Basic Squat Checklist

We could all use more practice of the fundamentals. Check out this run down of common teaching points we use at GAIN to upgrade peoples’ squat.

Get Organized!

Screw your feet “into” the ground by turning you heels towards one another. You can also imagine spinning your knee caps away from each other. When you do this, we’re trying to rotate the hips into the best position for range of motion and for force production.

Foot Pressure

After you get your hips organized, you might feel the weight on the outside of your feet. That means you’ve gone too far. Try to maintain a balanced foot - weight right in the middle of your heel and ball of your foot. At the gym, we say find your “mid foot.” This is initially difficult to do, but after a few reps it evens out.

Back THEN down

When learning to squat, it’s helpful to imagine the lowering portion as two pieces. Start by pushing your butt to a wall behind you. Once you start moving, let your sternum fall towards the floor. Once that happens, start bending your knees. This way, you’ve got the right trajectory to squat using your hips and putting less pressure on your lower back and knees. It’ll feel clunky at first, but as you learn the pattern, the two step movement will become fluid.

On the Bottom

Maintain that foot pressure! No knees caving in, instead push them away from each other, like they’re magnets. To get up, start pushing that middle of the foot into the floor like you’re trying to break through it. Careful not to let your heels lift from the floor, if they do, lean forward more. If the opposite thing happens and all your weight is in your heels, you may feel like you’re going to fall over backwards. Keep your toes on the ground too.

Back on the Top

Maintain that knees out pressure as you come up. Once you get to the top, be sure you squeeze your butt to finish the movement, open up the hips and set the next rep up for success.

Breathing

For squats we want to breath in going down, exhale as we’re coming up. We’ve talked before about a slight breath hold for added pressure and stability, but this is a basics primer. For the purpose of bodyweight squats, we want to inhale down, sharp exhale coming up. That’ll keep you in a good, smooth rhythm.

I hope one out of the many cues I just gave makes something click for you. We can always improve our fundamentals.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Counting

A sneaky high level strength and conditioning skill is counting your reps.

There are a lot of things to think of all at once. Screwing your feet to the floor, squeezing your butt, the weird exercise names, keeping your core engaged and on top of all that, you need to remember to breathe. At first glance, counting seems like just another annoying thing to occupy your mind. It isn't. In fact, not only will it make sure you get the proper dosage of reps, it'll actually help you do all those other things, too.

Counting forces you to be engaged. Ticking off each rep, 1…2…3… gives you an opportunity to check in on your form, and make sure you're doing all the aforementioned things like breathing and squeezing your butt. Each time you count, check in with yourself to breathe, or squeeze or get your elbows up, or to make any adjustment or reinforcements you need.

Like I mentioned, counting is high level. But don't just count, use counting as an opportunity to clean up your movement and get more engaged on with what you're doing

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

You'll Never Regret It

I was just playing the with baby on the floor. I did 100 push ups over the course of a few minutes. It was entertaining for me and him. I try to do stuff like that, sneak in more movement, whenever I can.

Even though it’s hard to get started, I always feel better and more accomplished after.

Movement of any kind, be it mobility work, push ups and squats, or a quick yoga flow, always rewards your body.

No matter how hard it is to start, you’ll never regret moving.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

How Does Our 3-Session Trial Work?

Potential members at GAIN start with a 3-session trial. This serves as an opportunity to meet the coaches and see how we do things at GAIN. Our individualized, feels-like-a-group, but isn’t a group vibe is different, and unlike any other gym you’ve been to.

On the first session, you’ll work closely with a coach doing our Intro Workout. This gives us an opportunity to go over some finer details like bracing and breathing and seeing how much range of motion and stability your body has. We talk about injuries, training history and what you want to get out of your gym time.

Regardless of your fitness level and experience, we want you leaving the gym after that first session feeling as though you could have done more. Our saying is, we can write hard workouts, but don’t need to prove that one day one. We want you to build a new habit you can stick with, easing in is key.

You’ll learn a whole bunch of new movements and lingo, if you’re a newbie to the gym it can be a bit overwhelming. Just know that we’re aware of this, and try to take it slow and not overload you with gym jargon. Day one primarily focuses on learning and breaking down the squat pattern, body weight upper body movements like the push up and ring row, and some of our core training drills.

By the second workout, we’re ready to introduce some more movements. This workout focuses on pressing and pulling with the upper body, along with some single leg movements. You’ll do some conditioning (cardio) at the end and get introduced to some of our favorite cool-down mobility drills.

On the last workout of the trial focuses on on the hinge pattern. This can be a tricky one, but is important for everyone to learn. We revisit some movements from the previous two workouts if needed. This will feel like a bigger workout for most, because we usually give you more to do on the third day as your body is starting to adapt to some new movements.

All in all, the 3-Session Trial is a crash course in all things GAIN. Learn our favorite exercises, get your movement broken down by an experienced coach and learn how to move better, feel more connected and get a plan that unique to what you need and want to accomplish. GET INVOLVED.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Use It or Lose It

I have a question for you today.

How many times will you get up and down from the floor?

Take a ballpark guess and try to keep track. Or, if it’s been a while, try to remember the last time you did it.

There is no more true example of if you don’t use it you lose it.

While it might seem silly, your independence literally depends on being able to get yourself up off the floor without assistance.

Don’t realize this too late.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Moving Better

We rearranged a bookshelf in our house the other day. I have notebooks from the past 10 years saved up. These notebooks came out of the basement and on to this bookshelf. The pages are filled with to-do lists, budgeting math, quotes, workout ideas, rough drafts of programs and scattered throughout are blog ideas.

I’m not sure what year I wrote this down, but a loose sheet of paper fell out of one of the notebooks as I took it out of the box, and scribbled on it was the following line.

If how strong you are trumps the ability at which you move, is the strength worth anything?

All this strength and conditioning comes down to that, how well can you move? How well can you control your body?

Moving better is an ever-changing target. It’s a destination you’re never going to reach, because you can always refine your technique and execute better.

This frustrates people. For me, it keeps me in the game. Knowing I can’t reach perfection, but that I can strive for it, is a good reason to get in the gym and move with intent every day.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Those Years I Couldn't Do Push Ups

There were several years that push ups hurt my right shoulder. I avoided them all together for a while, but once GAIN opened in early 2015 there was no more hiding, I found myself demonstrating push ups daily.  I would wince through the pain and only do a few. Then I noticed something weird. When I demonstrated hands elevated push ups, hands on a barbell inside of a squat rack, I never had that all-too-familiar twinge in the front of my shoulder. On top of that, my mechanics felt smoother, my shoulder blades were engaged better and having the hands elevated allowed for me to get more practice in without it taxing my body.

I started doing push ups on our kitchen counter while watching TV and was always sneaking some reps in. Over time, my push up technique changed drastically. I needed to develop motor control and build strength, and doing a normal push up was too aggressive and it took years to figure out. After practicing for a while, never really trying any, I got brave and would occasionally sneak some reps of real push ups in.

They felt better. To the point that I would send Alex and Taylor videos of me doing push ups asking if I was cheating the reps. They felt too easy to be good ones I said. Turns out getting a couple years of solid practice was just what my body needed.

I’m much better at push ups now, and do them all the time. When you’re working in the gym, and you’ve got your hands elevated on the bar, it can feel like you’re never going to get a rep on the floor. Keep practicing, this stuff takes time. If you already own some great push ups, you can take on this mindset too, your technique can always get better.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Focus

"Focus starts with elimination, improves with concentration, and compounds with continuation."

James Clear

I saw this quote the other day and it has stuck with me for a couple days. A nice reminder as we head into a new week. If you haven’t yet, check out Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Fueling for Ultra Endurance

Register Dietitian, Briana asked me to write a guest post for her blog on New England Nutrition & Exercise.. You can check it out on her site here or keep reading.

My name is Justin Miner and I’m a strength and conditioning coach. I’ve been coaching since 2011, and founded my gym, GAIN Strength and Conditioning in Portsmouth, NH in 2014. As a college athlete, I always hated running. But in 2016 I was in a training slump. I wanted to get outside and out of the gym more, so I started running. Running on the road wasn’t for me and I quickly found that trails gave me everything I was looking for. Solitude, nature, a new challenge, and time I could spend developing fitness while not confined in the walls of my gym. I could take my dog Clementine too, which was a huge bonus.

In 2017 I needed a challenge way outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to take on something scary, and the scariest thing I could think of was an Ultramarathon. An ultra is anything that’s longer than a marathon. The most common distance is 50k, or 31 miles. Since my first 50k in 2017 I’ve run 16 50k’s, 2 50-milers and done a backyard ultra. Amongst those stats I’ve taken on all the popular ultra distance routes in the White Mountains like the Pemi Loop and Hut Traverse, plus a dozen other routes that are 20-25 miles in distance with over 8000 feet of elevation gain like the Presidential Traverse and the Kilkenny Traverse; all-day adventures that require careful planning and self-sufficiency.

Relying on yourself makes packing a difficult job. Taking the right foods and the right amounts can be the difference between a fun day out and a pure suffer fest.  During a regular ultra race, you have options at the aid station, and if the thing you’re carrying with you isn’t appealing, no big deal. However, out in the mountains you don’t always have options (but you can buy an ice cream at the top of Mount Washington, just saying.) Because of my experiences in the mountains, and in actual races, I’ve tinkered a lot with nutrition and fueling. I’ve found things that work for me and don’t work for me. Hopefully you can learn from my experiences whether you want to try to race fast or enjoy long endurance pursuits. 

Not Enough Water 

This one is so obvious I was hesitant to start the list with it. When I was starting out, and still sometimes today calculating how much water I need can be tricky. At first, I would always carry too much. I’d get back to the trailhead realizing I lugged an extra liter around that I didn’t touch. After doing that a couple times I swung too hard the other way and would take off with far less than I needed. Leaving myself thirsty and dehydrated and considering slurping out of a muddy puddle on a rock. 

I learned it’s always better to have more than you need, rather than less. Some things are impossible to predict, like will the stream have flowing water I can filter? Will I come across a place where I can fill up or buy water? How hot is it going to be? How long between aid stations? How long am I going to be out? Am I flying solo? Or with a friend or my dog? All these factors must be considered when choosing how much water to haul along. Lean more toward the heavy side, but don’t take so much that you have a sloshy pack to lug around all day.

No Gels

As I started getting into the ultra scene I noticed gastrointestinal issues were common. Every YouTube documentary I watched about ultra running seemed to feature at least one scene of someone pulling over into the woods to throw up. Which leads to them not eating or drinking for hours and hours on end. Knowing I wanted to avoid this I looked at the commonalities amongst the people this was happening to. The common denominator seemed to be runner fuel, or gels.

Consuming only sugar as the main fuel source seemed to do more harm than good. I decided to lean more on regular food and shy away from these stomach churning slime packs.

Normal Food 

Since I was avoiding runner fuel, I needed to practice with a lot of different foods to see what I could eat while running. Growing up an athlete and being a total gym rat, pre and post workout nutrition was nothing new to me, but consuming food while exercising was a new concept. I tried all kinds of bars, pouches, candy, sandwiches and dried fruit. Cliff bars, dried mango and good old fashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are my go to. I usually pack some candy too. Sometimes you just need something palatable, and some Swedish Fish or Sour Patch Kids are always easy and enjoyable to eat. And if it’s not too hot a Snickers really hits the spot. I try to save this for when I really need it, later in the day. Mostly as an attempt to avoid the GI issues from consuming just sugar all day.

Electrolytes

A lot of runners are familiar with electrolytes, much more so than the general public. Where I, and a lot of runners, miss the point is taking electrolytes during the run is kind of late. Now, especially when it’s really hot, I try to load up on electrolytes in my water for a few days before an event. This helps me get hydrated and stay hydrated instead of trying to play catch up while sweating all the good stuff out. I monitor my hydration the most simple way there is, monitor my pee color. 

No More Fasting 

Although its popularity has skyrocketed recently, I started intermittent fasting in 2012. Training for ultras, or anything really, is incredibly demanding on the body. I couldn’t maintain my muscle mass, and prevent unwanted weight loss without getting in extra calories every morning with breakfast.

For a while, if I was running before noon, I would skip breakfast too. While I thought I felt okay, once I started eating some oatmeal a couple hours beforehand, my performance and mood improved drastically. Now when planning a daily training run or an epic adventure, I consider what I’m eating at what time of the day in relation to the event. This way I’m best fueled and setting up for the best performance.

Experiment 

You’ve got to play around. I have developed a good system for myself through trial and error. I’ve underfed a lot of runs, ran fasted, without fuel, drank grimly pond water and so much more. All those experiences allowed me to figure out what works though, and that’s what you’ve got to do too. Maybe gels work great for you, you’ll never know until you test it out. 

Avoid experimenting during a race. I would make sure to practice fueling, trying different foods on my regular old training runs, where I probably didn’t need to fuel, but did just so I could see what works and what doesn’t. Too many people don’t fuel while training, and get to race day and try something totally new. Test it out and leave no doubt on race day. Of course, you can have the perfect plan and it could still all fall apart, but more data is better. 

Half the battle with long endurance events like ultras is fueling. It’s incredibly demeaning on the body, and not a task that should be taken lightly. Learning how to fuel yourself will improve your performance, but also will increase your enjoyment of the activity. Being properly fueled with a good plan makes the day go by much faster. When you demand so much from your body, it’s hard to predict how the day will play out. 

I hope you were able to find these tips useful, and if you want to train for an ultramarathon this summer and need a coach, you can contact me here: justin@gainsc.com

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Coach T's Macro Tracking Q & A

Coach Taylor has been weighing and tracking his food for almost two months. He’s mentioned it’s his new keystone habit, a habit that helps other good habits fall in place. The other night I thought of these questions for him out of my own curiosity and here are his responses.

1. Are you tracking alcohol? How does that change/effect your choice?

Yep. Whether it's a glass of wine or a beer I make sure to put the caloric value of the drink in MyFitnessPal. I am less concerned about the macronutrient values of the alcohol, but use the calorie totals to stay on track. This has made me realize that these calories add up quickly, especially when combined with food.

2. Is weekly pizza night still a thing?

Oh yeah - I tried ordering medium pizzas when I first started tracking, but I would finish the pizza and still be hungry. Lately I've been having two smaller meals throughout the day to allow for the extra calories of the large pizza at night. This is generally the most challenging day of the week because I have to limit myself throughout the day, but it makes the pizza taste even better.

3. Streak so far? Any days off?

My current streak sits at 56 days. There were two days mixed in there when I only tracked the first meal of the day - one of the days being Super Bowl Sunday. I knew I was going to be eating foods I don't normally eat and wanted to take a mental break from weighing and measuring. 

4. Do you still need to weigh/measure, or can you do it by look? i.e., you know what 5 oz of chicken is without busting out the food scale.

This is a great question, but yes I still have to measure everything. I can't eyeball quantities, but I have a better idea of the macronutrient make up in certain types of foods. This allows me to plan meals that I know are higher in protein or higher in carbs (for example) depending on my goals for the day.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Time Change Woes

I saw this question prosed on Instagram and found it thought provoking. No one enjoys changing the clocks, and I’m on board with how annoying it can be. Especially after waking up completely unaware and confused this past Sunday. However, this guy has a point too.

“If an hour switch in time is enough to throw your whole game maybe it’s time to audit your level of overall fragility.”

- Rob Wilson, @preparetoperform

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Frozen

With two kids in the house, cooking dinner has becoming more challenging. Especially anything that required full-fledged attention, like chopping vegetables.

We keep our meals simple. Most of the time, it’s a combination of rice, vegetable and protein.

We’ve been leaning on frozen veggies for the past few months and it’s so easy. Pre chopped peppers and onions, broccoli or cauliflower without any mess.

I know, not the most ground-breaking observation, however, we noticed this superior-than-frozen veggie bias in ourselves, for no reason whatsoever.

The point is that there are ways to make things easier, and the simpler they are, the more likely you’ll stick with it.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Usual Weights

Carrying kettlebells around is a foundational strength and conditioning exercise.

It trains the trunk and hips, shoulders and grip.

Sometimes, carry heavy weights that are trying to pull you over and demand all your might.

Other times, carry light weights. But do it much more strictly, not letting the weight pull you out of position at all.

Both are beneficial, and a blend of each is encourage.

Don’t always carry the same weights, if you’re feeling strong, go for it.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Easier Not Easy

Please not this blog was originally published in March 2021.

A client recently went skiing for the first time in years.

I was eager to ask how it went.

Not good, they reported back.

They couldn't believe how sore they were, how hard skiing was and they were so bummed that all the strength and conditioning didn't make skiing easy.

This scenario plays out often. I couldn't help but laugh.

Client trains hard, goes to do something for the first time, and they end up feeling bummed because it was hard.

This is the WRONG perspective.

My laughter was met with an angry stare, so I explained.

Imagine how much harder it would have been if you WERE NOT training so much.

Imagine what the recovery process would be like then.

And perhaps the most impactful question I raised to them; would you have even bothered trying if you hadn't been training like you have for the past 12+ months?

Instead of being bummed it was harder than they wanted (something we can't even quantify anyway), we shifted their perspective.

They had the confidence to take on the slopes even though it had been so long. They were sore, but not sore enough to stay in bed and skip a workout.

Training will make things easier, but not easy. Don't forget that perspective as you start pushing your own limits.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Strength or Endurance?

I used to think you had to pick between the two. It’s what I learned in school.

You couldn’t have both. Developing one would only take away from the other.

Endurance to run far but have no muscle and be weak.

Strength and muscle but no work capacity.

Then I stared tinkering with my training.

I trained for ultramarathons and got really strong, at the same time.

It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t supposed to be possible.

You don’t have to choose between endurance and strength, you can have both, and with the right training structure, they don’t take away from one another, they compliment each other.

That’s strength and conditioning.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Final Mobility Class - Sunday at 8:30am

We’re coming to the end of our 5-Week Mobility Course. You can still get involved this week for a total body mobility session to unwind, create space and prepare for the upcoming week.

You’ll have a chance to dedicate time to the stiff areas of your body that need the most attention, and learn how to mobilize other body parts as well.

Members can reserve their spot through the PushPress App, under “Plans.” All others can get a drop in HERE.

Get involved!

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Complicated Optimization

Here’s a perfect example of more information complicating things more than they need to be. In a sense, this is a follow up on the idea of yesterday’s post. More information for the sake of optimization is not always more beneficial, of course depending on context, goals, etc.

I was listening to the Huberman Lab Podcast about supplements and nutrition. They discussed how taking 5 grams of creatine monohydrate is the general recommendation. They went on to discuss that someone like me, who is over 200 pounds, could be taking more than that because of the increased bodyweight.

One scoop from my tub is 5 grams. One scoop from most all creatine monohydrate tubs is 5 grams. I’m not precise when I measure it. Careless even. For me, the exact dosing doesn’t matter. This creatine will provide incremental gains for me over time. The longer and more consistently I take it, the more likely it is to provide some benefits.

Whether it’s 5 grams, 7 grams or 10 grams, it doesn’t matter if I don’t take it. Taking a scoop isn’t complicated. Taking more would be complicated. I’m going to keep doing the same thing so I can more easily stick with it and be consistent.

I’m all about small incremental changes that have a big pay off, but small changes with incremental pay off are often more headache than it’s worth. If I’m getting most of the way there, I’ll keep it simple.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Optimized and Unrealistic

Exercise physiology is complicated. Distilling out proper training methods from philology is difficult to do well and can lead to clunky, unrealistic training programs.

Coaching is a blend of art and science. You need to know the science, however, the art is in the delivery. In making it flow, making it able to fit into someone’s real life. I first had this realization after writing up a workout in an exercise science class in college. The workout followed all the rules I learned, and since it was a power and strength focused workout I had the imaginary person I was writing the program for resting for a total of 40-something minutes, because optimization.

It was completely unrealistic and since I had done some interning over the summer, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get 15 middle school kids all resting 3 minutes between efforts. There was just no way.

The great coach figures out what gets you most of the way there. You’re probably not going to the Olympics, so there is a point where optimizing the rest periods and rep schemes is majoring in minutia.

Lift heavy stuff, move with intention, use the most range of motion possible, lift light stuff fast and get out of breath frequently. It doesn’t need to be more complicated that that.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Fit & Strong

When I was coming up in the strength and conditioning world there was this believe that you could either be really strong or really aerobically fit. Doing too much conditioning would wash away all your strength gains and leave you feeling weak. Everyone cites the skinny, elite marathoner, who looks like as strong wind could crumple them to the ground.

When I started running it was something I considered. Will I lose my strength? I did, but it turns out what was due to improper fueling and chronically under eating as my training volume spiked.

Today I’m much stronger and quite aerobically fit. I saw this research study and others are starting to look deeper into this question, can you be fit aerobically and strong at the same time?

The study, Long-Term Aerobic Exercise Is Associated With Greater Muscle Strength Throughout Life Span takes a look at this exact question.

The authors gathered participants ranging from 26-83 both aerobically active and sedentary. They tested the participants VO2 max and two basic strength tests. In all the age ranges, the aerobically active group tested higher VO2 max, grip strength test and the leg extension test.

As always, further research will need to be looked into this. Would someone who resistance trains smash the aerobically fit individuals? How would their VO2 max compare? What if someone is aerobically fit and really strong from years of moving weights in the gym?

For a long time I thought it was all about just being strong. Being strong will get you most of the way there, but if you want to live a long, fulfilling life, improving your aerobic capacity, while building strength, seems like a safe bet to get there.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Gym Lingo: Sustainable Pace

Complete the intervals at a pace that you can repeat each set. In other words, don’t come out too fast and continually get slower and slower.

This is endurance training in a nutshell. And a mistake even experienced athletes frequently make.

I see it in races all the time. On the first couple miles it’s easy to get thrown off your plan since every out else comes out sprinting. If you get caught up in that, you’ll fizzle out too. If you run your race, you’ll pass all those people in a couple more miles.

Ease in, feel it out, and on your first interval, consider how you’re going to feel on the 8th round.

Avoid the trap and find that sustainable, repeatable pace. Just by doing that, your endurance will improve.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain