Thursday, June 24, 2010

Wanna improve? Lift Heavy!

I got a chance yesterday to get in the weight room, something I will not have the opportunity to do a ton this summer because of my busy schedule. Now this doesn't mean I won't be training, as I've learned how to use anything I can find to get a training session in. However, I always love getting back in the weight room because it gives me a chance to move some heavy weight. I'm not saying I'm He-Man, but I do understand that in order to get reach my goals, I need to work with heavy loads.

A misconception that I hear a lot is that when people want to improve in any area, they tend to stay away from lifting heavy. Somebody trying to "just tone" their muscles (which is another post for another day) does high reps, as does a person trying to lose weight. Somebody trying to jump higher, does endless jumps with their bodyweight. There is a better way to improve strength, body composition, in-game performance and build muscle, and its working with heavy weights.

I am not suggesting that somebody with no experience goes in and tries to squat 300 pounds. What I am saying is that after you have built up a level of strength where you can squat and deadlift your weight for 10 perfect reps, you need to start working with heavier weights. Instead of continuing with the programs that most beginnners are on of 3 sets of 10 reps, or doing a program you find in a muscle mag that calls for slow reps that last 30 seconds, start adding weight with 3 sets of 6-8 reps. After a few weeks of that, 4-5 sets of 4-5 reps. What many advocate, including somebody that after finding his website got me really interested in training as a career, Joe Defranco whose site is linked below, is working up to a 3-5 rep max on the big lifts of bench press, squat and deadlift and their variations. For more on this type of program, leave me a comment below.

Do not do all 3 of these lifts with heavy weights every session, but pick one to start out with and make it your heavy exercise for the day. If you improve on those 3 exercises then the rest of the improvements will be sure to follow.

Before you do anything, find a qualified coach that can teach you how to perform certain exercises and put you on a program to work up to a level to begin heavy lifting. If you are already at that level, start adding weight to the bar!

The benefits of heavy lifting are numerous, like an increase in ligament and tendon strength and an increase in testosterone production, as well as an increase in the speed you are able to move lighter loads. Also, the dirty looks you get from 140 pound trainers for deadlifting because it will hurt your back or the increase in times your asked how you met Barry Bonds' trainer. (Ok, the last one was a stretch, but I had to have some fun, I just got out of the car after 8 hours. But the first one WILL happen. When it does, smile, grip and rip that bar off the floor!)

So add some weight to the bar when you're ready. And it doesn't need to be a lot. A 5 pound increase in your deadlift, squat or bench every month for 5 years is 300 pounds. That may sound like a long time, but remember, this is a journey, not some quick fix.

If you have questions about exercises, programming or either of the two for a certain goal or sport, be sure to leave them below, as well as any comments!

I don't know if I will be able to post next week because I'll be working basketball camp in the Pocono's, but I'll be sure to get you some good stuff after the 4th!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A Few Simple Steps to Fat Loss cont'd

Sorry for the delay, but between my brothers bachelor party weekend, driving back down to VA for class last night and the USA's dramatic victory this morning, I've been swamped!

But as promised, here is the second installment of Simple Steps to Fat Loss...

5. Eat breakfast every day
This can't be emphasized enough. Breakfast does a number of things to promote fat loss. First, its starts off your metabolism early in the morning. Second, it will help you feel more full later in the day, which should decrease the chance of over eating at later meals. A lot of people say they just aren't hungry in the morning. I understand that, but force yourself to have something. Then there are people who say they don't have time. To those people I say that they are not committed to changing their body. When you don't eat breakfast, your metabolism slows down and you will end up stuffing yourself at lunch and dinner. You know what that sounds like to me? A sumo wrestlers diet. They train in the morning only to eat piles of food for over an hour in order to gain weight and slow down their metabolism. Do you want to look like a sumo wrestler? Didn't think so. So eat breakfast.

6. Small meals throughout the day
Much like starting the day with a meal, you want to keep your metabolism working all day long. You never want to feel starved because that's when your prone to over eat and/or grab something from the vending machine. The only way you can do this is by preparing yourself each day to do so. Bring fresh fruit with you to work. Drink a shake in between small meals. I'm not saying this is easy to do, but it can work wonders for fat loss because you never allow yourself to get extremely hungry or extremely full.

7. Fibrous foods first
Start lunch and dinner off with a salad, or make it lunch and dinner as you get used to eating smaller meals. Salads are great because they are low in calories, provide a feeling a fullness and most of us don't eat nearly enough vegetables anyway. And be creative with what you put in your salad. Mix it up from week to week. Fresh vegetables are great this time of year so go out and try some new things and try them in your salad. As great an idea as salads are, don't ruin them with heavy, creamy dressings. Use a splash of olive oil and vinegar and the real flavor of your salad will come out.

8. Water only
This is what I tell people to start out with when attempting to lose fat. Get rid of the empty calories in sugary drinks. I allow myself coffee in the morning with milk and sugar and a post-workout shake, but other than that, it's water throughout the day. Most of us don't drink the recommended amount of water anyway, so I recommend keeping a bottle on you all day long. Get a water filter and use water fountains at work to fill up and try to avoid buying bottled water daily. There have been studies done on the harmful affects of drinking from plastic water bottles. But by drinking only water throughout the day you can cut as many at 500 calories! So drop the soda and energy drinks and stick to water!

This has been a short list and the things you can do to lose weight are endless. But I feel that taken one at a time, these can help jump start your goal of fat loss and a healthier lifestyle. Remember, building the body you want does not happen overnight, but can happen by being consistent and disciplined in what you do on a daily basis.

Because this post came later in the week, look for another one very soon!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Get it done

I drove home Tuesday night after class (from 10:30pm-6:45am) and I obviously had a lot of time to think. The two things that come up a lot are my two passions in life - training and business.

So I thought about what my training would be like for the rest of the week seeing as I would probably not have access to a gym since I will be at my girlfriends house for the next few days, then traveling on Friday to see the rest of the family and get ready for a weekend with some friends.

Well, what ended up happening is that I had one of the best workouts I've had in a while. Here is what me and my girlfriend did last night:

15 min. dynamic warm-up
4 laps around a track in the following manner - sprint the first 50 yards of a straightaway, jog to the start of the next.
Push ups - 3 sets
Chin ups on the back of the football field stands - 3 sets

1/2 mile on the track doing the same thing

After this workout, we were both pretty fried. Especially me, since I haven't done sprints on a flat surface for the past 3 weeks because I have fallen in love with hill sprints and sled pulls.

The point of me telling you what I did last night was to show you that anywhere you go there are opportunities to have a great workout. You don't need fancy equipment, air conditioned gyms or sparkling spring water. Get a partner and/or some good music and get it done. There are no excuses to building the body you want. People have done so with far less than what many have these days.

If you are new to training or just have questions, leave a comment or shoot me an email letting me know what equipment you have or where you would like to train and whats around. Chances are you can build muscle, strength and athleticism no matter how little you think you have access to.

I'll post on the next 4 simple steps to fat loss next. I really felt like I needed to get this topic out there.

Monday, June 14, 2010

A Few Simple Steps to Fat Loss

This week’s posts will be on the topic of fat loss. I will touch on 8 things I think can help in this area that are very simple to do. One of my favorite books is, Success Principles, by Jack Canfield. He recommends trying to change behaviors 1 at a time and to give it 6 months. This is only 2 behaviors a year, but think of those bad habits you can get rid of and good habits you can create in the next 10 years!
I recommend doing the same. Start out with 1 of these at a time, and when you feel comfortable with it and it becomes a natural habit or behavior, on to the next one. I will start with the first 4 that are based on training and activity. The next post later in the week will be more focused on diet.
Before I start, here is a great article I read yesterday for those of you who don’t want to lose weight, but gain slabs of muscle. This is a topic I deal with all of the time with my own athletes and this really hit home for me. http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/training-articles/the-young-skinny-training-with-add-guy%E2%80%99s-guide-to-gaining-mass-and-strength/
Here are your first 4 simple steps to fat loss…

1. Strength train
Study after study shows that resistance training does a number of things to improve body composition and overall health. Through resistance training, you can lower body fat, increase metabolism, burn fat more efficiently for a longer period of time and build a strong, athletic looking physique. Train with the big, compound movements and limit isolation exercises. You can build a lot of strength through squats, deadlifts, rows, pull ups, bench press, military press and lunges. If you’re just starting out, look for the owner of your gym or an older athlete to help you with form. Stay in the 8-12 rep range. If you’re a beginner, you will get stronger quickly because of your body getting more efficient at the movements.

2. NEPA
This stands for non-exercise physical activity. This can be any number of things that only need you to be actively aware of your daily actions. Taking the stairs, not the elevator. Parking farther away from the store in the parking lot. Carrying your groceries and not pushing them in a cart. Mowing the lawn with a push mower instead of the riding mower. Like I said, this can be anything that gets you moving a little bit more on a daily basis.

3. After dinner walks
This probably goes along with NEPA, but I like it so much I let it stand alone. What do most Americans do after getting home from work? Eat dinner and sit in front of the tv until they go to sleep. So the dinner you ate is not being burned off AT ALL! Getting a few of those calories burned off from dinner with a 30-60 minute walk will do wonders if your body has been used to sitting around after dinner for years. Enjoy the cool summer nights, especially since across the country right now, its pretty tough to exercise outside during the day.

4. Sprint
This is my favorite and I have been hearing more and more about it in the last couple of years. Steady-state cardio is ok, but there are more effective ways to burn fat. Sprinting is definitely one of them. This doesn’t mean you have to go out to the track and run 100 meter dash’s for an hour, but some kind of interval training is great for fat loss. The analogy I hear all of the time is, would you rather look like a marathon runner or an Olympic sprinter? Most people will say they would rather look like the strong, athletic monsters that run sprints. This is why sprinting cannot be beat.

As a side note, my favorite kind of sprinting is running hills. There are a few reasons for this: As Jason Ferrugia said in his blog, with hill sprints less of a warm-up is needed and there is a smaller chance of injury than sprinting on a flat surface. The other reason I like them is because you can work them in a couple different ways. First, you can set a certain number of sprints and time yourself. The next workout, you must try to beat that time. The other way is to set a time and try to beat the number of sprints you do each workout. I can personally tell you, hill sprints will get you in better shape in a hurry and you will most certainly benefit from them with regards to leg strength and conditioning. The last reason I like them, is because they are hard. There is no getting around it, sprinting up a hill is hard work and when you get through a workout and your legs are shaky and you feel like you might not make it to your car, it is the best feeling in the world because you know you just did a tougher workout than 90% of the population and that is a key to success. Do what others won’t or can’t do.

I’ll be back at the end of the week to talk about 4 areas that have to do with nutrition.

Don’t forget to leave any thoughts or questions below.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Progression and Consistency

You can find a quick fix for anything these days, especially fitness and health. Ads talking about the best muscle building routine or supplement guaranteed to get you ripped in 2 weeks, or late night info-mercials selling weird contraptions that you only need to use for 7 minutes a day. Of course they sound great, but these weird tools are only marketing gimmicks that are used to make the owner a quick buck.
It amazes me that people get sucked into purchasing some of these tools. I feel as though it would be similar to somebody coming on tv and saying, “learn advanced bio-engineering in 30 days!!! GUARANTEED!!!”. I don’t think anybody would fall for that one, so why do we in the fitness world?
Very few things happen like they do in the fitness world. Pro athletes train for years to become pro athletes. Doctors are in school for years before they are actually doctors. Most people work at a job for around 40 years before they retire!!!
The same principles apply for building the body that you want. It doesn’t happen overnight. However, every single day you can behave in a manner that can help you get to your ultimate goal.
For those of us who want to build a strong, athletic looking physique, progression and consistency are key. I believe anybody that wants to build muscle and look like a beast when they are at the beach (or lake) over the summer must make deadlifts, squats, pull ups, bench press, military press and dips at the forefront of any program. But, there is a progression one needs to go through before getting to these major exercises. I’m not going to start somebody off with bench press if they have never lifted a day in their life. So one must progress to these, by starting with push ups, adding weight to those push ups, elevating the feet, performing 1-arm medicine ball push ups and explosive push ups.
With the amount of information on the internet, progressing to all of these exercises would be a daunting task, so every week or so I will give a progression for another great exercise that should be in everybody’s training.
Along with progression, is consistency. Like I said before, building the body that you want does not take weeks or months, but many times, years. The more you train your body, the more you learn about your body and the way it reacts. Don’t hate the process of becoming healthy and more fit, but learn to enjoy the journey, because everyone should be on the lifelong journey of being healthy, no matter how you personally define physical health.
So below is the progression I use with my athletes for the bench press. I usually start with 3-4 sets of 10-15 perfect reps. If the rep is not perfect, it doesn’t count. I normally wait until an athlete can do 10 push ups with a 45lb plate on their back, they are more than ready to bench press.
Push up progression
1. Push up
2. Feet elevated push up
3. Medicine ball alternating push ups
4. Weighted push up – vest, plate or bands
5. Feet elevated weighted push up
6. Dumbbell Bench press
7. Bench press

If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to leave a comment.

Next week I will start off with some simple, everyday fat loss tips.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Change the Game

The name of this blog is, Change the Game Sports Performance. When I was thinking of a name and bouncing ideas off of a couple of my best friends, this one seemed to make the most sense.


Even though I want to work with anybody who has the desire to better themself physically and mentally, the majority of the people I have worked with and will continue to work with are athletes. With that in mind, my goal with any athlete is to prepare them and give them the confidence to compete at the highest level that they can. And, not only compete, but to have the oppotunity to change the game because of their capabilities and work ethic.


In another way, athletes can change the game through the way they act on and off the field of play. Like any other coach, I want the athletes I train to work relentlessly in every aspect of training. But I also want my athletes to be the most respectful in the classroom and within their communities.


So much showboating goes on now and it makes me sick. I spent the last two years recruiting for a very good D3 men's basketball team and it took no time at all for me to cross kids off because of a lack of respect for their coach's, parents and the game.


I want to coach the kids that want to be great athletes and great people. Hard work and sacrifice pays off. Being great at anything is not easy and takes drive, discipline and determination. And I think people can learn a lot of those principles through strength training.


Change the Game - on and off the court

Strength For When It Counts


Bobby

Welcome...

Post #1...really not sure how to start since my bio is sitting off to the right, so I'll just let you know what you can plan on seeing from this blog on a pretty regular basis:



I plan on giving you links to video's, articles and anything else that I have read that I think you may find of interest. From nutrition to exercise protocols, I will be broad and general in the area that covers health and fitness, from the standpoint of a strength and conditioning coach.



I also plan on filling you in on what I am doing. As of right now, I will be working with a number of collegiate teams when they get back to campus at the end of the summer and I am already working with 2 teams with their off-season training. I will mostly talk about my professional work, but may throw in some personal stuff that may be important.



Along with what I am doing, I will let you know when I am offering certain services, which may be at a low cost or for free, seeing as I want as much experience as I can get before finishing school and heading home to continue learning and working in this great field that I have built such a passion for.

More than anything, this will be the learning process that I go through as I go through the steps to make myself a successful strength and conditioning coach and personal trainer.

I thank you for reading and starting this journey with me that will lead to my own sports performance business one day. I expect many ups and downs and I am happy that I can share the path that I will travel on.




Change the Game

Strength for When it Counts





Bobby