Pictures Tell A Thousand Words...

Up at the ass-crack of dawn to train newbs. Awesome times. This is why I haven't been writing as of late.

                                                         

Also, here are some articles that are awesome too:

Leigh Peele-Defining Bulky, Once and For All

JC-Spinning Your Wheels? How I Went From Newbie To Intermediate Trainee

Dustin Lebel-Complexes For Growth?

For The Ladies

I had a request from a female reader of this blog to post some more female oriented training advice on here, and I would be happy to accommodate. In this post I'll cover three things women should try and do to get the body they want.

1. People always seem to think that since women are different from men, they need to train a different way. I don't believe this is true. Alot of women I see in the gym have this routine: "run" on the elliptical for half an hour, do some shoulder raises with 5 pound dumbbells, do endless crunches to get a toned mid-section, then call it a day. On one hand, it is nice to see women getting into the gym these days, especially when it can be a bit intimidating with loud men running around who have been attacked by the sleeve monster (poor sleeveless souls). However, I believe that to get the results you want, you can learn a lesson from some of these men (and by men, I don't mean the guy with the popped collar doing calf raises on a Smith machine.) I mean the guys that are doing their deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts (great for having a sexy butt, just look at mine when you get a chance), squats, rows and presses. Basically, every lift should be as close to incorporating total body as possible. To make your entire body look good, you need to work your entire body. Don't believe me? The New Rules of Lifting for Women says different (and it's a pretty good read too. I say buy it.)
2. Do planks instead of crunches. I'm not saying to completely shun them, but your ab program should not be based entirely on them. The planks will both strengthen AND flatten the stomach while alsoworking the posterior chain (or the muscles in the back of the body). For some good progressions and exercises, check out this article by coach Nick Tumminello.
3. This is the most important/neglected/counter-intuitive part of training for either of the sexes. Brace yourself...you have to EAT. Starving yourself will not help you, as John Alvino says in this guest post on Jason Ferrugia's site. Your metabolism will slow down, thus burning LESS calories throughout the day. Follow these guidelines for maintaining a healthy looking physique while actually consuming more than a crouton and celery at dinner:

• Eat breakfast-this will ramp up the metabolism that has been dormant all night long.
• Eat 5-7 smaller meals a day-this will keep the metabolism burning all day, which will help shed fat and allow you to stay thin.
• Eat protein at every meal-protein has the highest thermic value of any macronutrient, meaning it actually heats up the body, allowing you to burn calories. Aim for about .8-1 gram per pound of bodyweight a day.
• Front load your carbs-eat most of your carbs in the morning and less during the day. This will teach your body to use fat for energy later in the day, since that is what you will end up consuming mostly throughout the day.

That's it for this post. Until next time, be strong.

P.S. Check out these site's for more info.

http://www.cassandraforsythe.com/

http://cassandraforsythe.blogspot.com/

http://valerie-waters.blogspot.com/

Again, I apologize to you guys about my absence from the blog over the past two weeks. I have begun my job as a State ocean lifeguard and as the weight trainer of my local high schools water polo team. So, needless to say, I have been slightly busy. This seems to be the case every summer but I wouldn't have it any other way. Since summer is here I'm constantly outside and doing the things I love: saving lives, training athletes, and lookin' good. With that, we have a perfect moment for a segue.

It's time for you to get outside people. I know the weather here in Southern California has been less than optimum, but when that shining sun breaks through the clouds, take advantage of it. Try training outside for a change of pace (I have the great opportunity to train at the beach in the sand.) Maybe invest in some kettlebells; they are easily portable and can give you one hell of a workout (and you look plain badass using them). Also, you could look into a TRX system. These are all the rage right now because of their portability, versatility, total body workout ability, and a whole lot of other -ility's that I can't think of. Maybe run some sprints at your local high school track or do your planned workout at a park. The world is your gym, be creative!

So, get some good old Vitamin D and get yourself a bit of a tan and go train outside for a change!

Until next time, be strong.

Full Body Workout...Of Death!!!

You wanna see some full body strength? Watch this!

WOW

Now that's a full body workout!

First Nutrition Post

I figured since the title of this blog has nutrition in it, I should probably talk about it a bit. Today, I want to talk to you all about post workout nutrition. Most of you probably already know you have to eat or down a protein shake at least a half hour after you finish your training session. Good for you, give yourself a pat on the back. However, do you a) know what it should consist of and b) do you know WHEN and what to have in your next meal? I can feel your confused faces, so please, read on.

First off, lets talk about the timeless post workout shake (or PWO for you lazy people). Many people I've talked to about their shakes say that they just down some low carb whey protein and maybe some creatine. Alright, protein is all well and good, and very important to building muscle as we all know, but why low carb? Granted, if you're a person trying to lose weight, I can completely understand you shunning the carbs, but us young people who could eat Home Town Buffet out of business shouldn't be worried about them, especially after a tough weight training session. You see, when you train, your body uses glycogen as its main fuel source. Without glycogen, your body would have a real hard time making energy for training. When you're finished, you need refill those glycogen stores in the muscles so that they have more energy to start processing the protein and synthesizing it to make muscle. If you don't refill them, the muscles could go do something crazy and use protein as the energy source, and what is the most abundant source of protein in the body? That would be our all important muscle! So, if you don't give the body glycogen to work with, it will catabolize (break down) the muscle in the body to rebuild the muscle you worked (seem kinda backwards doesn't it?).

Now, there is a certain ratio of carbs to protein that is generally accepted by the strength and conditioning elite. A 2-3:1 carbs to protein ratio is the optimal amount you should have in your post workout drink. So, that would mean if you have 20 grams of protein in your shake, you should have 40-60 grams of fast digesting carbs, like maltodextrin, to go along with it. You can add 3-5 grams of creatine to it too if you feel it's necessary. My favorite shake is Biotest's Surge Recovery.

It's got the optimal ratio AND many necessary amino acids like L-Glutamine and L-Leucine (L-Leucine is being shown more and more to be very important to protein synthesis).

Ok, so now that we've covered the post workout drink, now to cover what to do after that. About an hour after or so after you down the drink, what do you think you need more of? If you said protein, correct! If you said carbs, correct! If you said a massage from a naked women, correct! Seriously though, you need more carbs after that because the glycogen is still not filled yet. However, now the ratio is shifted. Protein should be the main thing in the meal now. At this point, a cup of fat free cottage cheese and strawberries would be great, or maybe a cup of pasta and a chicken breast. Ok now I know your going to hate me. Two hours after that, I want you to eat more carbs. I can hear the groans and the people yelling "You're going to make me a fat ass!" All I can say is try to trust me. I can tell you that this will help you build muscle. On your off days, you can lower the carbs but on training days, try this out. All the other meals should consist of protein and fat with little carbs.

Alright, to sum up, here are the general guidelines to follow:

-Eat 5-8 smaller meals a day.

-Eat most of your carbs after training.

-A 2-3:1 carb to protein ratio is optimal in your post workout shake.

-The two meals after the shake (one and hour after, one another 2 hours after that meal) should also consist of protein+carbs.

-The rest of the meals throughout the day should consist of protein and good fats.

Well, those are my thoughts on post workout nutrition. Give a try for a couple months and I think the results will be good. Til next time, be strong.

First off, I would like to apologize to all you avid readers for my delinquency as of late. What with getting prepared to switch colleges and starting to train my athletes, I haven't had the presence of mind to write, much to my dismay. For this, I grovel at your feet and beg for thy mercy.

Ok, so, like I said, I've started training the water polo players of Esperanza High School in the weight room and so far so good in my mind. I've looking forward to get back to coaching for some time now so I can try out some of my insidious ideas on the trainees. So far it's going pretty well, but I've had to make some minor adjustments to the programming due to time constraints and the lack of equipment in the weight room. I'll update you with some pictures and a sample week in the upcoming days when I get it all set in stone.

Recently, I have had the opportunity to join an athletic training gym right down the road (how I didn't know about it in my search for the anti-24 Hour fitness, I'll never know). It was my second day there today (and it's Thursday, so it was metabolic day today) and let me tell you, I had a frickin blast. Here is what I did:

• Tire flips for 15 yds w/ jumps in and out of the tire x 6
• Sled sprints x 95 lbs x 6
• (60 lb sand bag clean x 5 then sprint with bag on shoulder) x 10
• Kettlebell one arm swing Tabata (8 sets of 20 sec on 10 sec off) 

I'll wait til your jealousy subsides....Are we good? Cool. So, needless to say, I'm as giddy as a school girl who got asked to the prom by Zach Efron.

I'm really excited for what this new setup has in store for my. I'll be updating more frequently now that I'll have more time. Until then, be strong.

COC Clinic

Alright, yesterday I attended the College of the Canyons 10th annual Strength and Conditioning Clinic. This is my second time attending and in all honesty I can't think of a better way to spend $60. I'm sorry, I should say invest if I don't want Alwyn Cosgrove to kill me. There were some fantastic speakers at this years event. It's your lucky day, because I'm going to give you a brief overview of what the titans of training told us (that was some damn fine alliteration).

Chad Waterbury, best known for beating you over the head with what equates to a sledgehammer of knowledge in the realm of the central nervous system, spoke about just that, the central nervous systems usefulness. It shouldn't come as any surprise to you, it's kinda important. Chad's speech revolved more around something called the "Size Principle". It shows that motor units (Type I, Type IIa, and Type IIb/x) are recruited in order from smallest, being Type I, to largest and strongest, being Type IIb/x. He says that in order to get maximum gains in size and strength, we must somehow get to our largest motor neurons. This can be reached by either moving the weight quickly in an explosive fashion or using a heavier stimulus, meaning weight. This is generally done with 85% of the 1 rep maximum for maximal loads but with small sets or can be done with submaximal loads, which are between 60-85% of 1 rep maximum, but moved more explosively. So, basically, what to take away from this is lift heavy weight and lift it fast right? WRONG!!! Don't forget to do it safely, or Chad will castrate you with a weight training implement.

Greg Vandermade, head strength and conditioning coach for Cal State Fullerton, which is right down the road, spoke about program design considerations for various athletic programs. Basically, he said that what we do in the weight room is to help these kids get a level of General Physical Preparedness, or GPP. We need to make sure that the athletes can do basic movements that are at the foundation of movement and kinetics in the human body, like skips, jumps, push ups and the like (Side note: I think it's really sad that people these days can barely jump or skip. Didn't we do this as kids or has Halo made us immobile?). Once they can perform those, THEN we can implement weights into the program. Also, we need to cater to the demands of the sport we are training. We wouldn't be doing massive deadlifts for a marathon runner or rotator cuff work for football players (when I say football, I mean soccer. It's played with your feet, it makes sense) but we would do those for football and baseball players. Lastly, he says don't forget the posterior chain. I will repeat that, my gentle snowflakes. DON'T FORGET THE POSTERIOR CHAIN!!! To reduce injury, you need to work what you can't see in the mirror, meaning the hamstrings, glutes, lower back and upper back. Put it this way:if you can bench 300 lbs but can't do 5 GOOD pull ups, there is something wrong there.

Ken Vick, sprint coach extraordinaire, spoke about if sprint technique is important in sprinting. His logic was if sprinting was just about how much force you can produce toward the ground for propolsion, then does technique matter? Well, he says that it does, A LOT. You see, there is a time where someone can be too strong for their own damn good when it comes to sprinting. So, when they reach that point, technique needs to be worked on. However, if the guy runs a 4.4  40, but his form is not what people say it should be, don't change a muda fuckin thing. At that point, it's all about making him stronger and comfortable. I would delve deeper, but to be honest I don't understand the science behind the kinetics and kinematics, so I won't say shit that could be wrong.

Valerie Waters, who is the "trainer of the stars", has trained such Hollywood hotties as Jennifer Garner, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Richard Gere. Wait, how did that last won get in there?! Anyways, she spoke about how to speak to the client to make them happy. You see, magazines forged terms like"toned" and "long muscle" and "fit". People see these words, associate them with a model or actress and say "I wanna be like that!" and use that lingo when conveying that to their trainers. Well, if trainers try to explain that there is no such thing as toned, then they would keep that client long because that clients intelligence has been insulted. So, to keep money coming in, we need to speak the lingo of the client and swallow the knot in our throat that makes us want to take a cheese grater to the face of the editor of Allure.

Alwyn Cosgrove spoke about fat loss programming (side note: he had 48 hours to prepare, and the sheer amount of information and studies he had was enough to make a college research paper look like nonsense.) He said that there are 5 things that must be done to lose fat (I only got three because he went fast. If he posts the info, I'll post it): #1. Correct nutrition-this means eating 5-6 meals a day, reducing carbs by tossing out refined and processed crap (no one ever got fat off eating apples), eating breakfast and having protein with every meal. #2. See #1-ya, it's that important. #3. Do activities that boost the metabolism and burn calories- in one study, after 1 hour of intense weight training, metabolism was boosted for 38 hours after training ceased! You might wanna start putting intense weight training into your routine. Also, he showed a study that showed aerobic exercise, like running and jogging, did little to burn fat. One study showed that after 12 months of running 6 miles a day 6 days a week, people in the study lost only 1.25 lbs! I don't know about you, but I would be kicking small animals out of sheer rage at that point. Instead, add in some interval training like sprints to your regimen. This forces the body to work harder and use fat stores as energy. That's why running backs are so damn lean. Here is an example session:

• Kettlebell swings: 15 seconds
• Rest: 15 seconds
• Push ups: 15 seconds
• Rest:15 seconds
• Jump Squats:15 seconds
• Rest: 15 seconds
• Pull Ups: 15 seconds
• Rest: 15 seconds

Do each exercise twice and that is one set. Repeat 3 times. Make sure you go hard!

Do 2 days of intense circuit total body training and 2 days of metabolic interval training a week for best results.

Well, all in all it was a good clinic and I can't wait til next year.

Until next time, be strong.