I just released my newest product, Complete Youth Training
To order or check it out, you can go to http://www.completeyouthtraining.com
I just released my newest product, Complete Youth Training
To order or check it out, you can go to http://www.completeyouthtraining.com
We all know that foam rolling is big. Big enough to even get the internet experts to start writing stupid articles about foam rolling being bad for you. ( just an aside, how can something that feels so good be bad for you?)
So, the guys at Rollga have reinvented the foam roller. I know, I didn’t believe it either. They grabbed me at the Perform Better Summit in Providence with the old “do you have 30 seconds” pitch.
Thankfully, I was smart enough to stop. At the end of much longer than thirty seconds I was both happy and sad. Happy because I had found a new product that worked better than the old one. Sad that I had to spend about five hundred dollars to replace all my rollers.
Here’s the difference. With the Rollga your bones drop into the grooves in the roller. This allows the muscle to be accessed in a far greater way. The Rollga is better for hips, shoulders, upper back, really everywhere.
PS- I don’t work for Rollga. I just like to tell my friends about good stuff.
This is a great article from Dr Joseph Mercola on Vitamin D.
I know many readers here consider Mercola to be a quack and a pseudo-scientist but I personally enjoy his info.
This is great advice from lifestyle entrepreneur Ryan Lee that can really apply to trainers. So many people dream of quitting and going out on there own. If you are thinking about it, read this:
If you are looking for conversation every day on strength and conditioning and personal training, check out StrengthCoach.com . I’m on every day answering questions.
This is a tough topic to cover and, I’m sure both Todd Marinovich and his father may not appreciate my using them as the “what not to do” example but the articles below serve as stark reminders of what could happen when disrupting the normal child development process.
The following is from a 1988 Sports Illustrated article on then high school phenom Todd Marinovich:
“Marinovich wasAmerica’s first test-tube athlete. He has never eaten a Big Mac or an Oreo or a Ding Dong. When he went to birthday parties as a kid, he would take his own cake and ice cream to avoid sugar and refined white flour. He would eat homemade catsup, prepared with honey. He did consume beef but not the kind injected with hormones. He ate only unprocessed dairy products. He teethed on frozen kidney. When Todd was one month old, Marv was already working on his son’s physical conditioning. He stretched his hamstrings. Pushups were next. Marv invented a game in which Todd would try to lift a medicine ball onto a kitchen counter. Marv also put him on a balance beam. Both activites grew easier when Todd learned to walk. There was a football in Todd’s crib from day one. “Not a real NFL ball,” says Marv. “That would be sick; it was a stuffed ball.”
This is the sad epilogue to the story: Todd Marinovich went on to play quarterback for both USC and the Oakland Raiders so if you are not familiar with the story, there appears to be a happy ending. However, read on to another SI story over 40 forty years later.
” Former USC and Los Angeles Raiders quarterback Todd Marinovich is facing new drug charges after he allegedly was seen trying to enter a stranger’s home naked.
Prosecutors filed misdemeanor charges Tuesday accusing the 47-year-old Irvine resident of trespassing, public nudity and possessing methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. He could face up to three years in jail if convicted.
Authorities say a naked Marinovich tried to open the sliding glass door of an Irvine home in August. He allegedly left a bag containing meth, marijuana, drug gear, his wallet and driver’s license on a nearby hiking trail.
The former USC and Raiders quarterback has struggled with drug problems that drove him from the NFL and resulted in several arrests. “
Child development is a process and, one that can not and should not be rushed or tampered with. It’s OK to let kids be kids. Remember, the prize may not be worth the price.
To learn more about Complete Sports Conditioning just click
I though I’d republish and old favorite
Evolution of a Strength Coach
A few recent events have made me realize that all strength coaches will eventually evolve to the same place. Like many of us, I listen and read a great deal from the internet. One trend that I have seen is that some of the previously “hard core” guys are gradually embracing the corrective exercise/ functional training side of the coin. This made me realize:
1- Why I think the way I do
2- Why others make fun of me
The reason I think the way I do and the reason lots of the “hardcore” guys make fun of me is because I am old. I am further along the evolutionary trail of the strength coach. You see, we all start at about the same place and we probably all end up at the same place. I just started my journey sooner. In fact I am in year 32 of my evolution. For me phase 1 of the Evolution of the Strength and Conditioning Coach, The Bodybuilder, was actually in the 1970’s. I saw Boyer Coe guest pose at a show in Connecticut and wanted to be the next Frank Zane. If you don’t know who those guys are, it’s OK. You are just too young.
The truth is almost all male strength coaches and personal trainers go through the evolutionary process listed below.
Stage 1- The Bodybuilder.
to read more click here
I’m spending a week at the lovely Arizona Grand Hotel just outside Phoenix. What a week. Visited EXOS, met Stuart McMillan and a bunch of the Altis guys, and got to have a nice dinner with Mark and Amy Verstegen.
All this on top of getting to spend a week in the sun and at the pool with my wife and kids.
But, what does this have to do with mobility and strength? Good question.
In 2011 I filmed Functional Strength Coach 4 at the Arizona Grand and met Mike Baltren and Max Shank. Mike and Max had just founded Ambition Athletics in Encinitas, Ca. and came out for the seminar.
I actually knew Max from this Youtube clip. He and Ben Bruno are the two strongest guys I have ever seen pound for pound.
So, when a guy like Max says this:
I wrote this a few years ago for StrengthCoach.com
Build Bigger Legs, One Leg At a Time
Over the years for a variety of reasons, I’ve advocated for more single leg training. I summed up my “whys” in this article for T-Nation back in 2007. In the simplest sense, single-leg training results in less back stress due to the reduced loads used. And, although the phrase “functional training” is overused, single-leg training meets my definition of functional training, the application of functional anatomy to training. You do almost everything in sports from a split stance, or by pushing off one leg from a parallel stance, so it just makes sense to train your body that way.
Since I’ve already made that argument about single-leg training, there’s no need to rehash it here. Instead, I want to present an entirely new question: What if you could actually get more stress to your legs, build more useable strength, and potentially add more size by working around your back, which is often the weak link in bilateral exercises like squats?
This is what bodybuilders have been doing for decades. By bracing your back in the leg press, you can hit your leg extensors — your quads — with far more load. That’s because the load doesn’t have to be transferred through your back to get to your legs.
Now, before you think I’ve done a 180 and come to love the leg press, let me assure you that my opinion hasn’t changed. Yes, the machine allows bodybuilders to pile on the plates, but we now know that the back pays a price. It’s just a different price than the one lifters pay for using heavy loads in the squat. Instead of compressing the spine, the leg press causes a rounding of the back, which over time might create more damage.
Safety isn’t the only reason to avoid the leg press. The exercise has evolved into a kind of a circus act, done with the help of knee wraps, hands on thighs, and abysmal ranges of motion. Did you ever see that video of Pat Robertson, the 74-year-old televangelist, leg-pressing 2,000 pounds? If you took the exercise seriously before, that video surely curbed your enthusiasm.
All that said, when the goal is to build bigger, stronger legs, I still think it’s a good idea to target those muscles without having to place heavy loads on the spine. We just need to find a better way to do it.
To finish reading, click here
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