the force of an actual impact better.

Some notes on the exercises -
- Perform them on a non-slip surface (don't let the swiss ball shoot out from under you)
- Work up in time and intensity slowly
- 2-3x per week frequency to start (you can add more as strength develops)
- Keep the chin tucked, don't just arch the neck
- Don't be stupid, getting hurt training your neck defeats the purpose of training the neck (injury prevention)
- Start with 2-3 sets of 15-60 seconds or 2-3 sets of 3-5 5-second holds, depending on fitness level

Beginner Variation -

Head on the ball, bridge up so only the back of your head is on the ball. Keep the chin tucked and do not get too close to the edge of the ball.



Intermediate Version-

This version increases intensity by adding a dumbbell into the equation. Start with 3-5 pounds at first.



Advanced Variation -


This version adds instability and increases unilateral loading on the neck musculature. Again, start light with this variation. Don't try to win a gold medal in the neck extension on a swiss ball Olympics.

Not only does a thick yoke looks awesome it also protects your spine...which is nice. Concussions be damned!

Got a question for me? Need help with program design? Email me at Dom@DominicCrucitti.com