The Fitness Puzzle – Which Piece Are You Missing?
When it comes to fitness goals, most people end up falling short of where they would like to be. Part of that is the lofty expectations that people have, and part of it is our “instant gratification” society where people want a quick fix. But take out the people who expect to lose 20 pounds in a month, and there are still plenty of others who make a commitment to diet or exercise and never see the results that they would like. It’s often something that the individual doesn’t realize
Get Stronger by Pushing Through the Wall
If you’ve tuned into any of the Olympic Trials recently, you have surely seen some of the incredible performances that athletes have left on the competitive stage. While these athletes have undergone thousands of hours of physical training, these phenomenal performances go deeper than just physical training. Athletes, like Sydney McLaughlin, the most recent 400m hurdles world record holder, are not impressing the world by staying within their comfort zones. When practicing to push their bodies to their limits, athletes must also practice pushing their minds to those same limits. The
5 Movements Youth Athletes Need to Train
According to Stanford Children’s Health Organization, about thirty million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries occur each year. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many of these athletes are going through their “peak height velocity” period, also known as the growth spurt. Growth spurts usually occur at around age 12 for females and age 14 in males. During this phase, bones weaken, muscle imbalances develop, and muscle-tendon units tighten. All of which are risk factors for injury. Young
Stay Strong, Stay Fast
Delay Age-Related Decline with Speed Development Training Techniques for speed development can be employed by people of all ages, with minimal equipment, in order to boost overall physical health and delay age-related muscular changes. What is speed development? In simple terms, it is training to produce a maximal amount of force in a minimal amount of time. This type of training produces a different effect on the body compared to generating moderate force over a long-duration activity. As the human body ages, overall muscle mass declines, and fast-twitch muscle fiber declines more rapidly
Does Your Behavior Match Your Goals?
As a strength and conditioning coach, I work with a variety of people who have lofty goals—including losing weight, hitting a certain body fat percentage, playing a D1 sport in college, or passing a municipal physical performance test. Many people are clearly focused on their goal and act accordingly; they plan ahead, they complete training sessions no matter how tired or busy they are, and they take charge of all of the details outside of the gym (sleep, hydration, nutrition, stress management). Others clearly have some type of internal conflict, because their
Build Your Athletic Foundation with Three Simple Foot Exercises
Once upon a time, a buck, drinking from a crystal spring, saw himself mirrored in the clear water. He greatly admired the graceful arch of his antlers, but he was very much ashamed of his tiny hooves. At that moment he sensed a predator and bounded away through the forest. As he ran, his wide-spreading antlers caught in the branches of the trees, and soon the predator overtook him. Then the buck realized that his feet would have saved him had it not been for the ornaments on his head. Similar to
Be Better Than an IG Model
From sitting down and scrolling through social media to the hundreds of commercials we’ve all seen, a defined mid section has always been highlighted. From professional athletes to superstar models, it seems like everyone who is “important” has a six-pack or at least super toned abs. As much as they are appealing and can make you an Instagram model, your core is more important than you think and is actually a lot more than the muscle that forms the “six-pack”. To overview quickly, your core is made up a variety of muscles
Try This Warm-up Routine
Renowned strength and conditioning coach Eric Cressey made a great post recently about the power of a good warm-up. Cressey said “some of my best workouts came on days when the idea of training seemed impossible. Sometimes all you need to do is walk through the doors and put yourself through a solid warm-up, then see how you feel.” Simple message, yet so incredibly accurate. We all have those sluggish days when we’re not fired up mentally and/or physically. But did you ever regret a workout? These are the workouts
Every Day is a Chance to Start Again, Every Day is a Chance to Do Better
I don’t know how to ride a bike. Not on the street, at least. So I do quite a bit of conditioning in my basement, on an old road bike hooked up to a trainer. To get myself through 20, 30 or 40 minutes of sheer boredom, I listen to a podcast called The Moth Radio Hour. The series is comprised of recordings of people telling their real-life stories, live and on-stage. I recently a listened to a story by Sharon Salzburg, a meditation teacher who brought the discipline to the United
More than just Beauty Sleep
I always look forward getting my beauty sleep at the end of each day and I love naps. I’ve taken plenty of them, especially after a game or a tough training session. And although sometimes I plan to sleep for 30 minutes and end up sleeping for more than an hour and half, I always feel better. The power of sleeping and recovery is under appreciated and most athletes don’t even know what they’re missing out on. Like many of us, athletes face problems with sleep, ranging from having trouble falling asleep