Archive for March, 2010
I think there are definite parallels between work and fitness training. Over the past few years I think as a whole, in both areas, we’ve confused working “hard” with working long.
Think about someone you know who you’d describe as working hard for a living. Now – do they really work hard – i.e. back breaking, intense physical labor — or do you mean that they work long hours – nights and maybe weekends?
Working “hard” and working “long” are not the same. And neither one means working effectively.
You could make the case that someone who is working long hours and weekends to achieve their objectives may not necessarily be working hard at all – they may be doing completely ineffective activities.
In addition, their rate of actual quality work output may be very low on a minute-by-minute basis. Or quality output may not be frequent enough — so they are trying to compensate by increasing their total volume.
But just increasing the volume of an ineffective, low-quality (i.e. intensity), infrequent activity isn’t helping whatsoever. Effective, results-producing work is not dependent upon the total volume of work primarily.
It’s the same as effective, results-producing exercise:
Effectiveness first.
Intensity second.
Frequency Third.
Volume last.
Is your training effective?
Are you focused and striving to do more work/lift more weight/do more reps in the session?
Are you training regularly? (in all studies – frequency of exposure to a stimulus is a primary key to success).
Once you have effective and technically sound exercise, performed with appropriate intensity on a regular basis – then you can think about adding volume. Doing more work can’t replace effectiveness, intensity or consistency.
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AC
Tags: Alwyn Cosgrove
Legendary Boston University hockey Strength Coach, Michael Boyle, has just launched an incredible new site that you absolutely need to be a part of if you train hockey players.
It’s called Hockey Strength and Conditioning
Coach Boyle has partnered with
- Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks),
- Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks) and
- Kevin Neeld (Endeavor Hockey) and assembled..
…The Greatest Collection of Hockey Strength and Conditioning Coaches on the Planet!
Their advisory board is a Who’s Who of Hockey Strength and Conditioning including Chris Pietrzak-Wegner (Minnesota Wild), Chuck Lobe (Tampa Bay Lightning), Jim Reeves (Mind to Muscle), Brijesh Patel (Quinnipiac), Cal Dietz (Univ. of Minnesota), Chris Boyko (UMass), Maria Mountain (Revolution Sport Conditioning), Tim Yuhas (Yuhas Performance), Matt Nichol (former Toronto Maple Leafs) and Kim McCullough (Total Female Hockey).There are a ton of articles on the site already with topics ranging from Strength and Conditioning, Programming, Youth Training, Injuries, Female Training and Coaching.There are webinars, audio interviews and videos up as well, all about hockey!
Each week, they will be adding videos, articles and programs to the library and with this group, you know the Coaches Forum will be jumping. Each month, there will be webinars and audio interviews added as well.
Right now until March 31, they have an incredible offer: Only 1 dollar for 30 days, then $9.95 a month after that.
It’s only a buck, and you have until March 31 to check it out:
Hockey Strength and Conditioning
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AC
AlwynCosgrove.com is an affiliate of HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com
I think you’ll be interested in this…
Tuesday March 16, Sports Nutrition Blueprint creator and former New York Mets Strength and Conditioning Coach Jeff Cavaliere is hosting a live Q&A session at 9pm Eastern/ 6pm Pacific.
He’ll be taking your questions for about an hour and he’ll answer them ‘first come, first serve’.
There’s nothing to sign up for and there are an unlimited number of seats. All you have to do is go to the following link at 9pm EST/^PM Pacific, ready to take some good notes:
=> Sports Nutrition Blueprint
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AC
P.S. – If you have any sports nutrition questions that you want answered, bring them all tomorrow, Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 9pm EST. Jeff will answer every question he can get to. No need to sign up or register, just show up at 9pm EST/6PM Pacific here:
There’s an interesting fact about investing a penny, and doubling that investment every day.
So – day one – you have one cent in the bank. Day two – two cents. Day three – four cents. Day four – eight cents etc.
By day 30 – you’ll have over $5 million saved (go ahead – do the math).
The idea is that major change starts with a small investment.
Now obviously it would be pretty difficult to find a bank that would double your money for you every day — but the point is that seemingly insignificant investments (at the time) can add up to something very significant over time.
Let’s put this another way. What if you improved your diet, and your exercise program by 1% per day…
Actually – let’s go even lower – 0.3% per day. 3 tenths of a percent.
Day two – another 3/10. Day three another — and so on.
At the end of one year – you’d have improved your diet and exercise program by over 100%
All success is – is just a few simple disciplines repeated over time.
Brian Tracy has said that reading one hour per day will make you an expert on the topic of your choice.
One hour is not a big investment. But when you add that up over the course of the year – that’s 365 hours. Or nine 40-hour work weeks.
Whether your goal is fat loss, muscle building or building your personal training business — Small investments compounded over time will add up to big results.
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AC
