Sports Fitness

While I was in Phuket Thailand, I got the golden opportunity to train with One FC and Bellator fighter Andrew Leone, who is the head wrestling coach at Phuket Top Team. Continue reading →

In the initial years of commercial gyms, gym members taught each other what they knew. New members learned from old-timers. In the 1980s, gym owners demonstrated exercises, checked form and wrote programs in the first week as members signed up, then usually the old hands stepped in to help the newbies move toward intermediate status. Those natural processes began to shift about the time we opened the World Gym Santa Cruz in 1989. Dave’s instinct after his long history from the New Jersey YMCA through the Dungeon and Joe Gold’s original gym was to set up the gym where the staff helped the members get started, and as needed over time. But that wasn’t exactly what the members were looking for. Individualized personalized training was gaining traction and if people could afford it, that’s what they wanted. We didn’t have a personal training program, and didn’t know how to put one in place. We had a few friends who did training for pay, and they became our gym’s trainers. This worked for them and for the members, which is good, but in hindsight I doubt if anyone thinks it was a good business plan for the gym. After our first weekend with Thom Plummer, that depressing trip in 1994, over the course of the next few months we fixed nearly everything on his long list. But he didn’t have a fix-it for the personal training profit center. He and the gym owners he advised were testing different pricing structures and splits, but they hadn’t settled on anything. Two years later when we went back for a refresher, the ideas were different, but they still hadn’t solidified into something that worked more often than not. Today he has that answer. He knows how to structure pricing plans to suit the clientele, and to financially serve the gym. And he gives the basic outline in this new lecture dvd.

This is not the normal fodder for this blog, but I like this guy and his attitude. Read more from him here.

I met my wife in 1994 when she signed up for my martial art school, while she was still in high school, just a baby of 17. She excelled and became a national champion Sambo fighter within a year. We had obvious chemistry between us, but as a policy I never have had relationships with students because the relationship would be unfair, as I was “coach” and they were “athlete.” Relationships however are equal listen-and-share parallels. Two years after meeting her, she walked into my office the week she was leaving for college on the other side of the country. Slamming her fist on my desk she asked, ”So that’s IT? You have nothing to say to me?” I couldn’t say anything about my feelings because it would be dishonorable to pursue it as her coach. She turned and stormed out of the school. She didn’t speak to me for six years: angry and hurt at my withholding of my feelings toward her. I regretted my decision month after month, but departing for Russia, I became consumed with my studies there, as she was similarly immersed in her university program. Ages later, one Christmas evening mass, I saw her walking through the pews. She floated by me, not recognizing my long hair and beard, recently returned from the cold, Russian winter. Instantly standing, I dashed after her, but she was nowhere to be found. In the days that followed, I tried to find her, but her rightfully-protective mother refused to disclose her phone number or email address. I finally convinced her to at least convey mine to her daughter. An email appeared in my inbox, succinctly asking what I wanted. So, I explained that I had hoped to buy her a ticket to fly back to my side of the country for the weekend to go out on a date with me. She didn’t answer for a week, and then reluctantly agreed. I sent her the ticket, but received in the mail a check from her parents for the pricetag of the flight and in the note field of the check: “…so our daughter does not feel obligated.” Our date felt awkward and fumbling, confusing and uncomfortable, and totally confirmed my suspicion that I had been in love with her for the many years since I met her. She advised me that I had hurt her greatly, that her life was finally now where she wanted it, and that she didn’t need any major upheaval again. “I’m not known for traveling in calm waters,” I laughed. She didn’t think I was funny. Flying back home, I didn’t know if she ever wanted to see me again. But she had given me a letter and made me promise to not open it until she departed. As the tires lifted off the tarmac, I opened it. She told me everything, from the beginning of our story together… And disclosed her true feelings. She loved me as well, but feared my tendency to abruptly change when I felt so inclined. She did not want to be hurt again. The next week, I packed my car, closed all of my accounts, and found an apartment on her side of the country. (Perhaps validating her concern about my abruptness!) In two and a half days of crazy 15 hour sprints, I arrived on the West Coast. Rather than drive to my new apartment, I drove straight to her at work. Shocked, I could see her concerns: of course if I could do something so rash as to move across the country to date her, couldn’t I then make a reckless decision and abruptly end our blossoming relationship? Although it appears from the radical nature of my life’s choices that I make decisions in haste, my mother taught me: 1. When you believe in something, you must be willing to sacrifice everything to pursue it. 2. If it doesn’t work out, trying to force it will only bring you great suffering and failure. 3. Knowing the difference between 1 and 2 is the hardest thing in life. “I always wondered why birds stay in the same place when they could choose to fly anywhere on the Earth, but then I ask myself the same question,” wrote an un

A private meeting was in the Concord and Lexington area, purposely located to symbolize the future of what is happening in Boston. I predict that more private style workshops such as the one hosted by Ricardo will be the future. Flying halfway around the world needs to be more than just visiting a professional team and doing a keynote, the bar is raised as hotel and airports are not enough to make sure speakers are happy. Speakers want to learn and network as well, as they need to be aware of what is going on or find themselves seated watching the new blood like some are doing now. With several conferences fading and some extinct (Remember when SWIS was huge?) the disruption is keeping the speakers enticed, the attendees happy, and the vendors satisfied. Of course the people behind the conference such as Art Horne need to be thanked beyond he handshake and blog nods, as he is the one driving this and his hard work is appreciated. Two presentations (Keynote) were Saturday morning and both were excellent. Keynotes are important as they are presentations everyone should watch because they are that universal and valuable. This year was more data driven and Fergus Connolly presented on High Performance. Anticipating the future and being cutting edge Art Horne reached out to Fergus, likely because of the Leaders in Performance credibility. I pleaded to share more examples of solutions by his work. For example, after practice share what the decision trees after practice for Rugby with regards to lifting and workout design and medical integration per day. Just three athletes with post game to pre game during a week would have been a game changer. Fergus made the right choice and gave principles to get people exposed to High Performance management, as skipping that step is good for 5% of the audience but the majority must be educated and exposed to new concepts. I was trying to take pictures of his dashboard and photos of moneyball for this blog, but the ken burns effect made the dashboard flash a moving target. I felt like I was getting hypnotized from the animation and needed to get some fresh air. Fergus did a fine job sharing his impressions of what was necessary, and his breakout session was more open for questions. Stu and the battle of Waterloo was awesome. I will be using unholy like a bizzaro Robin as Dr. McGill always does a nice job. Three huge points of contention were brought up. One, the issue with FMS and prediction of injury or similar. I know I have been hard on the FMS but honestly I do a similar set of screens for mobility as part of my assessment. Still, some don't want to talk about how effective it is. I like Gray Cook but now we are starting to get a little revisionist history. The great thing about conferences is when they video people's beliefs, tough to delete it unless they are burning the tapes. We have a problem with DYI Drones in the NFL spying during practice! These guys are so smart they are not buying them but building them just in case they crash! Back to Stu. He brought up points that I stated about single leg exercises and FMS screens and he is going to debate Gray Cook at Stanford. Like a rap battle, I expect a few one liners and some awesome research by Stu. I think Gray Cook needs to rethink the research beyond the Rob Butler stuff because most of the research doesn't zero in. Stu warned about hyper loading the single leg exercises with spine and pelvic strain. He also warned about thoracic mobility exercises and showed an alternative. Now another point I wanted to address to Stu was his use of GSP to validate core and the use of the pulse. If you look at the slide it's too fuzzy to see the EMG rate but anyone doing a ballistic Kettlebell swing takes just as long as an olympic lift. I love how Stu says anytime he hears a statement he goes to the lab to find out. Marco showed this on EMG (not saying it's only the cardinal sign) but I think we need like Fergus said more field

“Jackie” 1000 meter row 45lbs 20kg, 50 reps 30 pull-ups Post results to comments 6am and 7am Only Today Gym closed for regionals.

Just a heads up I wrote yesterdays blog.  It was an article that I wrote for school.  So it is a super-nerdle paper and yes lots of prof reading! In 1967 Fitts and Posner wrote and article called “Human Performance.”  They find that and suggest that the learning process happens in sequential phases.  They also found that we move through specific phases as we learn.  Their are 3 phases we go through as we learn a new skill, and they are cognitive, associative, and autonomous.  The Cognitive Phase is phase 1 of the learning stages.  The athlete just dose not get it.  This ties in too my 3 strikes your out rule and most of the time if you are striking out its just that you are in this stage of learning.  The athlete is learning what to do and has a lot of trouble with the task and cannot carry out the movement the way you asked them to.  Treats of the cognitive phase are jerky movements, hesitation, shakiness, lack of control, inconsistent repetitions, slow movements, limited range of motion.  Phase 2 is the Associative Phase this is when the athlete is beginning to get it.  The athlete is challenging themselves to put the component parts of the skill into a smooth action.  You are out of the 3 strikes your out rule mostly because the athlete is practicing the skill, using feedback to perfect it and correcting the movement.  Traits of the Associative Phase are minimal shakiness, increased range of motion, increased speed, deliberate movement, and better adjustment.  The 3rd and final stage of the learning phases is The Autonomous Phase.  This is the “They got it phase!”  In this phase the athlete has learned the new skill.  The skill becomes automatic and involves little or no conscious thought or attention while performing the skill.  At this point you are ready to be coached.  Traits of the Autonomous Phase are effortless movement, client doesn’t to need to pay attention, client talks during exercise, and no muscular failure. Test the learning phases. Test 1: Walking Lunges Test 2: Reverse Walking Lunges Test 3: Walking Lunges and signing the ABC Test 4: Reverse Walking Lunges and singing the ABC Now the fun begins… Test 5: Walking Lunges and signing the ABC backwards Test 6: Reverse Walking Lunges and singing the ABC backwards Most people can not pass test 5 unless they know the ABC backwards.  Now that we know what the 3 phases of learning are we can begin to understand if we should progress or regress a movement.  The progression criteria for a movement should be to evaluate the movement outcome and decide if this is the appropriate exercise for our you.  When you reach the autonomous phase and only than should you progress the movement.  If you are starting a movement and you are in the cognitive/associative phase than that’s a good start.  If you see to many of the cognitive traits you should regress the movement and create a bridge between the movement and the learning phases.  The sooner we understand these principles the faster the learning curve will happen. It is important to understand where we are at in the learning phase.  So if you tend to be a “Hot Mess” you might want to check your egos and regress the exercise.  Same thing goes for if you are an SB^2 (Sand Bagging Son of a Bitch!) this means you need to grow a pair and start progressing you exercise. Tomorrow I will look at Adaptation, Accommodation, The SAID Principle, The Overload Principle and the Rest Principle.

WOD For time: 100 Pull ups 100 Kettlebell swings 55/70 100 Double unders

"Omar" For time: 95 pound barbell Thrusters, 10 15 Bar-facing burpees 95 pound barbell Thrusters, 20 25 Bar-facing burpees 95 pound barbell Thrusters, 30 35 Bar-facing burpees Post time to comments. Enlarge image U.S. Army First Lieutenant Omar Vazquez, 25, of Hamilton, New Jersey, assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based in Fort Hood, Texas, died of...

This article is guest blogged by Mat Herold, a former D-1 soccer player and certified strength and conditioning coach with a Masters of Science degree in Exercise Physiology.  Visit his website at www.empoweredathletes.com Mat also wrote Lionel Messi’s 40 Yard Dash and Olympic Lifts for Soccer Players and From Soccer Player To Jumper: 1 Year, 14 Lessons Later If you recall my last episode on SpeedEndurance TV titled Top 5 Weight Training Exercises for Sprinters, you’ll notice there were a lot of comments regarding variations. So here is another list with explanations. What are YOUR Top 5 exercises? My Top 5 Exercises In The Weight Room 1. Squats When I first started learning about how weight training can improve athletic power, squats were always mentioned as the king of lower body training. I got my squat poundage up a bit and low and behold, my acceleration and jumping performances improved. At the high school where I was working as a strength coach, every athlete who had a good vertical jump and a good 40 time had a good back squat relative to their build. (I say “build” because some tall lengthy guys who don’t necessarily have the biggest squats display their strength very well on the field or track). Then I started reading about single leg training and how the bilateral squat was dependent upon back strength and not so much on leg strength. It was also a time when I was lacking a lot of understanding in my own training and I got into the habit of testing too often. Needless to say, I was experiencing some back pain and so, for awhile I abandoned the back squat. Eventually, when I started getting into jumping as a goal, after a lot of research and training myself and others, two things became apparent to me: Anyone outside of athletic freaks who never lift (who within a week could probably back squat tons of weight) anyone I saw who achieved massive gains on their vertical jumps off of two legs did so by increasing their back squat. The ability to back squat deep with good form is a good indicator of injury prevention and structural balance. In addition, with proper mobility in place, while yes a bilateral back squat will always require some back strength and spinal stability, it is still dependent on it’s prime movers; the legs. 2. Walking Lunges/Bulgarian split squats I love these exercises. They do things the back squat cannot. Having one leg trailing works hip extension in the front leg a bit differently than bilateral exercises…part of this being that you can really cover distance from front to back in the transverse plane with the lead leg. These single leg superstars require a tremendous amount of stability in the frontal plane at the ankle and knee joints as well. 3. Glut-ham raises For top speed sprinting, for knee health, for preventing hamstring injuries, and for hypertrophy in the hamstrings, I find a lot of value in these. Fast folks have powerful glutes and hamstrings, and this is a great way to train the latter. By lowering with heavier weight than coming back up and/or dropping in and rebounding back up, one can really train the eccentric aspect of the hamstrings. 4. RDL/Back Extensions I love these for top speed and training overall hip extension. The back extension loads the glutes similarly to a hip thrust in the end range of hip extension or antero-posteriorly. By varying tempos and sometimes working on “bouncing” out of the bottom with lighter loads, these can be a great reactive exercise as well. 5. Hip flexion with a cable Resisted hip flexion has been proven in one study to get athletes faster. Usain Bolt is supposed to have one of the thickest and strongest hip flexors and his coach Glen Mills believes in the hip flexors being important for speed and posture for speed. Bonus! Step ups for strength and and step up jumps (loaded and unloaded) at various heights – these are great but require a range of box or bench heights. Higher boxes work the glutes and hamstrings more while l