More Photos

Yes, I recently figured out how to use the sport function on my camera, this is a really great sequence of the hang clean by Blaine K. an Ohio State Swimmer.

Mulit-Directional Triple Extension

Took some pictures of one of my athletes laterally jumping and hang cleaning today.  Triple extension is important, and triple extension in a 3 dimensional manner makes it athletic!  This way you are training to react explosively in any direction your sport may take you.

Lateral Triple Extension

Resisted Triple Extension with a hang clean.

Pictures Courtesy of Taylor D., University of Kentucky Soccer Player

Photo Sequence 2

Amy S performs a broad jump in this sequence.  Centerville Soccer

Jump Sequence 1

 

  

 

Photo Sequence of a Lateral Broad Jump by Sean K.  Alter Football Player

 

box jump record broken again

Max L jumped a 46” box today! 

Structure and Progression

For the last 6 months to a year, my workout partner and I, along with a select few clients have experimented with various high intensity methods of training.  From timed workouts, to ladders, to combinations of weights, bodyweight and various other tools (suspension systems, sandbags, tractor tires, etc).  Where we have shown progress to a certain degree, that progress can not be tracked or predicted.  The biggest complaints are the various stages of overuse injuries, and a lack of ability to accurately increase and decrease intensity to elicit a desired response. 

Most of my clients are in one way or another, athletes, that have continuing competitions through out the year, not just a single competition or a single cluster of competitions during the year.  So I don’t have the luxury of killing them solidly, and hoping they recover for a single event, they must be have periods of intensity and periods of recovery  in order to achieve super compensation and avoid overtraining and mental burnout.

 

I don’t want there to be any mistake, lessons learned from high intensity programming has a place in producing the fatigue response, but it is extremely difficult to gauge or program recovery in order to get to an improved super compensated response on a strict diet of balls to the wall intensity!

The other concern here is not just performance improvements, but also the recovery time is used to grew and strengthen the mechanical aspects of athletic movement, improvements in bone, ligament and tendon density, that allows for an increase in time spent training injury free.  It is impossible to guarantee 100% injury free training, but you can increase this time with strategically placed recovery, without minimal loss of performance. 

The unfortunate influx of training programs that use only what I call “primitive equipment” sandbags, tires, etc are limited in their adjustability, so they can only be used in a high intensity manner.  This lack of adjustability, means they are easy to administer (it doesn’t take a great deal of ability to beat someone into the ground) with very little training, background,or education, and it makes athletes sweaty, tired and sore, so it must be working right?  In the short term yes, in the long term, boredom and overtraining injuries are on the horizon.  It is the same cycle of training/injury/rehabilitation shown with traditionally trained endurance athletes such as swimmers, rowers and runners.

I can attest that this process of discovery has been much like breaking and addiction for most athletes.  When you have been trained at this intensity every day, all the time, backing down and re-starting intensity cycles is a daunting wall to climb.  This being said I think it is necessary to examine the evidence of past training, regardless of your situation and learn from the positive and negative aspects, and make appropriate changes. 

The key is constant experimentation, learning from mistakes, keeping what works, and moving on with a goal of consistent improvement..

Interesting pyramid

I'm not sure you could explain nutrition any better.

Pictures from today

Louise Flipping The Tire

Blaine K

The box Jump Challenge is up to 43” for sets of 12 jumps!

Take the multivitamin like I keep telling you!

A new study in the journal Obesity, by Y. Li and colleagues, showed that compared to a placebo, a low-dose multivitamin caused obese volunteers to lose 7 lb (3.2 kg) of fat mass in 6 months, mostly from the abdominal region (4). The supplement also reduced LDL by 27%, increased HDL by a whopping 40% and increased resting energy expenditure

Tomorrow's fun

warm ups: 

anchored sit ups x 20 with 25% of bodyweight dumbbell on chest

Russian twists 40 seconds sprint

front plank 60s

x3

Main Set:

continuous tire flips x 10

tire jumps x 10

push press x 50% bodyweight x 10

rest 2 min

x5

should be a good time.

Keys to successful weight loss

1. Nutrition – This is so important, it is almost 90% of the importance of the rest of the list combined.  Whole natural foods, diet low in processed items (white flour and sugar), and high in lean proteins,  fruits and vegetables will always be the best course to long term weight loss.  Carbohydrate choices that favor whole fruits and vegetables over grain based carbohydrates should dominate your diet, but a small amount of whole grain carbohydrates will round out a sensible effective diet.

2. Intensive exercise – Intensive is a relative word.  Intensive to the average person isn’t going to be intensive to an elite athlete.  The key is to keep your average intensity scale in the “difficult be manageable”  category.   Interval training can be based on cardiovascular equipment like a treadmill or a airdyne exercise bike, or with circuited weight routines or bodyweight circuits.  All of these forms of exercise can be combined to elicit the same effect of a portion of hard work followed by a portion of rest.  15-45 seconds of work to 60-90 seconds of rest for 6-15 intervals is a good scale for setting up the exercise circuit.

3.  Hydration -  Water makes up a large majority of your body, so getting into a dehydrate state is very detrimental to your over all metabolic levels.  Water emulsifies fats in your system, flushes toxins from your digestive system, and allows for proper endocrine function.

4.  Sleep – study after study has shown that people that get inadequate sleep eat more and gain more weight than those that sleep more.  Enough said.

This is a short but important list of facts that will get you on the road to better body composition.

Box Jumps Pics

40” box jumps, caught a couple of jumps on camera.  Max L a breast stroke swimmer and Collin W a football player

Awesome example of power

Workout from today

- dynamic warm up and stretching

set 1

mountain climbers x 60

push ups x 30

dumbbell swings x 25  dumbbell weight  equal to 25% of bodyweight

rest 90 seconds

x3

set 2

overhead walking lunges 25#/45# weight plate 100 ft

dumbbell curl + shoulder press x 15 dumbbell weight equal to 15% of bodyweight

dumbbell squat + high pull x 15 dumbbell weight equal to 15% of bodyweight

x3

set 3

30 seconds of plank (side/front/other side) with 12 jump squats between each section of plank

x3