Author: detric

Professional athletes were once kids themselves. They didn’t start throwing 60-yard touchdowns at age seven. While they might have been exceptionally gifted, every professional athlete grew from a novice by following a progressive training plan with great coaching.

It’s not news that your kid needs to work hard to become better. However, parents often don’t realize that some of these popular programs out there look cool but are the equivalent of going from first grade to 12th grade in a week. Really, just getting them stronger, while staying away from all the dumb stuff out there, will put them ahead of 99.9 percent of their competition. Sadly, the parents don’t even know that the “sports performance training” program they are coming from is injuring them more than helping. The coaches don’t put their sports performance coaches under a microscope, and some think they can do our jobs.

Teaching Technique First

Technique, technique, and more technique. A sports coach will often analyze sports skills and make their players execute a skill to perfection, and then not hold their sports performance training under the same microscope. Why? The difference between a master and a novice is an obsession with detail and perfection of the basics. Hours and hours must be spent on simple bodyweight movements until your kids are bored of them. We want them to be bored and to not have to think about it — that’s where unconscious competence comes in.

The learning process moves on a continuum. Starting with conscious incompetence, young athletes learning new skills are aware they’re not good at them. It’s frustrating, and this is where going too fast too soon might even cause them to give up. Give athletes exercises as simple as a push-up, bodyweight squat, or simple jumping to start. Really focus on things like depth, knee tracking, hand placement, glute activation, scapular positioning, and pelvic control.

Once they’ve got these down, they’re into the next stage of learning: conscious competence. They’re good at it, but still have to think, “Knees out, core engaged, shoulders down and back.” You can maybe add more reps at this stage but stick with the basics. You’re not ready to move on until they don’t have to think about it anymore —until unconscious competence is established. From there, add in new skills, such as resistance, instability, or higher-intensity plyometrics. Refocus on technique.

Establishing a good position first is like telling your kid to keep their eye on the ball a million times. You can’t hit a home run if your gaze is focused downfield. Focus on the ball, make good contact, and then worry about the distance.

Progression 

With every learned skill comes a progression that starts the process towards mastery all over again. Mastering a fixed bodyweight hip hinge leads to a kettlebell swing, a broad jump, jumps for height, and more. Focused, deliberate progression rather than skipping the steps pays dividends down the line. Even the pros train the basics every day. They’re the foundation for any improvement.

You can do all the agility drills, ladders, and cool exercises you want, but if you don’t spend the majority of your time getting stronger on the basics, you are wasting your time.

Exercises like box jumps and Olympics lifts can be great for some people, but only once they are ready for them. And when their technique is perfect. If an athlete doesn’t have the proper landing techniques—just jumping in place or dropping from height—don’t force the fancy stuff. Teach to them to land before throwing in a million jumps. Sure, you’ll train towards something, but it’ll be a back injury. Don’t put your athletes at risk of injury by asking them to do something they don’t have the body control for.

Injury prevention comes first. I can’t stress this enough. If most teams just stayed healthy, they would already be at an advantage. Injury means forced time off, and too many youth athletes are getting injured from the program rather than making steady progress. It doesn’t matter how strong you are if you can’t play because you’ve got a knee injury.

Before beginning ANY program, get an assessment and set measurable goals. It’s like putting something in a GPS. There might be a few different routes, but you can’t go anywhere if you don’t know where you’re starting and where you want to end up.

Athletes are individuals. Treat them as such. Everyone will have a different starting point and different goals based on sport, position, timing, age, and more. Find the problems, get stronger, do mobility work, and follow a sensible plan with exercises appropriate for that particular athlete.

This is where a qualified professional differs in regards to writing program design: the details.

For the majority, if done correctly, the lower level and multi-directional plyometrics in the warm-up go a long way. Some basic single jumps, with an emphasis on landing/technique, such as vertical or broad jumps programmed at two to four sets of four to eight reps (2-4 x 4-8) goes a long way.

Demand quality over quantity to limit fatigue, and track their reps closely. To balance practices and games, the total intensity might vary during blocks of the year. In-season training should follow lower intensity, maintenance, and peaking towards important competitions. The majority are simply not even ready for the high level or even medium level stuff. Start slow, make each rep count, and track progress.

Too many “coaches” go straight to it when there are a million ways to get the job done — maybe because they don’t know better, or maybe because it looks cooler and sells. If they can barely hip hinge the right way, they need to be doing some more work with medicine balls, bodyweight movements, kettlebell swings, etc. These low-impact solutions get the job done without having to land a million times trying to hammer home one portion of the jump.

Balance Between On-Field Practice and the Gym

Often athletes spend practice time overtraining certain muscles and non-practice time sitting and tightening others. Think about it: running, cutting, jumping for a rebound, etc., are short-range ballistic movements. You’re essentially asking a very specific part of your body, whether it be the ankle, knee or hip, to repeatedly contract and resist force at very high intensities. And then they sit in a chair all day at school, further exacerbating the issue. Don’t you think that over time something is bound to wear down?

Coaches can manage overtraining/undertraining by emphasizing full range, light plyometrics and strength work through progression. How you program varies a ton by age, development, training age, sport, in-season, off-season and more. Train on the conservative side, listen to your athletes and watch them move. Even with a “well-designed” program, if athletes aren’t hitting their goals or have suffered setbacks, take a look at what you can do differently.

Common weaknesses are overuse of the upper traps, thoracic immobility, glute inactivity, lack of hip/hamstring range of motion, quad dominance, and ankle instability. Program mobility into every warm up — soft tissue work, foam rolling, and dynamic range of motion stuff that match the exercises you plan to train. Add in two to three sets of low rep, low-intensity plyometrics before the strength work with a huge focus on execution. Choose one to two core lifts for the day and periodize them along with your season and training age. Accessory exercise selection should reflect athlete’s areas of focus, such as resisted knee flexion hamstring exercises or internal and external rotation of the shoulder.

Less is More

Factoring in that kids today have no off-season and train incorrectly, they are weaker than they realize in crucial areas. The program they are coming from usually makes it so their training age is essentially zero when they walk in your doors, no matter what they tell you they have done. Combined with the fact that kids don’t even have PE or play outside, we are starting from the negative.

If you want to know exact details of how you should program your athletes’ season, all I can say is that it honestly depends. But in a general sense, given the cutthroat nature of youth sports today, go for less in quantity and more in quality. Make them so good at moving through the basics that practice seems easy. They should feel energized and fit to play, not beaten down and overtrained. Build the house from the ground up and it won’t crumble from a lack of structural stability.

The best part of any summer road trip is the sense of freedom to go where you want to go, do what you want to do, and eat what you want to eat.

Wait. Scratch that last part. If you’re killin’ it in the gym and working hard toward your goals, it’s important to keep your nutrition on track—even on a road trip. A little planning and prep is guaranteed to pay off by delivering healthy, protein-packed snacks you can eat on the road.

Laura Williams, ACSM EP-C

June 22, 2017 • 5 min read

The best part of any summer road trip is the sense of freedom to go where you want to go, do what you want to do, and eat what you want to eat.

Wait. Scratch that last part. If you’re killin’ it in the gym and working hard toward your goals, it’s important to keep your nutrition on track—even on a road trip. A little planning and prep is guaranteed to pay off by delivering healthy, protein-packed snacks you can eat on the road.

1. Roasted Chickpeas

When a craving for something salty and crunchy hits, you’ll be glad you planned ahead. Instead of filling up the backseat with chips, cheese puffs, and pretzels, make up a big batch of roasted chickpeas for a low-sodium, protein-filled alternative. Just cook the chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) in advance, pack them up in baggies, and chow down when you need a fix. No refrigeration required.

“Chickpeas are part of the pulse family—superfoods that are high in protein and low in calories,” says Natalie Rizzo, MS, RD, a dietitian and blogger based in New York City.

This recipe is pretty much perfect for summer cruising.

Ingredients

• Chickpeas (garbanzo beans), One 15-oz. can
• Vegetable oil, ½ tsp
• BBQ seasoning, 1 tsp

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Rinse and drain chickpeas. Pat dry.
3. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
4. Spray a baking sheet with cooking oil before spreading chickpeas evenly on the pan.
5. Bake until crispy, approximately 30-35 minutes.

2. Peanut Butter and Banana “Sushi”

Anyone can make a sandwich, toss it in a baggie, and call it road food. But holding a sandwich and a steering wheel when you’re navigating curvy highways and byways can be a challenge.

Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN, the owner of Nutrition Starring You, has a quick-and-easy solution: Wrap peanut butter and banana in whole-wheat flat bread, then slice it into sushi-like pieces. The result is mess-free, bite-sized slices you can easily grab with one hand, without taking your eyes off the road.

And, since Harris-Pincus’ recipe calls for powdered peanut butter, why not amp things up a little with a chocolate-infused variety? There are few flavor medleys better than chocolate, peanut butter, and banana.

Ingredients

• Whole-wheat flat bread or tortilla, 1
• Powdered peanut butter, 3 tbsp
• Water, 1 tbsp
• Banana, 1

Directions

1. Mix powdered peanut butter and water in a bowl. Stir, adding water a quarter teaspoon at a time until the peanut butter is your preferred consistency. You may want it a little more on the sticky side than the runny side to prevent dripping.
2. Spread peanut butter on the middle of the flat bread or wrap, saving about a teaspoon.
3. Place the banana on the peanut butter, then roll it in the wrap. Use the remaining peanut butter to help seal the open end of the wrap.
4. Slice the wrap into bite-sized pieces that look a bit like sushi. Store in a plastic container until you’re ready to eat. You may want to use toothpicks to keep the “sushi” intact and to make each slice easier to grab while on the go.

3. Bacon and Apple Egg Muffins

If you haven’t tried whipping up a batch of egg muffins yet, you’re long overdue. These little treats consist of eggs whipped up with other ingredients, then baked in a muffin tin to create protein-filled, hand-held snacks.

This recipe for bacon and apple egg muffins from Cate Ritter, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and owner of Cate’s Nutrition Kitchen, couldn’t be tastier. You get all the best snack-time flavors (sweet, savory, and salty) all in a single package.

Ingredients

• Bacon, 4 slices
• Green apples, chopped into ½-inch chunks, 3
• Cinnamon, 2 tsp
• Eggs, 9
• Coconut flour, 1½ tbsp
• Coconut milk (or heavy cream), 3 tbsp
• Baking soda, ¼ tsp
• Sea salt, 1/8 tsp

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sauté the bacon until crisp on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside, but leave the grease.
3. Add the apples to the pan and cook with cinnamon for about 5 minutes. When they’re golden brown, they’re ready.
4. Whisk the eggs, flour, coconut milk, baking soda, and sea salt in a large bowl.
5. Distribute the egg mixture and apple mixture evenly in a standard muffin tin. Crumble the bacon evenly into the tins as well.
6. Bake approximately 25 minutes—you want the center to set. If you insert a knife or fork into the center, it should come out mostly clean.
7. Set aside and let rest for about 10 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and refrigerate. When you’re on the road, keep them in a cooler.

4. Protein Nutter Butter Balls

When what you’re really craving is the sweet, chewy flavor of a protein bar, there’s absolutely no reason to shell out $3 on a convenience store bar that’s suspiciously close to its expiration date.

This recipe for protein nutter butter balls from Detric Smith, a strength coach, exercise physiologist, and the owner of Results Performance Training, tastes every bit as good, no baking required. Plus, it offers a balanced mix of proteins, carbs, and fats, which will help keep your energy levels stable.

Ingredients

• Vanilla protein powder, 2 scoops
• Natural almond butter, ¼ cup
• Raw oats, ¼ cup
• Honey, 2 tbsp
• Dried cranberries, 1 tbsp
• Dried coconut flakes, 2 tbsp

Directions

1. Set the coconut flakes aside, but mix all the other ingredients together.
2. Form the mixture into bite-sized balls.
3. Roll the balls into the coconut flakes, coating them completely.
4. Chill in the refrigerator, and keep stored in a cooler when you’re on the road.

5. Creamy Tuna Dip

Another one of Detric Smith’s favorite protein snacks offers a twist to your typical tuna salad, and it’s a whole lot more appealing than eating forkfuls of tuna straight out of a can.

“Rather than using traditional mayonnaise to make tuna salad, I use fat-free cream cheese. It adds a unique taste and packs in more protein without the fat,” Smith says.

The trick, of course, is storage—this is one recipe you need to keep cold! Prep it and store it in your refrigerator until it’s time to leave, then keep it packed in an ice-filled cooler on the road.

When you’re ready to chow down, use it as a spread or dip for your favorite crackers. Of course, if you’re driving let someone else do the dipping and spreading for you.

Ingredients

• Tuna, one 3-oz. can
• Fat-free cream cheese, 3 tbsp
• Green onion, sliced, 1
• Dried onion flakes, 1 tsp
• Dried garlic (or garlic powder), ½ tsp
• Whole-grain crackers, 5-10

Directions

1. Mix all of the ingredients together—except for the crackers. Really work to break up the tuna into smaller pieces so the dip is smoother and easier to spread. Chill in the refrigerator.
2. When you’re ready to eat, use it as a dip or spread on your crackers.

6. Prosciutto Chips

This is one of my favorite recipes for a quick snack that’s part chip, part beef jerky, and all meaty goodness. Simply bake a couple batches in advance, throw them in a baggie, and hit the road.

Ingredients

• Prosciutto, fresh, thinly-sliced, 6 oz.
• Fresh ground black pepper, ½ tsp
• Cayenne pepper (optional), ½ tsp
• Crushed red pepper (optional), ½ tsp

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper to prevent the prosciutto from sticking to the pan. Evenly place the prosciutto slices on the pan.
3. Dust the prosciutto with spices, as desired. Do your best to distribute the spices evenly.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until crispy. Transfer the prosciutto slices onto a cooling rack, and let cool.
5. Break into smaller, bite-sized pieces and enjoy.

There are two inconvenient truths about pull-ups. One, they’re a standard marker of fitness. Two, just performing a single pull-up is extremely difficult without upper-body strength — making them a real pride-killer to practice at the gym. But it’s not impossible to master this tough exercise, and you don’t need a gym membership to learn it. As long as you have a pull-up bar and the tenacity to keep trying, you’ll be lifting your own body weight before you know it. Here’s how.

Nothing Preps You for a Pull-Up Like a Pull-Up

Anyone who’s spent months working on their lat pull-down and row strength only to discover they still can’t do a pull-up is bound to feel confused. Don’t these other exercises work the same general muscle groups? Well, yes and no. They certainly target the major muscles of the upper back, but the pull-up is unique in that it requires significant grip and core strength along with scapular control. Even assisted pull-ups don’t require the same full-body control and engagement as the real deal, so nothing can prep you for a pull-up like a pull-up.

That’s why the best possible modifications to help you nail your first pull-up are those that break down the full movement into bite-sized elements, developing strength through each part of the exercise so you can eventually piece them into a whole.

Just Hang There

“If you can’t hold onto the bar, your pulling strength won’t really matter,” says Parker Condit, a personal trainer and the Program Director of the Performance Center at The Aspen Clinic in Colorado. One of the best ways to develop grip strength that translates naturally to your pull-up is a basic bar hang. And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like — simply hang, with arms extended, from your pull-up bar.

But grip position is important, too. “You want all of your knuckles closest to your wrist to be pointing toward the ceiling when you’re hanging,” Condit says. It’s this position that engages your hands and forearms in the same position they’ll need to maintain while doing full pull-ups. Condit suggests doing three sets of hangs to failure (just hanging there until you can’t hang anymore), with one minute of rest between sets. Do this two to three times a week. Once you can perform three hangs for 60 seconds each, add weight to make the exercise harder by wearing a backpack full of heavy things from around the house.

Start With a Band or a Buddy

Band and buddy pull-ups are a great way to work through the full range of motion of the true pull-up, but with a little added assistance. Detric Smith, strength coach and owner of Results Performance Training, suggests starting with partner pull-ups if you have someone you can work with. Ask your partner to lightly hold your legs or hips to give you an extra push whenever you hit a sticking point. The trick is communication. Don’t let your partner give you too much help. The move should be challenging to complete.

If you don’t have a partner around, band pull-ups are a nice alternative because they’re an inexpensive way to mimic the gym’s assisted pull-up machine. Using extra-strong resistance bands, loop one band around your pull-up bar and string it through its own loop to “lock” it in place. Place a knee or foot inside the hanging loop, grasp the bar in a standard pull-up position, then perform a pull-up using the band’s elasticity to get you up to the bar. Just keep in mind that banded pull-ups don’t translate perfectly to true pull-ups, so while it’s a good way to acclimate your body to the feel of the exercise, you shouldn’t rely on them too heavily.

Perform three sets of band or buddy pull-ups to failure. Do as many reps as you can per set, even if you’re only doing singles. Allow one minute of rest between sets.

Add Negatives

Negative pull-ups work you through the eccentric, or lengthening phase of the pull-up exercise. And because the eccentric phase works the same muscles as the concentric phase, just in the opposite direction, it’s a great way to develop pull-up strength without having to execute the “pulling” portion of the movement.

In theory, negatives look easy. Simply stand on a chair and position yourself at the top of the pull-up bar, your hands gripping the bar and your chin above it. Lift your feet from the chair and, in a slow, controlled fashion, extend your arms, lowering yourself to the bottom position of the pull-up.

When performed correctly, negatives are extremely taxing. Nick Collias, a Progressive Calisthenics trainer and a senior editor at Bodybuilding.com suggests doing three to five sets of three to five slow negatives, so each negative takes at least five seconds to perform. Add this series to your workout twice a week and it shouldn’t take long for you to transition to full pull-ups.

Try a Neutral Grip

Every time you work on pull-ups, you need to actually try a pull-up. Collias suggests starting with a neutral grip, so your palms are facing each other. “You’re stronger in this grip than other grips,” Collias says, adding that it’s also easier on the shoulders.

The initial pull to lift your feet from the ground is often the first sticking point you’ll experience. Try to work past it for a second or two. If you can’t pull yourself up on your own, relax, then try again — but this time add a little hop to get past the first sticking point. Do as much of the pull-up as you can, then slowly lower yourself back down in a negative-like action.

It shouldn’t take long — between a few weeks and a few months — to see significant improvements in performance. Once you’re able to nail a single, full pull-up, work your way up to at least three sets of five or more reps.

Can we begin a massive shift in fitness and general health? We work in the best industry in the world, but even after changing lives I sometimes feel defeated when I see the sad state we have reached. If there is more money to be made from telling a lie, will the truth ever come out?

I share these concerns humbly. I share them with hope for a better future. We have snowballed as a nation into a pitiful state. We have let ourselves get so out of shape and desperate that the problem just keeps getting worse. But have we hit rock bottom yet? The demand for our help is very present, but this has ended up hurting more than it helps. Those that care and devote their life to this craft are now competing with the average Joe who just got certified over the weekend and only cares about money. The real experts are becoming hard to find. The weekend experts are hard to avoid.

People want it easy and people want it yesterday. Hard work is a thing of the past — not to mention, it does not make money. We are stuck in the “commercial gym culture” and this has made it hard to compete. The commercial gym culture equates to taking money from people that need qualified coaches, and not giving them anything in return. It’s nothing more than a business; the goal is simply to make money. Only a small percentage of people will pick up on this, though. They are blinded by their fears and motivated by hope. They continue to get nowhere.

This goes for the not only the members, but the trainers (sometimes with a ton of potential) who seek out the quick dollar. The first dollar is really easy to get. We are in demand because the majority of people need us. Some trainers get that first job in the commercial gym, get some money, but then fail to realize that they actually need some mentors in order to get through all the BS in the field. If you are young getting into this field, don’t get sucked into the 3,000-hour trap. Don’t be the coach that gets the first dollar easily, gets burned out by hour 3000, and then never reach full potential or learns anything. Please do us all a favor and choose this profession because you would do it for free. Only then will you get to 10,000 hours and become average to good (but have the potential to be great).

There are plenty of opportunities to see when money is made and people are hurt in the process.

It’s very hard to teach someone to get stronger (which is the foundation for everything). That goes for members, certification bodies, and even college programs. This takes time (not a weekend) to really understand. Time is money. Devote too much time in teaching this to your trainers at a commercial gym and they lose money (remember they make money off of memberships — who cares if clients actually show up?). It is much easier to sit them down on a machine with a trainer that has never been taught to teach. The trainer can then read the step-by-step pictures on the machine and hopefully not injure that individual.

Then there’s entertainment; “let’s sell them by making the place look like an amusement park!” They’ll give you cool machines, a movie theater, going-no-where-fast machines (treadmills), and a cup holder for that sugar drink they sold you on your way in.

The other extreme is selling those who actually want to work hard. Trainers come up with the hardest workout on the planet and make it a badge of honor to survive for the same workout a few more times that week. This is somewhat unique, so they can take even more of your money for a workout (not program) that a 10-year-old could plan. Who cares if the workout would have killed Rambo? It doesn’t matter if it could hurt your long term progress by causing a different injury every week.

Now, let’s move on to making some even more serious cash in the fitness industry. What happens when you create an event that anyone and their grandma can finish, and still get a prize if they finish last? The goal was to lose fat and get in shape for 99 percent of them, but they lost muscle, gained fat, and reached the finish line with a few more injuries. That registration fee might not cost much. but they sold it to millions of people, sponsors who want their name on a shirt, and created a business to sell running shoes and gear.

There is even more money to be made outside of this industry if you wait until they are completely messed up. It is called drugs and therapy, my friends. You see, they have higher standards (or they went to school longer) in their field, so they can charge even more.

Does it stop there? We still have the government officials who don’t seem to notice the purple elephant in the corner of the room. Who cares if children are obese at an alarming rate if there is money to be made feeding them sugar for breakfast? I am sure this helps test scores and makes us a better nation than allowing them to actually move during the school day.

Can we end the cycle?

Detric Smith, CSCS, USAW, ACSM-HFI

Deload and recovery

An advanced trainee who loves training needs to know when to back things off. He should have planned deload weeks, which should be included in his program, and he should know when his body needs a break. I consider an advanced trainee someone who can squat twice his body weight and deadlift two and a half times his body weight. If you can’t squat or deadlift, stop making excuses and get it done.

I wouldn’t be able to train without soft tissue work. Massages, foam rollers, lacrosse balls, and PVC pipes have allowed me to train without pain.

Drink more water to improve everything, and get more quality sleep to improve everything.

Training the mind is probably the most important part of success. It is also the most overlooked aspect of training.

Meal frequency and fat loss

Meal frequency is overrated when it comes to its effect on metabolism. Focus on quality. Most people don’t need a fancy diet to lose body fat. They just need to focus on the quality of the foods they’re eating. Go from eating fast food and junk to cooking and eating foods that have one ingredient and you’ll make progress.

Those individuals already lean (males at about 10 percent body fat and females slightly higher with visible abs) who are trying to get leaner need to have a detailed plan of how to get there. This is when you really have to understand your body and how it responds to different foods and exercise.

Those who fall in the already lean category need to examine their need for foods like milk, bread, certain types of fruits, and so called “healthy” low fat/low calorie/low carb packaged foods. They also need to have a basic understanding of how hormones affect fat loss and how meal frequency affects how much they eat. This is different for everyone. Not everyone needs to eat five or six times a day to feel full. For some individuals, this will hurt fat loss efforts more than it helps. For example, a small female trying to lose body fat would need to eat 200-calorie meals all day. This wouldn’t do anything to satiate her hunger. It would just make her hungrier.

You will never look your best if you don’t realize the importance of cooking and preparing your food in advance. You can have the greatest “diet” in the world, but if you only have Ding Dongs in your cabinet and you don’t pack your lunch, you won’t follow your plan. In addition, just because a food is healthy for you doesn’t mean that it’s great for fat loss and it doesn’t mean that it’s a great food for you individually.

The best way to track progress when it comes to fat loss is by taking pictures. Pictures don’t lie.

Learn and focus

Focus on quality. When it comes to exercise, learn to squat, bench, deadlift, and row and how to do single leg work, pull-ups, and functional core work. Leave the machine exercises behind, except for a few.

You’re weak at something, and you can work harder in the gym than you do currently. Work harder at your weaknesses and you’ll make progress.

Every program is really just a matter of stressing the body and recovering from that stress. Learn how to design a program that will bring you closer to your goals or have someone do it for you. People have others wash their cars, clean their houses, and do their taxes, but most will never invest in someone to train or help them with a training program or diet. I don’t understand this at all.

Just about all of us are beginners. The only people who will ever be advanced are those who can accept that they’re beginners. Only those with specific behavioral goals make real progress.

Young athletes will never realize the importance of good nutrition and using proper recovery methods (the other 23 hours). Do your best to get them to master the basics. Focus on improvement.

Supplements

The basics of supplementation are a daily vitamin, fish oils, and whey protein. You can get all of these things from food, but it will be difficult. But don’t waste your money on the latest greatest supplements if you don’t have the basics taken care of when it comes to a grocery list, meal plans, and food preparation.

I hate to talk about supplements because it takes the focus off of the big picture. Train hard, eat the right foods, and focus on recovery methods.

Supplements that work for reducing hunger are fiber, fish oil, and chocamine.

Detric Smith, CSCS, USAW, ACSM-HFI

Performance training for improved looks is a concept that seems to get lost behind the dozens of magazines that promote your favorite bodybuilder and the supplements they’re trying to sell us. However, it can also be used as a means to improve the way you look (along with the proper diet and lifestyle of course), not just the way you perform in your given sport. You might think that you should copy your favorite bodybuilder to look like your favorite bodybuilder, but this isn’t the case.

There are many questions you need to consider when choosing the program that is right for you:

• Do I have over 6–7 hours per week to devote to training?

• Am I training so hard that I need a full week to allow my biceps (or any other body part) to recover in order to improve from my last workout?

• Without using what these bodybuilders use, can my body handle the amount of volume that these bodybuilders can handle?

• Do I need to devote an hour to my triceps? Or can I devote this time to bringing up a weakness that can help with an injury I have?

Our bodies are built to perform, and they need to be treated that way. The following are some changes that you can make to your program to start seeing results that will carry over into your life in the form of improved looks, reduced injuries, and better performance.

• Developing single leg strength is crucial to developing performance and the way that others see you. I’ve seen many men ignore single leg work as something that is only needed for females. Men who take the time to develop their glutes, quads, and hamstrings through single leg work will enjoy the benefits of decreased injury risk, improved power output, and increased attention from the females who (believe it or not) notice more than a man’s muscular chest and biceps. The addition of split squats, step-ups, and lunge variations will go a long way in developing your lower body.

• With exercise selection being the most important component of program design, it is crucial to choose multi-joint exercises. Performing exercises such as squats, deadlifts, military presses, and the bench press with correct technique while adding a little more weight to the bar each week will lead to your quickest results. Multi-joint exercises allow you to hit multiple muscles at once. When you focus on these exercises, you will no longer need to spend countless hours with single joint exercises and machines. The time you save can be devoted to the many other aspects of a successful program.

• Training your core like an athlete will not only allow you to expose your abdominals (if you’re lean) but will help prevent injuries, improve posture, and improve power output. Try replacing your crunches with some stabilization (bridges and side bridges) and rotation work to feel the difference.

• Another aspect of training that seems to get lost with most bodybuilding programs is recovery, which can be seen in what you do before and after lifting and cardio. Attention must be given to improving mobility and stability with a warm up that includes movement preparation and soft tissue work. Static flexibility work after your session is a must and can also be of benefit for some lifters before the session. Recovery work will allow you to push yourself that much harder going into the next session and over the long haul.

Go back to the questions asked above and take a look at what you are currently doing. If what you are currently doing isn’t working, it may be time to change your program with a goal of improving performance.

by Detric Smith, CSCS, USAW, ACSM-HFI

For most of you reading this article who used to compete in sports, think back to your younger days. Can you imagine stepping on the field without the direction of a coach? Without someone calling the plays? Without someone providing structure and discipline? Without someone making you do the things you hated or without setting standards and providing goals that were high, yet attainable? Can you imagine competing without that “coach” who probably knew more about you than you knew about yourself?

In life, I feel that we all need coaches and that we all have the potential to be great coaches in some aspect. However, my definition of coach is not limited to sports. A coach can be a teacher, business owner, mentor, or anyone who guides someone else or an organization to reach their potential.

The following is a list that I feel all great teams, organizations, and individuals have:

Discipline: Ever see a successful business where the employees come in whenever they feel like it? Ever see a successful team with no guidelines or disciplinary procedures for those who skipped practice? I see success as reaching your potential. Champions raise the bar even further. We have all seen that team with all the talent in the world but that never seems to win. If you’re a good coach, you have discipline because without it, you have nothing.

Work ethic: It’s true that to reach the top of your given field you have to have some “natural talent.” If you are 5’6” with no athletic ability at all, maybe the NBA isn’t for you. However, for the most part, it’s overrated. If you take a look at champions from any sport or life endeavor, they worked harder than most, if not all, of those beneath them. You want to be like Tiger? Then maybe you should have started hitting golf balls when you were two years old. You want to be like Mike? Wake up every morning at four and start practicing your jump shots. If you’re a good coach, you will make sure your athletes work hard and smart.

Goal setting/focus: Being able to set goals is important. They have to be high but achievable. You have to have short- and long-term goals or else you won’t be able to stay focused for the long haul. Goals need to be broken down into years, months, days, and even hours. If you’re coaching a team that says they want to be champions but can’t focus on what is important right now such as practice, forget about the long-term goal.

Mental toughness: The goal that you set above (if it’s worth anything) will be tough to reach. You will have setbacks. The strong will fight through it. The losers will give up.

Motivation: A good coach is able to find out why their athletes are doing what they’re doing and how to get even more out of them. This extrinsic motivation needs to be internalized as intrinsic motivation inside that person. Most major changes in a person’s life come after some failure or the realization that they are not even close to their potential. Motivation needs to be individualized, and it comes in many forms, though anger is the most common. Anger is a strong energy, and if channeled the right way, can make your average person downright dangerous in a good way. Remember those people who told you “you can’t.”? The company that didn’t hire you? The person who wouldn’t give you a reference? The times you failed and had to look yourself in the mirror for what you truly were?

Consistency: All of the above need to be done over the long haul. If you want to be Tiger but you’re just picking up the clubs at 25 years old, you might need to find another profession. It takes years of the above to be successful (see my definition) at anything.

You can not do it alone because knowledge is necessary to reach your goal. Take a look in the mirror now. See yourself for who you really are and what you want to be. Print out this article and read it again in the near future. If you see the same person, analyze what you have been doing since you first read this. If you see a different person, stay on that same path that leads to success.

8 Factors That Could Be Holding You Back

Wondering why you aren’t seeing the success that you desire? Feel as though you aren’t moving forward as you had hoped you would?

The fact is, many things can hold you back from reaching your goals. And, only when you realize what it is that’s holding you back will you be able to move forward and see the success that you desire.

Not quite sure what it is for you? Let’s go over a few of the big things that commonly hold people back and how you can resolve them and get on with your progress.

Time

The first issue is simply an issue of time. Do you have enough time in your life to reach the goals you have set for yourself? You need to go in with a realistic approach. Remember, just because you happen to be very busy right now does not necessarily mean that you shouldn’t start a program. All it means is that you need to be more realistic in terms of what goals you should set for yourself.

Make the most of the time you do have. Consult with a personal trainer if you need assistance to figure out the most time-effective way to train that will yield optimal results.

And most importantly, keep in mind you do not need to spend hours each week in the gym to get good results.

Comparisons

How often do you look at other people and wonder why you aren’t where they are? Do you berate yourself after seeing another gym-goer achieve success while you are still not at your goals?

Realize that comparisons are going to get you nowhere. All they will do is cause discouragement and a feeling of not being good enough.

Stop the comparisons with other and focus on yourself. If you are better today than you were yesterday, that’s all that really matters.

Missing The Big Picture

Another big problem for some people is getting held up in the details. Do you often examine the trees while forgetting to see the forest?

Remember that little things such as whether you eat breakfast at 7 am or 8 am won’t matter if your calorie intake is not in line for instance. Focus on the big musts first.
Only once those are in place should you focus elsewhere. Many people get hung up on the little details that they overlook the things that really matter most.

Being Scared

This may seem like an odd one, but simply being scared can be a problem for some. Are you worried about how success will change your life? Are you worried about how others will react to the results that you are seeing?

Being scared of change could be causing you to sabotage your results without even realizing it. If this is the case, until you get past your fear, you’ll likely never get the results that you are going for.

Negative Self-Talk

It’s also important that you take a good look at your own self-talk. What are you saying to yourself on a daily basis? Is it building you up? Or does it tear you down?

Self-talk can happen without you even realizing it, and when it does, it shakes your confidence level.

Pay attention to what you’re saying to yourself over the course of the day. As you do this, start swapping out the negative self-statements with positive ones instead.

Accountability

Lack of accountability is another problem for many people. One of the best ways around this is simply getting yourself an accountability partner. Find someone who will check in with you from time to time and ensure that you are staying on track as you should be.

Remember, if you don’t stay consistent with your program, you’ll never get results. This could be the very thing that holds you back from the body of your dreams.

Repetition Of The Same Thing

Feel stuck in a rut? You aren’t alone? Another thing that commonly holds people back is repeating the same thing over and over again. Realize that if it didn’t work for you before, chances are, it’s not going to work for you now.

Change is necessary to get results. Don’t do the same thing over and over again yet expect a different outcome. Venture out and try something new – you’ll be happy you did.

Temptation To Take The Easy Route

Finally, the last thing that may hold you back is the temptation to take the easy route. Rather than focusing on building good habits that stick for instance, you may find yourself wanting to jump onto that quick fix diet or use the supplement that promises fast results.

Remember, these rarely lead to long-term success. Focus on building good habits and even though it may be harder upfront, it’s what will help you most over the long run.

So there you have the most common reasons why people don’t succeed. If you notice any of these in your life, it could be what’s holding you back. Make a few adjustments so that you can get back on track to maximum results

Baseball Sports Performance- Injury Prevention

Baseball is a long season that demands precision and excellence at every turn. You’ve got to time split second reactions, whip a throw to first, smack a ball out of the park or leap to keep it from sailing over the fence. How you train and play at a young age sets the foundation for performance in college, into the pros, or just pick up ball in the park. The longer you can outlast injury, the more you can work at honing your craft. While you want to get the reps, you also need to make sure you can play through the season unscathed. Sure, you’ll get some bumps, bruises, and maybe a few battle scars from a home plate collision. But if you do these four things, you can outlast any serious injury and stay in fighting shape.

Prevent Injury – Stay Mobile

With better range of motion, the further your muscles and tendons can stretch across a joint before injury. If things are all tied up in there, one wrong throw can lead to injury. If your muscles and tendons aren’t mobile, they won’t respond to sudden external loads as well. Therefore, all the pressure gets put in the joint – such as your AC joint or ulnar collateral ligament (in your elbow). Tommy John surgeries and thrower’s shoulder are often attributed to a lack of internal rotation at the shoulder and depression in the scapula. This altered range of motion at the shoulder, over time, contributes to more repeated stress on the elbow during high velocity throwing.

Thoracic spine rotation, banded distraction stretches at the lats and pec, and regular soft tissue with a baseball can do wonders. Spend a few minutes every day with your baseball pinned between your chest and the wall to open up your overhead mobility.

Train for more than just looks

As teens are developing athletically, it’s also a time when training for looks can be tempting. While in some cases having more muscle can help protect you from injury, training solely for size can make you unbalanced. Excessive use and tightness can mean strains or chronic, overuse injuries. Rather than fighting your own body to produce force, create a balanced system that performs like a well-oiled machine.

Upper traps, lats and pecs look really good at the beach. However, athletes that are overly dominant in these areas risk too much tension in the wrong places. Train your mid and lower trap to stabilize your scapular movement and allow for shoulder elevation. Start with bodyweight and bands first – light resistance but perfect form. Wall slides, band pull aparts, scap push ups and Y’s, T’s and W’s will improve your throwing mechanics. Add 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps of these exercises to your warm up. Set a strength foundation here, and then progress to reverse flys and face pulls.

Get Proper Nutrition to Perform

If I had to pick one area in which most young athletes are lacking, it would be nutrition. Sodas and sugary foods spike your insulin levels unnecessarily. Even “sports drinks” can cause problems if used outside of the training window. Over time, your body loses sensitivity to insulin and it starts to forget to respond to it. And that’s bad news for athletes, as insulin is what tells us to uptake the carbs we need for energy. Add to that the saturated and trans fats from fast and fried foods, and you’ve got a recipe for a slow metabolism. Since metabolism is what provides us with energy, ignoring good nutritional habits makes us feel worse, slows recovery, and lowers performance.

To stay at the top of your game, feed your body a good balance of whole grains, fruit and vegetables, lean protein and omega 3 fats. A good baseball game can last forever and demands your full attention while at bat or covering the bases – so keep those energy levels from spiking and dropping by feeding yourself well. Avoid fried or sugary foods and drink plenty of water. After the game, enjoy some chocolate milk to recover.. Attention to these details can make the difference between making it to the next level or not.

Avoid doing too much too soon

I know you want to be the next Bryce Harper or Clayton Kershaw, but give yourself the time to get there. Doing too much too soon can put you at high risk for a serious injury. The pressures from parents, coaches, teammates, colleges and more drives lots of young athletes to push beyond their limits. It’s okay to train hard, but be sure to listen to your body. If you feel like you’re breaking down, or something feels not right, train accordingly.

Too often I see young athletes burn out or get a career threatening injury before they turn 18. Get set up with a good strength and conditioning program, have someone monitor your throws and batting practices per week, and keep a balanced life outside of the baseball diamond.

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