Last year was a blast and we’re looking forward to hosting it again this year.

Here’s a link to the entry form:

Fitness Challenge 2012

Hope to see you there!

Related posts:

1. A Challenge For Fiscal Fitness
2. Back In Action
3. Back In Action Fitness Challenge Slideshow

As a fitness professional, it is not in my scope of practice to diagnose or treat pain.  I simply don’t have the tools or the skill set required to do so.  For example, if a client comes in with shoulder pain.  There are a myriad of things that could be wrong with them.  It could be an AC separation, torn labrum, torn rotator cuff, or even bone cancer.  All of which would require a different treatment.

If I have a client who comes in with any sort of persistent pain, I always have them go see their physician (In Indiana, physical therapy requires doctor referral).

This being said, it doesn’t mean the client can’t train around the pain.  Here are some examples of things we can still do for our clients who are experiencing some sort of pain:

For Back Pain:

• We can still do all upper body movements.
• We will usually cut out all bilateral lower body activity and stick to just unilateral.
• They can still do core exercises, however they may need to be regressed a bit.

Shoulder Pain:

• We can still do most pulling exercises.
• We will eliminate all pressing exercises except pushups.  They can usually do those pain-free.

Hip Pain:

• We can usually do most hip dominant exercises.  We will typically throw out all knee dominant until we hear back from the physician.
• Upper body doesn’t usually present a problem.

Knee Pain:

• We usually switch to just hip dominant lower body exercise and take away knee dominant. 
• Upper body really doesn’t have an effect.

As you can see, even though a client is in pain, there’s still a lot we can do.  The important part is to have an open line of communication with client and understand that it is not our job to diagnose them.  This is why it’s important for the fitness professional to develop a good network of physicians, therapists, and chiropractors to refer out to.

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2. A Definition of Hard Work and Commitment
3. Why Do You Train?

 I recently read a post on the strengthcoach.com forums where a new trainer asked how some of the more famous trainers got their “National Recognition”.  This trainer was essentially looking for the one thing these others did that got them famous.  I thought Mike Boyle had the best response.  He said that the number one thing he did to get his recognition was get great results with his clients.  He also stated that he was 40 years old before he started to gain any sort of notoriety.  This means he was almost 20 years and over 10,000 hours in before he became popular.  There is no substitute for putting in the hard work.

 ”I was rapidly becoming an overnight success one twelve-hour day at a time.”  – Mike Boyle

 The same rules that apply to making trainers famous also apply to people achieving their fitness goals.  Whether your goal is to get drafted to the NFL or look good in that bikini, you have to put in the hard work, and LOTS of it.

 There is no magic pill.

 There is no secret trick.

Overnight Success is a myth.

“There is very little traffic on the extra mile.”

-H. Jackson Brown

Related posts:

1. This Is Who We Are.
2. Five Things You’re Doing (or not doing) That Are Keeping You From Getting Results
3. Celebrating Two Years of Doing Things For The Right Reasons

Having a good vertical jump is pretty important in most sports (Captain Obvious, I know).  As such, it’s a pretty important goal for most of the athletes I work with.  Most equipment manufacturers know this and try to sell various products like jump shoes and various band contraptions to improve this.  In this post, I’m going to outline five strategies for improving vertical jump that don’t need any of these.

1.  Move Better

Movement quality is the first thing we look at when an athlete walks in the door.  Can the athlete squat without their knees falling into valgus collapse?  Do their heels lift?  Do they have poor shoulder/t-spine mobility?  If the athlete has tight hip flexors, they aren’t going to be able to access their posterior chain as well.  If the athletes knees are falling in, their heals lift, and they have poor mobility, they aren’t going to have the best jumping ability.  Vertical jump – and jumping in general – is all about force production relative to your bodyweight.  If the athlete has the poor movement skills mentioned above, they won’t be able to apply as much force to the ground.  This means a lower vertical jump.

Valgus knees = bad movement quality and poor vertical jumping ability.

2. Snatch

Snatch and other olympic lift variations are the most explosive lifts you can do in the weight room.  We primarily use the clean grip and dumbbell snatch variations with our athletes.  I like the snatch the most because it’s the fastest for athletes to learn, and we don’t have to deal with ankle and wrist limitations like we would in a clean. 

3. Box Jumps

Box jumps have gotten a bad wrap lately.  Mainly because most of the ones you see people doing on the internet are the ego driven, let’s get my knees to my chest and flex my lumbar spine so I can jump 60 inches type box jumps.  This is not what I’m talking about.

This is NOT what we do.

Instead, we focus on jumping as high as possible with minimal knee tuck.  Most athletes would struggle to get on a 45″ box without looking like a folded up accordion.  The reason I like box jumps is that we can challenge the athlete to jump without the added impact of hitting the ground.  This makes for easier recovery from the workouts.   

4. Learn to hip hinge well

A hip hinge is exactly what it sounds like.  You’re keeping the knees soft while flexing at the hip.  This is the ideal position for engaging the hamstrings and glutes.  A common mistake that people make when jumping is to squat during their counter movement.  This doesn’t use the body’s natural lever system as well as a hinge will. 

Hinge, don't squat.

5. Don’t be fat

That’s right.  The leaner you are, the better you will be at pretty much anything that involves moving your body.  The vertical jump is basically a test of how strong you are in relation to your bodyweight.  Ideal bodyfat percentage for athlete is 5 – 15% for men and 10% – 23% for females.  Anything over this is just nonfunctional weight. 

Like many other things in the sports performance world, getting better at the vertical jump doesn’t require a bunch of fancy equipment.  Just get good at these basic things, and you’ll be happy with the results.

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1. Should Athletes Olympic Lift?
2. A Couple Interesting Fat Loss Tips
3. Five Ways To Improve Your Speed On The Field

“Speed deadlifts are the lazy, uncoordinated answer to power cleans.”

-Jim Wendler

The olympic lifts are the snatch and the clean and jerk.  They have many variations that include but aren’t limited to the hang snatch, hang clean, power snatch, power clean, dumbbell cleans, dumbbell snatches, and many more.  They are all very explosive yet technically challenging total body lifts that are designed to increase the athletes power production.  More specifically, to increase power production in triple extension (ankle, knee, and hip extension).

Triple Extension

The big debate in the sports performance world is whether they should be used to train athletes.  The opponents of olympic lifts say that the lifts are too hard to teach, to technically demanding, and to risky for injury.

~Most people say that they perform the Olympic lifts because they are explosive. The truth of the matter is that any lift can be explosive! By incorporating the dynamic-effort method with sub-maximal weights into your program, you can turn any lift into an explosive lift. For example, if a man who can box squat 500 lbs. were to train with 275 lbs. and focus on compensatory acceleration, the box squat would then become an explosive lift. This example can hold true for many other exercises as well. By training with weights that represent 50-60% of your 1RM in a given lift, science has proven that the weight is heavy enough to produce adequate force, yet light enough to produce adequate speed. And we should all know that speed X strength = power.
Another reason that I feel that the Olympic lifts are overrated is that they take a long time to teach and most athletes are horrible at them.

- Joe DeFranco

I can understand DeFranco’s stance on this, however, I think he is a little wrong in his thinking.  The biggest problem with his statements about deadlifts and squats being explosive is that fact that they are terminal lifts.  This means the bar must slow down at the top.  Otherwise the bar will fly off your shoulders or out of your hands.  Olympic lifts aren’t terminal.  In both the clean and the snatch, the athlete pulls the bar as high as possible.

As far as risk for injury goes, it really depends on the athlete.  Athletes with poor ankle, hip, shoulder, and wrist mobility will suck at them, but then again, they’ll probably suck at lots of other lifts as well.

What We Do

Here, we use the olympic lifts…sort of.  We use weighted jumps, med ball throws, and olympic lifts.  If I’ve got an athlete with shoulder issues, then we sub out the snatches for med ball throws.  We can still to cleans.  If I’ve got someone with wrist issues, we can still do med ball throws, db snatch, barbell snatch, etc.

Our philosophy on the olympic lifts basically looks like this:

• Most of our athletes pull from the hang.  We rarely pull from the floor.
• Our athletes only move to olympic lifts if they’ve mastered the hip hinge.
• Olympic lifts may not be appropriate for all lifters.  As much as I like olympic lifts, I’m not married to them.  They are just a tool in the tool box
• Most of our snatches are done with a clean grip or with dumbells.
• All of our athletes are instructed to pull the weight as high as possible.  The goal is to produce the most force.  For this reason, I don’t teach them to catch it “in the hole”.

In The Hole

So, do we use olympic lifts?  Yes.  Am I totally OK with not using them?  Yes.  The point is, they are a tool in the tool box.  They aren’t the be all end all.  There are plenty of good exercises that work in their place.  I feel comfortable coaching them, so we do.  If you don’t than don’t.  But I would suggest learning them.

Related posts:

1. Basic Nutrition For Athletes
2. 8/2 Heavy Snatch (contest prep)
3. 4/4/2012 Cleans, Speed Snatch, and Deadlifts

- Bobby Knight

It’s that nervous feeling in your stomach before a game.

It’s the flutter of your heart before a meet.

It’s that fear that’s trying to overcome you as you lace up your cleats.

What I’m talking about is your body’s response to the stress of competition.  It’s described in most physiology books as the sympathetic nervous system response (or fight or flight).  Our bodies developed this response very early in our development as humans.  Basically, when confronted with a saber toothed tiger, we had two options:  stand and fight (fight) or run away (flight).  Either way, that caveman will need to flip his lid and do something to survive.  His body is making sure he has the proper physiological environment to do so.  Like I’ve said before, Psychology always trumps Physiology.

This is a normal response to competition, however, if it isn’t properly harnessed, it can be more of a liability than an asset.  In severe cases, it can turn to anxiety and cause the person to get physically ill.  The best competitors know how to use this stimulus to compete at their best and not let it be a hinderance.  Here’s a few of the things I’ve used to mentally prepare myself for competition:

Mental Rehearsal

My training partner once told me a story about a guy who was a POW in the Vietnam war.  This guy was probably experiencing things the rest of us couldn’t even imagine.  To get himself through this ordeal, he pictured himself building a house.  When he was imagining building this house, he made sure to visualize every minute detail – all the way down to the type of nails used.  When he was finally released, he returned home and built the house he imagined.  He did it so quickly it caused the rest of the people in town to take notice.  When they asked him how he did it so quickly, he told them it was easy.  He had already rehearsed building the house while sitting in his cell.

These same principles can apply to competition.  Before each of my competitions, I imagine every detail of the event – all the way down to the clothing I’m wearing.  What will the playing surface be?  What are my opponents tendencies in certain situations?  I go through all of these things prior to the event.  That way, I can do it perfectly when its game time.

Calm Down

One thing I see a lot is guys who get super fired up (over aroused) before a  competition.  These are the guys who are banging their heads into lockers and just going nuts.  These guys tend to burn out towards the end of the event.  They get so “jacked up” that they are mentally and physically exhausted by the end of the competition.  Personally, I’m a naturally aggressive person.  So, I’ll end up exhausted by the end of the meet if I don’t learn to control it.

As you can see, strong anxiety can impair performance.  So, it’s important for the athlete to learn what their optimal level of arousal is and learn to maintain that.  Visual imagery like either imagining themselves in a quiet place or visualizing their performance can help tremendously.

Find A Distraction

Constantly worrying about an upcoming event can lead to over arousal and anxiety.  In the days leading up to an event, I usually will try to find something to take my mind off the game.  Usually its writing or reading.  Anything that you enjoy doing that has nothing to do with your upcoming competition will work.  Don’t get it confused, spending an hour or so per day rehearsing is a good thing.  Spending your entire day rehearsing is not.

These are a few of the things I use to keep myself focused mentally.  Good luck!

Related posts:

1. Five Things You’re Doing (or not doing) That Are Keeping You From Getting Results
2. Hope For The Holidays Write Up and 12/20/2011 lifts
3. Top Ten Of 2011

Not changing their diet.

I hear it all the time.  “I eat healthy.  Why can’t I lose weight?”  This is usually when I ask them what their version of healthy is.  At this point, I usually find out that their diet resembles dog poo.  The old saying is that you can’t out train a bad diet, and that is absolutely true.  If weight-loss is your goal, diet has to be the number one priority.

Here’s what we’ve had great success with.

Not getting a proper evaluation.

Here, we do a functional movement screen on each individual that comes in the door.  This gives us a starting point for putting together a program.  Without this, a trainer is just arbitrarily assigning exercises.  This is never a good thing.

Not knowing the difference between a program and a workout.

A workout is the group of exercises you did that day.  A program is the cumulative effect of the workouts you’ve done over the course of weeks, months, or years.  Results don’t come from workouts.  They come from programs.  Too many exercise fads and bad trainers focus on the workout and don’t pay any attention to programming or exercise progression.  The best case scenario for this ends in not getting results.  The worst case ends in injury.  Focus on programs.  Not workouts.

 Good at working out.  Not at  programming.

Thinking more is always better.

Many people start exercising with the thought that more is better.  The thought is often, “I lost 10lbs working out three times per week, so if I workout six times per week I’ll lose 20!”  Sure, I know people who lift six or seven days per week, but they will also have carefully thought out nutrition, training, and recovery programs.  The common gym rat doesn’t have this.

Not realizing that intensity is king.

“Fat loss is an all-out war. Give it 28 days — only 28 days. Attack it with all you have. It’s not a lifestyle choice; it’s a battle. Lose fat and then get back into moderation. There’s another one for you: moderation. Revelation says it best: ‘You are lukewarm and I shall spit you out.’ Moderation is for sissies.”

— Dan John

When it comes to exercise for fat loss, intensity is king.  Sure walking long, slow distance can have some benefit, but it won’t do anything for speeding up your metabolism – which is key to weight loss.

Here’s an idea of what we do.

I’m sure there’s more than five things you/others are doing wrong, but here’s a few to get you started.

Related posts:

1. Top 10 things Learned And Achieved For 2011
2. 5/21 Bryan’s Back In Action Results
3. Celebrating Two Years of Doing Things For The Right Reasons

1. Joint Centration is the ideal balance of prime movers and stabilizers acting on a joint.
2. Phasic muscles = prime movers ie the ones you see.
3. Tonic muscles = stabilizers ie the ones you don’t see.
4. A good screening tool will assess Neurodevelopment, Pain and Motor Control, Regional interdependence, and have a High Threshold Strategy.
5. Train Slow doesn’t = be slow.
6. Being aerobically fit will allow you to better recuperate during your rest intervals during Anaerobic training.
7. Always measure biomarkers (grip strength, vertical jump, ect.)
8. Our posture decides our function. 
9. We don’t have bodyparts or systems.  We have bodies.  That’s it.
10. Centration is neurological
11. An unpacked neck during planks is using facial constrictions to hold yourself up.  Not ideal.  Pack the neck.
12. Pain has more to do with perception of threat than it does pathology.
13. When things go bad (stroke or spinal injury) we revert to primitive patterns.
14. The first thing in correcting posture is you must feel like you are wrong.  Consius dysfunction.
15. The belly button must go down and out during breathing.
16. Get round.
17. Breathe in through your nose and out through the mouth.  This stimulates more barrow receptors.
18. Stop trying to use EMG data.  It’s useless.

There’s 18 little tid bit’s learned from this weekend.  I have much more, I just have to go through my notes again.  Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. 2011 Nationals Write Up and Videos
2. Hope For The Holidays Write Up and 12/20/2011 lifts
3. Trainers That Make The Fitness Industry Look Bad

I’m going to preface this post by mentioning that I am NOT a registered dietitian.  If you have health conditions, you should consult with your doctor before making any changes to your diet.

“What should I eat?” or “What should my kids eat?” are probably the two most frequent questions hear from my parents and athletes.  So, I figured I would go ahead and write a little something to give you some guidelines to follow.

First, let’s get a bit of background info in what Calories, Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats are.

Protein

Protein is basically the building blocks of muscle and other tissue in the body.  Good sources of protein are chicken breasts, fish, turkey, and lean beef.  Try to eat the least processed meat possible.  You should be able to tell where the meat come from on an animal.  For example, I know where the breast is on a chicken.  I have no idea where a hot dog or bologna came from.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates (carbs) are the body’s primary energy source during exercise.  The best sources of Carbs are vegetables and fruits.  Try to avoid highly processed Carbs like breads and pastas.

Fats

This is probably the most misunderstood of all the macronutrients (Protein, Carbs, and Fat).  People think “Fat makes you fat”, and they couldn’t be further from the truth.  Fat in the diet is used as an energy source while you’re at rest – like sitting in the car, sitting at work, ect.  Dietary fat is also used as construction material for other organs, like the lining of the nervous system.  Almonds, walnuts, and lean meats mentioned above are great sources of fat.

Ok, now what?

When giving nutritional information to student athletes, it’s important to realize that they have very busy schedules and typically will have a tough time with a complex nutrition program.  So, I prefer the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach as follows:

• Give them the above mentioned basic info
• Eat breakfast
• Eat protein
• Avoid refined carbs (this one is hard for most folks)
• What color is their urine – it should look like lemonade, not apple cider
• If they ask about supplements, tell them to take fish oil

That’s it.  Nutrition advise, like training, should be kept as simple as possible for the athlete.  I generally try to get the point across to them that if they eat like crap, they’ll perform like crap.  That usually does the trick.

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1. Chocolate Milk as A Postworkout Supplement?
2. Energy System Development for Soccer
3. This Is Who We Are.

There is a recent blog post on the strengthcoach blog about the disconnect between the trainer and client.  Read the post here.  I really liked the post and thought that I would share it with you.

The article talks about the difference between what is important to the client and what the trainer perceives to be important to them.  While fitness may be the number one priority for the trainer, it may only be 3rd or 4th on the list for the client.  To the client, fitness is typically just something they do a couple of times per week to fulfill a need to lose weight, reduce medications, or increase self-esteem.  The quicker the trainer realizes this, the better.

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1. Why Most Speed And Agility Camps Don’t Work
2. Here’s Where Your Trainer is Getting It Wrong Part I
3. Top Ten Of 2011