Podcast #8: Grant Fowler (Fowler Fitness)

By Jake Tuura / October 14, 2019

“That’s the biggest thing that I preach all the time… if you have the principles down, everything pretty much comes easy after that.”
Holistic: “Accounting for everything in training that needs to be accounted for to be successful.”
“There is a time and place for anecdotes and personal experience… but ultimately, you need to start with science.”

“Athletes have a limited amount of time to spend in the gym.”
“Most people’s training is an opportunity cost… most of the things that people are doing in their training shouldn’t be in there.”
Snap Downs. “How is that a good use of your time?”
Pallof Press. “The stimulus that you’re getting from that probably doesn’t even remotely compare to something like a heavy wood chop or a flywheel rotation.”
Speed Ladders. “It trains the neuromuscular system, the stretch shortening cycle… and I could name probably 20 other things that train those systems 10 times more effectively.”
“As long as it involves some type of movement, you’ll find somebody trying to justify it.”

People getting away with guru-ism.
Injury Prevention as a catch phrase. “Nobody ever says anything about it… We’re not accurate. We just throws things out there arbitrarily.”
Asymmetries or left-right imbalances. “It’s not really injury predictive.”

Too much volume of specific tasks. “Maybe sometimes we need anti-specificity.” “We need to be feeding them what they’re not getting.”
How long can general training work? “It can work a lot longer than most people think that it can. Most people haven’t pushed general development or strength to the level that they need to yet.”
“Sometimes we focus on specifics too much.” We don’t get the full general development.

Rear Delt Exercise. “You only have time for one exercise.” “I’m not gonna do a band pull apart.” “We’re gonna be doing a side lying delt raise.” Strength curve will stimulate the most amount of muscle possible with the least amount of volume.
“You can do a lot less by choosing exercises that are stimulating what you want a little more effectively.”

You develop skills smoother. “Nervous system fills in those grey areas where technique starts to break down.”
Monotony. “The more I practice something, the more it grows stale, and the more I burnout.”
Minimum Effective Dose. “Variation is a good segue into that.”
Using Variation but staying Specific. “We’re always varying the times, intensity ranges, the volume… but we’re always doing something similar.”

Determining health without Tests/Assessments. “I kinda base on observation and what they’re telling me.
Keep quality of performance high to maintain long-term health. “What’s the heaviest you can go with very little breakdown.”
“One of the biggest killers of progress is just being beat up.”

“You’re never fully isolating something.” Bicep curl gets the wrist flexors, fingers, and shoulders (isometrically to stabilize).
“Isolation exercises as more of emphasizing something rather than fully isolating it.”
The argument against isolation doesn’t really make sense. “You’re fundamentally doing that (isolation) by being in a gym and by engaging in forms of exercise other than your sport.”