Archive for June, 2011

During my visit to the USOC in Lake Placid a few years ago I was privileged to watch training sessions and competitions in two sports I hadn’t really paid much attention to in the past — ski jumping and aerial freestyle skiing.

The aerial freestyle team were actually jumping into an aerated pool – the coaches/researchers have found that the number of practice jumps an athlete could make each session, was actually only  limited by how many landings the athlete’s body could take. So – during summer (off season) training they land in a pool which is “bubbled” to soften the impact of landing. This allows them to increase the volume of jumps, while actually decreasing the amount of landings.

The ski jumping competition was pretty amazing. That’s the jump towers pictured to the left – one of them being 120m high.

As I was there – two of the coaches were asking me what type of strength training program I’d suggest for their athletes — based on what I’d seen so far.

So how do you design a strength program for a sport that you haven’t experienced much ? Imagine an aerial freestyle skier comes to you tomorrow and asks for your help in determining their needs? What do you do?

Here’s a good way to go about it:

1) Evaluate the athlete.
For example – regardless of sport – generally males are faster/better than females. Therefore strength training will obviously be valuable. If your athlete can’t do a single chin up or a good set of push-ups – you really don’t need to over-think the rest of the program.
This is also where you’d look for range of motion issues or other imbalances specific to the athlete. My go-to tool in this area is the functional movement screen.

2) Understand the specific requirements of the sport itself — look at the strength requirements/movement patterns and energy system requirements of the sport. Consider the time periods of work and the work to rest ratios.
Then compare your athletes current level to the levels needed for their success. Obviously an Olympic hopeful would need a higher level of strength (for example) than a junior regional athlete.

3) Look at anything specifically unique to the sport (joint angles etc).
For example – the ski jumpers ski down a ramp (takes about 6s) in a quarter-to-half squat position, explode off the end of the ramp – hold a very straight body position in the air — and then land – a telemark position (a slightly staggered stance) scores more points – and obviously to control the landing forces we need to go to a squat position again.
That’s a very specific strength and movement requirement – to go from a bilateral isometric contraction to an explosive contraction and return to an isometric position in a split stance.

Put those three steps together in that hierarchy and you’ll be on the right track.

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AC

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AC

I’ve posted a motivational video from Will Smith before (here), but this is another EXCELLENT clip that I watch quite a lot.

“You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out and say ‘I’m gonna build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that has ever been built’. You say ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid’. You do this every single day, and soon you have a wall.” – Will Smith

“If you are not making someone else’s life better, then you are wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other people’s lives better.” – Will Smith

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AC

At the end of the 8 week training period the researchers reported no difference in strength (1RM), peak power, shuttle-run performance and lean mass between the two groups (both groups had the same improvements).

However – only the circuit group lost significant levels of body fat.

The take home message is that circuit training with heavy resistance can provide the same benefits as a traditional strength training program, with the extra addition of fat loss, all in a shorter time frame.

My interpretation: I think if we had the subjects train for the same amount of time (ie a one hour session) – the differences would be even more dramatic. A circuit training group does the same volume in less time than a traditional group, so in the real world where clients could show up for the same amount of time, it only makes sense to recognize that a circuit or superset style of training could allow us to do MORE work than a traditional routine.

I think training with fat loss or general fitness as your goal is probably best accomplished by using reciprocal or non-competing supersets, or in a circuit format to maximize work density. This study shows that it may be as effective even if your goal is improved strength or power.

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AC

Can you remember what your first serious workouts were like?

I did circuit training in a Boys Brigade (a youth organization a bit like Boy Scouts in Scotland) and did a weight training class when I went to high school.

But when I first started getting serious about weight training – my friend Terry and I used to go to the local gym in a town called Broxburn. The program that the gym instructors gave us was actually pretty solid.

But of course we changed it!

Anyway we went on Sunday evenings and trained upper body. We didn’t do legs because I was doing Taekwon-Do and Terry was playing basketball and we both were running. That’s all the leg training you need right? … :)

The first exercise we did was flat bench press. The second exercise was dips and then we moved on to back exercises.

Only the couple of bodybuilders and the 1 or 2 powerlifters that were there decided to take us under their wing and teach us some things.

For example – they’d see us bench pressing and tell us that we should add incline bench pressing to our routine. Or they’d mention that we should use dumbbells.
And that we should finish with a superset of dumbbell flyes and push ups.

Terry and I listened. And we took their advice.

ALL OF IT!

Pretty soon our upper body workout would start with flat barbell bench, incline barbell bench, decline barbell bench, all three positions repeated for dumbbell pressing, and then we’d finish with incline and flat flyes and push ups.
Then we moved on to dips.

Ten exercises for chest. For 3 sets of ten (of course) each! It’s a good job that these guys left before we started the back exercises or who knows how long our workout would have taken…

To be fair the original program we were given was actually useful. And the intentions of the other guys in the gym were great – they were just trying to help us. The problem was our inability to filter the information and use it effectively.

In fact – if we’d have been on our own in the gym, Terry and I might have made better progress. With less information we wouldn’t have been overloaded.

Of course – nowadays people aren’t making the same mistakes….right?
Unfortunately – now we have so much more information – it’s actually more likely that people are making mistakes.

Do yourself a favor and pick a solid program written by a qualified individual and stick to it.

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AC
PS – If you are serious about getting on a solid muscle building program then click here

What it’s like to be reborn
By Vickie Girard

We cancer patients receive a unique gift. Yes, we know what it’s like to come too close to death, but we also know what it’s like to be reborn. I remember vividly the day I stepped outside the hospital -released at last from weeks of undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Oh, if that wonderful rush of the senses could be bottled, it would be worth a thousand times its weight in gold.

It was a beautiful summer day, but beautiful is inadequate. The colors that day were turned up, as if I had been seeing with poor reception before. The scents in the air were almost overpowering. I could smell fresh-cut grass, growing flowers, traffic, food – I could smell the time of day. Morning smells different than evening or midday.

The sounds rushed at me. Voices, no longer filtered or contained by hospital walls, had a different ring outside. I heard a dog bark, a horn honk, a child yell, shoes hitting pavement, and multiple conversations going on all around me. And the feeling- there was a slight breeze and I could feel my skin. It was almost as if the air itself had texture as it touched my face and arms. The sun, it warmed me from the outside in. Even walking felt different than it had in hospital corridors.

Had the world always been like this, this alive? I vowed to always look at life this way, to never forget this moment.

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Five years ago today at 10am, I was hooked up to IV bags with tubes (connected to my heart)  hanging out of my chest.

I was on the tenth floor of the UCLA medical center having just finished my last week of intensive chemotherapy that brought my blood count close to zero. I was there being treated for cancer – stage IVB. That’s as bad as it gets. There is no stage IVC or stage V….

At 10am the medical team performed a bone marrow/stem cell transplant.

They call it “Day Zero” – the day you are literally “reborn” from a cellular level. They call it your “re-birth” day — and even give you a cake. (I didn’t eat the cake. Too nauseous from the chemotherapy still :) ).

Today is  “Day 1826″ — my “rebirthday”. My reborn cells have turned five years old. The five year mark is a big day for cancer survivors.

It’s been quite a journey. I was back exercising about a month after the transplant (I was discharged just over one week after the transplant which at the time was the fastest recovery in UCLA history).

Until the last couple of years I still had a hard time with energy levels — and the struggle back to fitness has been challenging a lot of the time. I’m not complaining though, it is an enormous privilege to be able to even exercise at all after my diagnosis. It can get depressing at times, but only for a second — as the alternative is much worse :)

I’m now aware every day of how amazing life is. I don’t know why I was given these extra days on this planet. But I can assure you that I recognize each one of them as a gift and I don’t take any of it for granted. Or any of you who have cared enough to read my writings, or come to my seminars.

As Lance Armstrong says:

“I take nothing for granted now. I only have good days and great days”

I can relate completely. For me, the glass will always be half full from now on. People who have had cancer or other illnesses understand that you don’t have all the time in the world….

Thank you all for joining me on my journey over the last five years. It had it’s ups and downs and up’s again — and it has been both challenging and grueling at times. But it’s also been amazing.

Thanks again.  Today is a special day for me.

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Alwyn