Making Progress

The end of the 4 week speed camp is approaching fast. I have been very impressed with the progress of the young kids. They have all improved their bodyweight squat form, running technique, and strength. We have been working on a variety of mobility movements, speed strength, conditioning, and coordination. Also, one of the big things that is beyond their control that the kids need to be aware of is their diet.

Two of the camp attendees Keith Copper and my son Camdon have hit some tremendous PR's. Keith has improved his lunge technique and ten yard dash big time. Camdon has set a new camp record with a 3:00 plank hold. The big thing about these two guys that make them succeed is their willingness to work hard and compete. Be on the lookout for these two in the future at whatever they may attempt.

Get Lean & Mean

This simple statement takes me back to a time when one of my buddies was being watched by many NFL scouts to play wide receiver. We were in Virginia going through a warm-up before our football game and a scout said that Junior Lord guy is definitely lean and mean. I believe he was referring to the low body fat that Junior carried at that time and the amount of muscle that was on his frame. In training some of clients, I have noticed that many of them want that same look of being lean and mean. My response is if we want to look like athletes then we have to train more like athletes. Say goodbye to the endless hours in aerobics classes, light dumbells, and lond cardio sessions. Can they work? I think they can for a period of time, but what happens when the body adapts to that style of running and becomes more efficient at this type of running and does not see a need to grow or burn fat to keep up.

The answer is the body stops burning fat and starts burning muscle. What happens from there is the smoothed out skinny-fat look. Not a pretty site! I just believe that there are far more efficient ways to burn fat and preserve muscle. Most fat is burned in a caloric deficit state which means your body does not have enough glycogen stored because of the decrease of carbohydrates to endure a long cardio session. My solution is to lift big weights to give your body a reason to hold on to that muscle, keep your diet on point, and do short intense interval workouts. Weight training is an experiment and everyone's body is different, so the only way to measure your success is to keep track of your results.

Speed Camp is here

The Speed & Agility camp has finally arrived and has kept me very busy this summer. It has been a great experience working with the kids and helping them improve as athletes. In the short time that I have been working with the kids I can tell that the biggest obstacle for kids is strength. Strength limits their ability to get in certain athletic positions, hold certain positions, and reach maximal speed with running. It is funny to me when I see different coaches making 9 year old kids lift weights without preparing their young bodies with relative strength exercises such as pull ups, push-ups, lunges.....

The simplest cues can dramtically change the time that they run in certain speed drills. The reason being that most kids have no idea of how to run. Arm swing drills, knee step over drills, floor drills, and wall drills are most effective because I think they force the kids to learn optimal technique for speed. I would have loved to have had an opportunity to learn how to run at such an early age. I will be updating the results of the camp and am excited about what is to come.

Controlled Variety is Key

If you want to lose weight or gain muscle you have to force your body to adapt to a new stimilus every now and then. If you don't believe just look at the people at your gym that has been doing the same thing for years and you will see they look the same that they did when you first saw them. I attached an article from MSN that explained why you should vary your exercise routine periodically.

Efficiency is a good thing when you're talking about running your business. But it sucks the benefits out of your diet and workout. The more efficient your body is at exercise, the fewer calories it burns. Think of the guy in your health club who does the exact same workout every time you see him, with the exact same weights. He never looks better from one year to the next because his body has become so efficient at doing those moves that it doesn't need to grow bigger muscles or burn more fat in order to finish the workout.
Science has shown us some good strategies for making exercise less efficient:

Strength training
You can make your lifts less efficient in two ways by increasing the amount of weight you're lifting, or by choosing exercises that are more challenging to your balance and coordination.
Let's say your maximum bench press is 200 pounds. Lifting 200 pounds once is very inefficient; your body throws every muscle fiber into it. But lifting 50 pounds four times is very easy, and thus efficient. The metabolic cost of lifting 200 pounds once is thus greater than the cost of lifting 50 pounds four times. Doing maximum-effort sets of three to six repetitions with, say, 165 to 185 pounds would be a better way to overload your metabolism than doing sets of 10 to 12 reps with lighter weights.
The least efficient lifts are those in which the weight is over your head. This would include standing shoulder presses, as well as exercises such as squats or lunges in which you hold a weight overhead. So instead of doing shoulder presses in a machine or sitting on a bench, stand and crank them out.
Endurance exercise
No surprises here: If you perform intervals, in which you go hard, then easy, then hard again, you take the efficiency out of your run, swim, or ride. You can call this the "Old Science of Weight Loss," since studies have shown the fat-burning benefits of intervals since the early '90s.
Your diet, too, can be made less efficient, and thus more calorically costly. I showed in the previous section how a higher-protein diet kicks up your metabolism, a sign that your body is burning calories inefficiently. But if that protein comes in the form of high-calcium dairy milk, yogurt, cheese you take the inefficiency one giant step further.