Stay Ahead of the Game and Away from Pain
Joint pain and discomfort are two of the main factors that prevent people from maintaining an active lifestyle. If you are a fairly healthy person you may take for granted the normal function of your joints and ignore the factors that will have a negative effect on your joints if you don’t apply some preventative measures to help you manage the pain and discomfort you may experience while exercising. The is no absolute way to eliminate pain from physical activity especially if you are out of shape due to an old injury, a sedentary career, or any other physical limitation.
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.
Finding The Function in Disfunction: The Foundation of Functional Training
In 2010 2 years after I retired from professional football, I decided to enter this industry and to learn how to train and develop programs for individuals specifically youth athletes correctly, I did not want to give someone a canned program I received from a coach that made up based on an old program that was developed for college and professional athletes. So I started to reads every book, dozens of articles about strength and conditioning, and performance training. that is where I discovered the FMS (Functional Movement Sytems)……..
The Value of What You do
I could start this post with some generic google search definition of the word Value, but that would be cheap and plus I want to write about my definition of what I know "value" is and how I apply that definition to my business and my life. While I was journaling this evening I came up with two questions to come up with what my definition of what value is.
Question #1: What are my values?
Question #2: What do I value?
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….
Is your success Too expensive?
Over the last year, my goals have been good but that was not great! And so went my effort, it was good on a great day and ok on a good day; which equals average. As I prepare for the mid-year and as I look forward I will make my goals larger than my current life, this is scary but I need this more than anything. I don’t like being comfortable but it’s easy to be comfortable. I DON’T NEED IT EASY! As an athlete, I truly loved everything thing about playing sports but there were days that I did not like the preparation, the long hours watching game film, and even sometimes lifting weights (and anyone who knows me knows how much I love lifting weights).
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!
Six Proven ways to Boost Your Metabolism
These are just a few suggestions on how to increase your body’s ability to burn calories more efficiently and help you maintain your healthy body weight.
What is Your WHY?
My "Why" is and always has been to help and serve people. That is one of the reasons I love team sports, it gave me the opportunity to be a part of a team and be a part of a collective unit. I never really paid attention or put a high value on my individual stats, my main goal was to be the best team player I could be and do whatever it took to win....
YOU CAN'T BE SOFT YOUR WHOLE LIFE
Every time I got the chance to go in there on my weekend visits I would try "lift" weights (was lucky I didn't lose a toe). Then my dad moved to Chicago and my lifting weight days were over as far I knew it.
Fast forward to 1988 my sophomore year of High School after football season I meet a 5'10 280 lb Italian guy named Raul Denotti, he was a bodybuilder and part-time volunteer football coach. It was in the weight room talking and "working out" which was basically doing curls and triceps cable extensions in between sets of talking…..
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……
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.
Put the F in F.R.E.A.K and You will E.A.T.
The quality of the fuel you consume is the foundation of who you are. Lets break it down in regards to the three main macro nutrients you consume on a daily bases, which are Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats. Here is a brief description of all three:…….
Are You a F.R.E.A.K. like me?
We call them a “freak of nature” the individual must be Fast, Strong, and move efficiently. To achieve that level of physical fitness the individual must be a F.R.E.A.K, which stands for F-uel your body, R-ecover, E-ducate yourself, A-ssess your goals, K-eep a routine.
Trust the Process... Even if you Don't!
Why play the game if you think you can't win A@#hole! Everyone hears this little voice in their head (if you love to compete). That is my challenge every day, some days it leads to productive work, but day some days it leads to just spinning my wheels in my office. But one thing that keeps me on task even on the days I am doing wheelies in my office chair (both figuratively and sometimes literally) is my process.