Your in home and on site personal strength coach. Helping you reach your goals by providing strength training, flexibility, sports performance, and speed training.
A training session lasts approximately 1 hour and is based upon each clients' individual goals, so not all sessions will be the same. Typically each session will include:
1. 5 minutes warm up consisting of dynamic movement or mobility
2. 10 minutes of core stability, activation, or corrective movement
3. 30 minutes of strength training
4. 5-7 minutes of metabolic conditioning
5. 5-7 minute cool down / Partner assisted stretch
I recently wrote a morning pre workout snack list and decided to incorporate some more snacks. Here is a list of some of my favorite afternoon or evening pre workout snacks
1. Apples
2. Fresh Vegetables
3. Sweet Potatoes
4. Low Sugar Trail Mix
I love squats! All kinds of squats. Front, back, lateral, single leg, but, I must admit that my favorite one is definitely the Overhead Squat. Here's why:
1. It's a great lift for total body strength.
2. It's a great way to access movement and deficiencies in movement.
3. Improves core strength
4. Improves mobility
Most breakfast foods are full of carbohydrates. Bagels, muffins, cereals, waffles, and pancakes provide little nutrients and a lot of carbs.
These carbs are great for energy in small amounts, however most of us eat too many carbs over the course of the day. This surplus of carbohydrates ultimately gets stored as sugar in the body.
Try these alternatives for breakfast:
1. Eggs, if you don't have time in the morning to prepare them, then hard boil a few and keep them for the week.
2. Fruits; great for energy and easy to take on the go
3. Low sugar Greek Yogurt
4. Protein Shake; These are great and easy to make. Just look at the sugar content and make sure it's low.
5. Grapefruit is an excellent source of vitamin c which helps to support the immune system.
"I'm so confused, when should I stretch? Before a workout, in the middle of a workout, after a workout?"
Is flexibility a main goal for you? Do it in the beginning before anything else. Yes, prior to doing anything! No warm- up. Just stretch.
I was always taught in college that you should warm up prior to stretching. My professors would always say that more blood flow would go to the muscle and the muscle will warm up reducing the likelihood of injury. Yes, that's true however, your flexibility is not going to improve dramatically.
I have found that PNF stretching prior to anything has yielded the most significant results. When you stretch a cold muscle you actually change the length of the muscle and connective tissue. This is important because those improvements in muscle length are due to actual increases in the length of the muscle and tissue and are not due to the temperature of the muscle or warming up.
Jerks are a great exercise to incorporate into a strength training program. If your new to weightlifting or want to revisit a few steps below is my progression.
Make sure you have mobility in your shoulder joint and flexibility in your lats prior to performing behind the neck lifts. Here is my progression:
1. Behind the neck press with a PVC pipe
2. Behind the neck press with a bar
3. Behind the neck jerk with a bar
4. Bar press in front of the face
5. Bar jerk in front
6. Bar split jerk
Photo Courtesy of Cherle Durbin
This is a question I hear almost everyday. It usually starts on Monday with someone who comes to the gym after a weekend of poor eating.
"Coach, how do I lose weight?" I respond by asking the following 3 questions.
1. What have you been eating? Losing weight starts with nutrition. Eating properly is by far the most important step while trying to lose weight. Choose foods high in protein, fruits and vegetables and reduce your sugar and carbohydrates.
2. Are you performing interval training? If not, start! Boring, slow, long distance cardio is not beneficial to losing weight. Increase your cardiovascular exercise intensity. Try intervals of 30 seconds at a higher intensity and 30 seconds at a lower intensity. 6-12 repetitions
3. Are you performing the same strength training exercises all the time? Most people do the same thing all the time. If your doing the same thing, than your body has adapted to the physical stress placed on it. Change something! The number of sets, repetitions, intensity, or rest periods in-between exercises is a good place to start.
Photo Courtesy nscasports.net
Congratulations Abou on your contract with the IndIanapolis Colts. Good luck!
When possible try to eat wild caught seafood. Wild caught seafood is better than farm or ocean raised for the following reasons:
1. More omega 3 fats
2. They taste better! This is because the animal eats what's in its natural habitat.
3. Higher in protein
4. Less chance of contamination
5. No added pesticide, herbicides, or artificial dyes
I see people performing arm curls everyday. Here are a couple variations that I like. I usually recommend 3 sets with a challenging weight as many repetitions as possible.
1. Thick Bar Curls
2. Cable Assisted Curls
3. Hammer Grip Curls with a kettle bell or plate
4. Straight Bar Curl with a 5 second tempo
1. Plain Unsalted Pistachios: Great source of Vitamin E and helps to lower cholesterol
2. Scallops: Contain a lot of protein and are low in fat
3. Kiwi Fruit: Have twice the amount of Vitamin C than Oranges
4. Tomatoes: Rich in Vitamin C, A and B
5. Garlic: Helps to improve blood pressure and lowers cholesterol.
If you are new to foam rolling here is a quick warm up that you can do.
Squatting is a primal movement pattern that we learn to do as infants. As we get older and become less active, we develop poor biomechanics.
Injuries also lead to poor movement patterns. Here are a couple progressions to get back on track.
1. Learn how to do a proper bodyweight squat. Before placing a bar on your shoulders make sure you can do a great bodyweight squat.
2. Plate Squat or Goblet Squat
3. Kettlebell Squat
4. Single Leg Post Squat
5. Front Squat
6.. Back Squat
7. Overhead Squat
Yes, this is true. Most studies that I read state that stretching a muscle prior to a maximal lift will reduce the force production 2-5%. Keep in mind that these studies also have a subject perform a stretch for a specified amount of time and then immediately go perform a maximal lift.
Here's how I train my athletes without reducing force production.
1. I don't PNF or AIS stretch them on testing or maximal effort days.
2. We alternate dynamic warm up days with PNF days.
3. When we PNF stretch, I don't immediately have them perform a maximal lift. Generally, after we stretch, we go through a movement prep period and then progress towards they're daily percentage.
Improve mobility in your joints with a quick mobility focused warm up
This band circuit includes a variety of exercises that can be done with a band.
If you walk into any gym in America on a Monday you will find that most people will be performing the bench press.
It's one of the most common exercises to perform. If your looking for a variation on this exercise try one of these.
Here is some variety for your next Bench Press session
1. Dumbbell bench press
2. Dumbbell bench press alternating with both arms down
3. Dumbbell bench press alternating with both arms up
4. Dumbbell bench press with 4 second tempo
5. Single arm dumbbell bench press with only 1 DB
6. Bar bench press with tempo
7. Reverse grip bench press
Arm Curls are probably one of the most common exercises performed in the gym. Here are a couple variations:
DB Arm Curls
EZ Bar Arm curls
Straight Bar Arm Curls
DB Neutral Grip Curls
Thick Bar Arm Curl
Band Curls
DB Arm Curl to Overhead Press
Next time you grab a snack or eat a meal think about the origin of the food. Is it processed or did it come out of a package that has a long shelf life? Does it contain a variety of ingredients that you can't pronounce? If so, than ask yourself if it is a good option.
I eat food! Not packaged and processed food, but real food. Vegetables, fruit, meat, chicken, eggs, nuts, and fish are all real food. These foods provide a wealth of nutrition.
The next time you eat a snack or make a meal ask yourself if it's real food that you're consuming or food like products!
