For Your Viewing Pleasure: Bringing Worlds Together
I'm running out the door to head out of town for my brother's wedding, so today is going to be short and sweet. And, I apologize, non-training related. I stumbled across this video a few weeks ago when some friends of mine showed it to me, and I think you all will appreciate that I am sharing it with you (if you haven't already seen it, that is).
Here is a guy, Matt, who's life used to solely consist of making video games and playing video games. Then, through a series of events (you can read the full story HERE), he took on a unique quest to share a message with the world that perhaps hadn't been realized by the many. What kind of message? See the video below for yourself, it will be well worth your time.
Read This! Training Tips from a Toddler
A huge portion of my job boils down to this: teaching adolescents and adults alike how to move with the same precision and excitement that comes inborn for all of us, but that most of us lose over time. Forget about performance or a one-repetition squat maximum… I’m talking about re-teaching the basics of pushing and pulling. It sounds totally cliché, but watching my 2-year old daughter’s development across all platforms is truly a joy for me. I could, of course, talk endlessly about her cognitive development, but I’ll try to exhibit some self-control and keep this limited to the lessons we would all be well served to apply to ourselves in our physical training:
1. Focus: Last week Ryan and I picked up the kids from daycare and were walking home. As we crossed our neighborhood pool’s parking lot, Arabella suddenly shouted “FAST!” and took off running! I laughed to myself and thought how wonderful and meaningful that short exclamation was.
She wanted to run fast, got into the proper mindset, and sprinted. How simple this is! And yet, so often I have to coach athletes in the “how” of getting themselves into this same focused mindset.
2. Go through a full range of motion: Toddlers are notorious for having impeccable squatting form. Part of this is because they’re all built like power lifters (short legs, long torso, and the classic belly), but even after we lose that physique, full-ROM should be the RULE, not the EXCEPTION. You’ll be strong, stable, and have some pretty excellent mobility all around.
3. Pick-up heavy stuff: Arabella walked up to SAPT’s line of kettlebells on Sunday, grabbed a 10-pounder and carried it a few steps. It was definitely heavy for her, but she moved it a few feet and was satisfied.
4. Be athletic: Run, jump, kick, throw. Doing these things every once in a while is fun and inherently human.
5. Show enthusiasm for what you’re doing: Adults who pine all day about going to the gym at night are setting themselves up for failure. Accept that humans are meant to be active and strong. Once you do, maybe you’ll start looking forward to doing something other than being witness to your body wasting away.
The next time I squat, I’m considering yelling out “STRONG!” before the set – I may get a few looks, but I guarantee it would do me some good.
Chronicles from the Intern Experience
At SAPT we've been pretty fortunate to have some wonderful interns since we began taking them only a couple years ago. One who completed his time with us in the spring, Tadashi, has now had a fairly complete look at athletic performance training from three separate sources. Here are his thoughts: I can now proclaim I have been an intern at three different strength and conditioning sites. While this accomplishment is a great addition to slap on my resume, I actually learned a thing or two in the process and gained a lot of experience. What’s special about my cumulative experience in particular is that I have had the chance to work in three distinctly different environments: A D1 school in a mid-major conference, a D1 school in a major conference, and SAPT (a privately owned training facility). Although these are all programs with similar goals of making people big, strong, fast, and athletic, I found that there are some pretty significant differences between the sites.
At the college level, both major and mid-major, time is always a critical factor. A common mantra in the collegiate field of strength and conditioning is “get in, get out.” There are typically multiple lifting groups per day so scheduling and timeliness are crucial. Also, the athletes have class, practice, meetings, homework, and oftentimes jobs, and they simply cannot afford to spend hours in the weight room every day. This means training sessions need to be quick and efficient. In a collegiate team setting there simply is not enough time to go from athlete to athlete and break down exercise technique in intricate detail. Instead, it becomes necessary to choose your battles and address faults that seem to occur across the board. It would be awesome to pull an athlete aside during squats and go over belly-breathing techniques because he/she isn’t bracing correctly, but in a collegiate setting the team might be on their next set and the athlete falls behind.
This was especially true at the major level because the absolute number of athletes was higher, resulting in a disadvantageous coach:athlete ratio per session. We are always maintaining supervision across the weight room floor and keeping a close eye on those we might feel are at a higher risk, such as those coming back from injury, but we can’t catch everything. For example, as I make sure an athlete with shoulder issues is performing dumbbell rows correctly, out of the corner of my eye I might see an athlete on the other side of the room pulling cleans from the floor with a rounded back (and I die a little inside…).
What I found with my experience in the private sector is that quality control and attention to detail become the priority over most other factors. With a better coach to client ratio and much higher standards in terms of execution of movement, very seldom do technique flaws go unnoticed and uncorrected. Well respected strength coaches like Mike Boyle have advised having only one “coaching intensive” movement (think squats/deadlifts/Olympic lifts) per training session, but at a facility like SAPT even a push-up position plank becomes coaching intensive.
I believe a lot of the differences boils down to the fact that in a collegiate setting we are training teams, whereas in the private sector we are training individuals. I feel that there is a level of responsibility for a collegiate athlete to keep up with the program laid out for the team, while in the private sector clients are paying for an individualized program fit for their personal needs. You’re a D1 athlete and your shoulder feels funky? Well, the team is bench pressing tomorrow so let’s hope you’re ready. You train at SAPT and your shoulder feels funky? Time to take a look at your program and see if we need to make some modifications.
There were many other differences I could talk about such as style of programming, exercise selection, testing methods, warm-ups, conditioning work, and so on, but these differences were more a result of the individual coaches’ preferences and not inherently due to the nature of the program (i.e. D1 major conference vs private sector). My experience with these three internships reinforced the fact that this field really isn’t black and white. When I have a question I turn to the experts, but what happens when the experts disagree? Olympic lifts? Linear periodization? Westside? Kettlebells? Barefoot training? Foam rolling? The beauty of having experience in multiple environments was that I could actually see these methods applied firsthand, and come to my own conclusion of what I thought was effective.
For those of you interested in strength and conditioning I highly recommend going out there and gaining some experience with many areas of the field. Whether your interest currently lies in working with elite level athletes, collegiate athletics, children and young athletes, strength sports, endurance sports, etc., jump on every opportunity to work with anyone. You will learn something from every experience, and you might even find your interests shift as you are exposed to different population groups and programs. Even an experience in what you feel might be a “bad” program will teach you what not to do, and will help mold you into a better professional.
Controlled Energy
With the NFL preseason underway and the MLB playoffs right around the corner it’s a great time to examine energy and how it impacts performance.
Energy levels can fluctuate depending on environment and situation, but the ability to control energy is essential for peak performance under pressure. Increased energy can especially help with tasks like tackling or legging out an infield hit. But that increased energy can also lead to tightening of muscles and cause tasks such as field goal kicking, throwing, and hitting seem much harder. Home court advantage, momentum, and crowd noise are playoff buzzwords that are seemingly beneficial for player performance, but an increased energy does not always lead to increased performance. The need to be calm and relaxed is evident in the three examples below.
A field goal kicker needs to be calm and collected so that they can kick in high-pressure situations. If they are not relaxed, even the simplest of tasks may seem difficult. Last year Baltimore Ravens Kicker Billy Cundiff missed a kick that would have helped his team go to Overtime and play for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.
The ability to control energy in pressure situations can often be the difference between making and missing a field goal.
Baseball pitchers normally strive to stay calm when they’re on the mound. When they are too energized, they have a tendency to lose focus and be unable to recover from missed pitches. On the mound, a pitcher needs to be able to stay relaxed and allow their arm to just “throw”. If they get too jacked up it may cause them to lose control over the strike zone and become overly aggressive. However, an increase in energy can also lead to throwing harder, so an increased energy certainly can be beneficial. Like field goal kicking and pitching, hitting a baseball often requires a lowering of energy and a relaxed state. Notice how a hitter tries to calm down before entering the batters box.
While raucous crowds, pregame speeches, and pressure situations can certainly dictate energy--none of those factors are actually in the athlete’s control. An athlete’s ability to control their energy and realize when to get pumped up and when to calm down is a huge key to performance.
The Yerkes and Dodson Inverted U theory suggests there is an optimal level of arousal an athlete needs for performance. It suggests that not enough energy leads to poor performance, but too much energy also leads to poor performance. It points out that energy is tied to finding optimal performance.
So how can you apply this information to your sport? Below are three ways to control energy.
Self-talk
Don’t take your own words for granted. You have the ability to get yourself energized or calm yourself down by simply using words. Before the game starts you should plan for when to be pumped up and when to be calm. Have key words ready to use at your disposal.
Music
By now you’ve seen an elite athlete tied to their headphones before they perform. Music has been synonymous with performance for a long time, but the choice of music is more important than actually using it. Once you figure out what type of energy you need, make sure to align your music with it.
Breathing Exercises
Breathing is your number one ally for controlling energy in the moment. Develop breathing patterns to use when you find yourself getting over energized and need to calm down. Watch an NBA player at the free throw line, a pitcher on the mound, and a hockey goalie during timeouts, and you’ll see them often controlling their breathing.
Videos to Make Your Day Better
This week has been crazy busy both business and personally so I thought I would post some videos and showcase some of our clients and our student-athletes latest triumphs. We've got a 9 year old pushing a prowler, adults smoking a 300lbs deadlift, a female walking around with 150lbs in her hands like its her job, and finally an 810lbs prowler push! Enjoy my friends, I know I did. First here is our youngest athlete at SAPT, Sydney. This little girl is on a mission to be anything but little. She loves moving weight! Check our her Prowler Push.
Second is the infamous Lisa S. You may know her from her previous million pound PR's. Well this was her last max out attempt for a while so she went all out and got 300lbs! Another 25lbs PR!
Third is our resident female badass, Nancy. Nancy is going to be a freshman in college going in with a ROTC scholarship. It's safe to say she will be one of the strongest people there! Here is her 150lbs farmer walk!
And last but not least is Red, perhaps one of most tenured athletes at SAPT. Red is getting ready to head off to his freshman year at VMI to play baseball. But before he left I allowed him to put on as much weight on the Prowler as he wanted. He put 9 plates on EACH side, that's 810lbs!! It only took him 6 minutes to do.
As a side note I just want to say thank you to all of our athletes that are heading off to school. You all worked so hard and showed tremendous drive and heart every time you came in. I am truly blown away by your dedication and drive to be better than average. You guys are the reason I love my job and I am thankful to know you all. SAPT has become a second family to me and the appreciation you all have shown to all the coaches has been humbling. To steal a line from Robert Griffin III... SAPT we are, and SAPT we'll always be...
How to Fix Anterior Humeral Glide During Horizontal Pressing
One of the first articles I wrote was on Anterior Humeral Glide during horizontal rowing which you can find here. I won’t spend a great deal of time going over what AHG is as that would just be overkill and I’ll leave the area of redundancy up to the creators of American Idol.
In the following video I’ll take you through how to prevent AHG during horizontal pressing, namely during the bench press and pushup. Thanks to our intern Jarrett for volunteering for the video even though I kinda through him under the bus; sorry man! Also for another great cue to boost your bench and to stay out of AHG check out Stevo’s article, Quick Tip to Improve Your Bench Press: The other 50%+ of the Equation
