The Power of Lifting Weights: A Personal Journey
Ever wondered why people get into lifting weights? It's a question that often reflects personal stories of transformation and empowerment. Let's explore the profound reasons behind my Journey lifting weights. Understanding the motivations behind weightlifting can be a mystery to those who haven't experienced its benefits firsthand.
Every Push deserves a PULL: Posterior Chain Development
Posterior chain development is extremely important for athletic development and for the prevention of injuries. One of the main objectives for posterior development is to make sure there are no strength imbalances between the front which is the anterior the back which is the posterior during physical activity….
Goal Setting: Create your outcome
This is something that we all use to give our wants and dreams a destination. I first learned about goal setting was my sophomore year in high school during a black student union meeting. Todd Lyght from the University of Notre Dame was invited to speak to us about his experience and to give us some tips and advice on how to set yourself up for success. The steps that he used were simple and straight to the point. At the time Notre Dame was the top college football organization in the country. One of the first topics he covered was goal setting and his system for setting his goals. Being a guy who loves examining systems and processes this was right up my alley!
Sleep: The "Magical" 8, Quality or Quantity
The issue usually is not the amount of sleep as measured in time, but the quality of sleep that you have, and this goes back to your habits and rituals if you will that you have established over your lifetime. There is usually no preparation for sleep time, and if you are over the age of 10 years old you have not had a ritual for sleep time that has worked to help you sleep in over 20-30 plus years, but even with that said we still fought the idea of going to sleep “early” before 9 pm. I remember when I was around 8-9 years old and it was the beginning of the school year and the time had not changed and it was still light at my bedtime(6 pm) and I literally had a temper tantrum in the bed kicking and crying because I could hear the other neighborhood kids playing outside and here I was being put to bed like a baby….
Top 6 Health and Performance Nutrition Tips that can Improve your Recovery and Healing
These all help in the management of the inflammatory response that is triggered from heavy bouts of exercise and or competitive events. These foods also provide the vitamins and minerals needed to promote healing and repair
Dying a death of 1000 Breaths
There are several techniques that can be used to train your lungs and diaphragm to work more effectively, by increasing the lungs capacity which will help increase the amount of oxygen that is drawn into the lungs and strengthen the diaphragm. As an athlete, I would do a self-audit once a year always trying to see what I could do to improve my performance from year to year. I realized that my breathing was the one thing that was an issue and seemed to not improve as I played until later in the season and my endurance was below average. So I thought about what sport was dependent on developing endurance, so I started researching distance runners and I found that there was are breathing exercises that some of the top runners would do to improve their lung capacity.
Are you Ceasar?
Leadership has always fascinated me, and I enjoy seeing, reading about how leaders are developed and in some cases born. But even in the case of a so-called natural-born leader, there was a process that brought out the leadership qualities and actions that were there from the beginning. The process that I am referring to is the process of learning to be of service and deeply caring for others not just on the surface but learning to truly care about the well-being, the happiness, and the security of others especially those that are not kin or friends, and the foundation of this is learning to care and love yourself and actually seeing that you are worthy of being loved and cared for. This usually is led by a parent that fearlessly loves them and teaches them how to care and most importantly how to show others in your presence that you care deeply for them……
High-Intensity Interval Training
What is the AP HIIT method? Well, it is a training method that I turned into a small group training class in 2015 when I was finishing my bachelor's degree in Fitness and wellness. The concept was developed from a boot camp and a small group training sessions that I ran at the second gym I worked at when I first started. Most boot camps use just body weight for resistance and are really heavy cardio training (at least from the ones that I have attended and or seen) I wanted to include resistance training exercises within the session along with heavy to medium cardio, and core training. One of the main areas that I wanted to focus on was limiting injury but maintaining a medium-high heart rate and allowing the individual to focus on the movement first and not have to focus on counting reps. Here is an example of a training session………
High Brain Mileage
I hate running but I like finishing a run. My relationship with running is complicated, and it started when I was a chubby kid in northern Indiana around the age of 13. I was in the 7th grade and it was my first year playing tackle football or really any football for that matter. I was close to 160-170 lbs and the PE coach talked to me about trying out so I signed up having no idea that the amount of running that would be required because if I did I would have taken a pass and probably been on another totally different path….
Body Composition: Body FAT Mass v.s. Lean Muscle Mass
I can speak from experience as a trainer and former college and professional athlete that recording and tracking your body composition during training can improve your results and give you the blueprint to reaching your goals even if you fall off the wagon and regain that extra 20 - 25 lb over the holidays or on a vacation. There are 4 ways body composition can help improve your training experience along with your health in general, but only if you are looking for a long-term solution and not a quick fix plan that will leave you 30-40 lb heavier and wondering what happened. These are the 4 reasons you should be using body composition to improve your training experience………
Energy System Development Series
Lifting heavy weights to become stronger is one of the most popular reasons to lift weights. But the combination of using various weightlifting principles and program variations to improve muscular Hypertrophy (increase in muscular tone and size) is even more effective and fun. Lifting to increase muscular size helps individuals improve not only their physical appearance but also their physical performance. One of the factors that are important is the use of set and rep manipulation. This means programming different sequences sets and reps to increase the stress applied to the muscles that are being trained and. In theory, the number of sets should be about 2-4 sets and the reps should be 8-12 reps using 65%-85% of the maximum weight you can lift for 1 rep for that exercise to achieve hypertrophy. One other important factor is limiting your rest in between sets to less than 1 minute. This limit in the recovery time will increase the stress on your muscles which increases the growth response your muscles have during the recovery process. THE MAGIC HAPPENS IN THE RECOVERY!
Energy System Development Series
Just a brief overview of what Energy Systems Development training is by definition is training specific energy system to produce the desired training effect that is specific to the goals of the training program. There are there main energy systems that the body taps into to acquire the energy to perform tasks depending on the duration and the intensity of the task. Here is a brief description of the three energy systems……
Energy System Development Series
Whether you are a high school athlete looking to gain an edge on the competition in your offseason/preseason training program or a weekend warrior training in your spare time for an obstacle race, marathon, or an adult athletic league, or trying to lose those last 10 - 15 lbs of holiday weight, the old way of improving your physical performance and condition has changed. Enter the phrase Energy System development (ESD) training. ESD training should be the foundation of any training plan to improve your performance; it could be the difference between competing at a high level or coming up short in a game. In order for muscles to contract and produce movement ATP (adenosine triphosphate) must be present. The body’s energy system is responsible for converting ATP to a usable form of energy called ADP (adenosine diphosphate). ADP can be produced using three energy systems:
The Right Formula: Supplementation for Health and Performance
Finding the right supplement to give you that edge to reach your health and performance goals can be overwhelming. With all of the choices available, it can seem nearly impossible to choose the most complete supplement to include in your nutrition plan. There are hundreds of companies that develop and sell supplements worldwide, and in the United States did you know that there is no regulated testing method or system of evaluation that reassures the consumer that the supplements that they are buying contain the ingredients listed on the packaging.
The F.R.E.A.K. in You needs to "R"ecover
The key to any effective recovery plan is to consistently implement all three of these suggested habits into your lifestyle as an athlete. This may seem simple to just get some sleep right? But in most cases, it is not always easy to find the time to get the recommended 6-8 hours of quality sleep that is required for the body to repair and recharge. It is possible though if your recovery is a priority to you and you want to be the best at what you do, here are a few suggestions that may help you get the sleep you have been missing.
The Missing Link
This is especially true for active athletic individuals at all levels. As a trainer/coach the focus on nutrition is essential to maximizing the benefits of the adaptations of the training program for everyone from youth, High School, College, and professional athletes to the Weekend Warriors of the community and the individual who just wants to lose weight that ever-illusive 15-25 lb and improve their body composition to be beach-ready.
