Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance

POV: Single Leg Strength > Bilateral Strength

The cool thing is you don’t have to choose and can (and should do both) 😉

But if I had to, I’d pick single leg strength for my clients, as it transfers better to life and performance.

I still do bilateral strength movements for lower body and create a “trainable menu” of the ones that work well for me, I can push myself on, and don’t have a high risk-to-benefit ratio.

But I’ve been able to keep progressing single leg exercises and hit lifetime PR’s while feeling good into my mid 40’s (I turn 45 next week).

More stress on the legs, less stress on the spine, and great carry over to just about everything.

It’s why you’ll see so many videos of our clients doing single leg strength work in every program and every training day.

P.S. These ar yesterday’s walking lunges with a 245 lb total load. Not a PR but they felt great and not far from it :)

Use Pearsons Law to Improve Your Health & Fitness
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During my 42 Lean kick off nutrition seminar I strongly encouraged everyone to track what they are eating. Not forever, but just for the duration of the program.

Instead of making it something stressful I said to make it an “experiment” (when you were a kid in school experiments weren’t stressful, they were fun and engaging).

The tracking helps you learn what you’re actually doing. And I also shared the power of Pearsons Law, which states:

🗣️ “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

The law highlights two distinct stages of improvement:

Stage 1️⃣: Measurement (The Observer Effect) Simply tracking a metric brings conscious awareness to it. For example, if you start logging everything you eat, you naturally begin making healthier choices just because you are paying attention.

Stage 2️⃣: Reporting (Accountability) When you take that data and report it to someone else (a coach, a mentor, or a public tracker), your psychological commitment spikes. The external accountability forces a higher level of discipline and course correction, which drastically speeds up progress.

If you want to take advantage of Pearsons Law, track your behaviors and report them, and in turn you will improve your behaviors.

There is no judgement, only the facts and a mirror to what you’re doing.

This goes for anything you want to improve, start tracking it and reporting it!

Try This Coaching Cue For the Glute Dominant Step Down

This is a small cue that can make a big difference. While being able to push into a wall or a rig can work really well, the set up doesn’t call for it in many gyms so you can do this…

I’m pushing against knee and having her actively drive into it as she’s reaching back as far as she can. That one cue made her feel her glutes much more and gives some tactile feedback to make sure the shin isn’t shifting back (or too far forward either).

Try it to see how much of a difference it makes!

Need A Spicier Bulgarian Split Squat Variation?

Since we all deeply love Bulgarian split squats and just can’t wait till the next training session with them, I wanted to sure a new variation you can plug into your next program.

The Landmine Zercher Bulgarian Split Squat 🌶️

Get a bit of a lean on this as well as it will cook the glutes even more. On top of that the core and upper back get WORKED!

Coach demonstrating it with precision.

If you’re a coach and you want to add some spice to your clients program and then blame me, here you go 😂

Demonstrate Exercises To Expectations

Something that I feel is very important and not talked about enough is being able to demonstrate to the client what you want them to do. They will mirror you. You are the one example.

You better be able to demonstrate exercises very well if you want your clients to do them well.

I see coaches giving exercises that many times they haven’t practice thoroughly and haven’t “owned” and then showing them to clients.

Become very good at the thing you’re teaching.

The other part is demonstrating to expectations. What I mean by that is that if I’m showing a pro athlete a drill I’m going to show it to them with the form, intensity, intent and focus I want them to do it.

For an older client that is more of a beginner I will show them different speeds and intensity so I demonstrate to my expectations of them (if you show them something very explosive and they can’t be anywhere close to that, it’s not going to be helpful when replicating).

If you’re a coach get yourself a coach, practice the things that you want to teach so that you’re very competent in them.

Seems like a simple thing but it’s powerful.

By combining the Zercher squat with a dead stop (starting each rep from a dead pause on pins or blocks), you create a brutally effective movement that’s great for working on the weak link of upper back and core, and it can be a great variation as a squat pattern (for some that don’t do well with back squats, front squats, etc).

With Eric, I plugged them in after 2 phases of deadlifts to improve his upper back and core strength and de-load the back a bit (which worked well as the numbers went up in the later phases of the deadlift).

Some other benefits:

✔️ By starting from a dead stop, you eliminate all elastic energy.

✔️ You are forced to develop pure concentric drive and absolute starting strength from the weakest point of the lift.

Because the load is held directly against your torso, it constantly tries to pull you forward into a rounded posture.

✔️ Your erectors, rhomboids, upper traps, and lats have to work double-time to keep your chest up.

✔️ Your anterior core (abs and obliques) must brace incredibly hard to prevent you from folding in half, giving you a core workout that rivals any heavy plank.

Because the barbell is held in front of your center of mass rather than on your spine (like a back squat), it forces a more upright torso.

✔️ This significantly reduces axial loading (the downward compressive force on your spine).

✔️ It allows you to heavily tax your legs and core even if you are recovering from a lower back tweak that makes back squatting painful.

If you need a new squat variation for your next phase, try this one.

Should you be doing exercises like this?
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Social media is a place where it’s easy to get lost in content that’s performative and things that are useful.

I think it’s important that you filter who you get info from, as well as have context for what is being shared.

Most people that share info are more than happy to engage with conversation, if you’re not being a s@*thead about it :)

For example, this exercise Hieu is doing looks weird and someone may be like: “What does that even do and why is he doing it?”

Hieu tweaked his back a while back, he saw this exercise that works on hip flexors and hamstrings (in end ranges). When he does it, he feels a lot better and when he does lunges after, his back feels good.

You can call it a “primer” or whatever else you want, but it helps him perform better because he doesn’t feel the nagging issue.

Could it be all psychological? Possibly, but doubt it, it’s probably a mix of engaging certain muscles, giving the brain feedback it can safely create tension in those positions, and then feeling better which helps psychologically.

If you find drills, exercises, methods, that work for you, there’s no other reason you need to do them, than the fact you feel better which leads you to performing better and having a better session.

I used to judge a lot more but without context, I don’t do much of that anymore. If it gets the person exercising, I’m all for it, and if it makes them feel better, then hell yes go for it.

Are there still plenty of people showing and saying dumb things on social? Yep lol, but I think it’s important to focus less on that and more on the positives and filter what can genuinely help you, or ask questions to get better insights.