Fitness, Training, Health & Conditioning

I am going to keep this one real short. First it is Christmas (Merry Christmas to you all!), and Second the Meningitis is killing me today. 

As far as the Juice Plus goes it brings up the topic of supplements. I touched on this last post but I have never been much of a fan of supplements. The main reason for this is the fact that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) does very little to regulate these products so many of them prove to be a complete waste of money. Take the basic multi vitamin for example. You can research this on Google and finds thousands of positive an negative comments on them. The same can be said for each and every other product out there.

Let me give you the criteria I use to determine the value of a supplement and feel free to laugh at me or use it to help you out.

1. How long has the product been around? If it is less than 2 years I am less likely to try it. If it has been around for ten or more than it has shown some staying power which means it has to be doing some good.

2. What does it claim to do? Does it make a totally outlandish guarantee and offer your money back if you don’t like it? This is always a red flag to me for some reason on supplements. Let me give you an example. As a trainer I have tried hundreds of products over the years so when my clients would ask, I could give them an honest answer. On Several of these “free trial” offers I ended up losing well over a hundred dollars on a bunch of random things. The issue is that they put in so much fine print and use language designed to trick you that you end p purchasing products you never even meant to because you were using the “free trial” .One of the great get rich quick schemes going are these types of products. STAY AWAY FROM INFOMERCIALS! The more marketing behind health products the less I like them.

3. Price. Now you might think the more expensive ones I am telling you to stay away from. To be honest it is just the opposite. You get what you pay for. If your miracle vitamin supplement cost $3.95 a month. Good luck. I am not saying to go spend a thousand dollars a month but just understand that to get a quality product you will need to pay a little more.

One last thing on this. When I was a Lead trainer for Gold’s Gym in the late 1990′s I had a guest speaker come in and talk to the trainers i was working with. She had a great point about vitamins. Purchase some from outside the United States. many countries, Australia for example have very stringent regulations on their vitamin markets. Places like Whole foods and Trader Joe’s typically carry vitamins from outside the United States. Do your research then make a decision based on what matters to you.

So why take a supplement in the first place? Well they are simply a back up. Unless you are able to eat a perfectly balanced diet full of fruits and vegetables and all the other food sources necessary to complete the needs of your body, a supplement might be a good choice.

I have now accomplished 3 days of the 100oz of water and thankfully my bladder is starting to adapt to the amount of water. Today I am gong to give up Item number 3 of my first 5 off my diet. Along the same lines as the first two it involves empty calories. I am going with candy. Now not all candy, I mean lets not get carried away. But all the Skittles, Starbursts, Jolly Rancher type candies. All chalked full of calories, all with no nutritional benefit at all.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Well Viral meningitis does not seem to go away in a day like I had hoped. In fact it can last up to a week. If that is the case I will really just stay focused on the nutrition side of things for the first week. As soon as I can do anything without massive pressure and pain in my head I promise to get to the exercise stuff. 

I have once again accomplished the goal of 100oz of water, this time without the help of any intravenous measures. So 2 days in and I’m still 100%. 

For today I will give you a few other nutritional items to work on. Since this is Christmas Eve there is no way I am going to give up on chocolate just yet. I mean its a New Years Resolution after all.

So I am going to give up on Pop or Soda, whichever you choose to call it. Here is a quick list as to why to choose to give this one up.

You can Google the uses for Cola Products. It is actually quite interesting all the things you can do with a can of Coke. The key is asking yourself do you really want to drink a product that is also used for all of these different things?

Here is the common thing between the first 2 items I have given up so far. The first is that they have very high calories. The average can of Pop has about 150 calories and a small bag of chips has around the same. That may not seem likethat is really all that bad. However, that is the issue, it is really all that bad. Outside of some trace amounts of iron, calcium, and maybe a few other trace minerals in the chips, there is literally no nutritional value at all. That is one of the keys to focus on for the weight loss goals. Empty calories are a killer in this area. I will talk about this more over the next few posts but just know that we have done ourselves a huge favor by dropping out two of the most common enemies to decent nutrition. 

I also want to add in something to help out with the Long Terms Goals. I have been a believer in Vitamins for a long time. I used to think it they were a scam until I took the time to try them out. Fact is they do work. There is one product in particular that changed my mind about vitamins. I had the chance to try out a product called Juice Plus. It is not a Multi Vitamin, it is a product that attempts to replace the lack of vitamins and minerals we lose by not eating enough fruits and vegetables. This was more believable to me than a random pill full of all the vitamins and minerals our bodies need. 

A Friend of mine named Debbie Schmidt had me try out the Juice Plus product. I had recently gone to the Doctor for a physical and everything checked out as usual. I still had fairly high cholesterol but my Doctor said that it was just due to both of my parents having it. After changing nothing else about my diet or exercise patterns I had another checkup a year later. My Cholesterol had dropped down to an almost perfect level. I can bore you with more details on this if you really want it. I know that Juice Plus will make a lot of claims as to what it can do. Here is what I like about it compared to other products. The claims are not all from the company, each person who uses the product can tell you how it has helped them out. I’ll see if Debbie will share her story with us, it is a good one.

Check the Links section to check out Juice Plus for yourself. I do not endorse very many products. I endorse this one because it actually worked. 

Well I have hit a small snag at the end of day one. I can only hope this will not be a precursor of things to come. I started to get a real bad Headache yesterday around lunchtime. It progressively got worse and I ultimately ended up in the emergency room around 3am with what I thought was going to be migraine. This is my first severe headache and I really feel for those of you that suffer from them now that I know what it feels like. Turns out it was viral meningitis. Oh and just a side note. Spinal taps are not pleasant. try to not have one…..ever. 

Here is the silver lining. I had only made it to 80 ounces of water before I went to bed but They put me on an IV when I got to the hospital. By 7 am I had gone through 2 bags. I’m going to say those are 20 ounces each so technically I had 120 oz Yesterday. I went to the bathroom so many times I felt like I was 80 years old (no offense if your 80). 

So I will not be running the 5k and doing the pushups etc. today. I’ll Still Take some measurements of the chest and the stomach and then talk about the next short term goal I have for Today. 

For the Measurements I will use a basic cloth measuring tape. You can get them at any craft store. For the Stomach Measurement I am going to keep it simple and just measure on a horizontal plane at the navel (the belly button). For the chest I will use a horizontal plane at the nipple line.  

I will record these at the bottom of the post (maybe less people will see it there). Now for the next short term goal I will be focusing on a nutrition one again. I wanted to give you an exercise routine to use but I am unable to do it today so I will wait. The nutrition goals is simple. Over the next 5 Days I am going to give 1 thing up. First it will be potato chips. I love chips, they are a blessing in my life but they must go. So as I give up each item I am giving it up until February 28th. That means no chips and again I will get my 100oz of water. Preferably not from the ER this time. 

Ok so my Waist measured out at 38 1/4 inches and Chest Measures out at 41 inches. Attached is a pdf You can print for yourself to helpr record your goals and chart your progress.

Tomorrow I hope to be back on track and able to do a few more of the tests or at least the quick workout I have built for you to do. I will try to get that workout into a pdf by tomorrow as well so you can print it. I will also go over the next food Item I am giving up. Expect Lima beans or something nasty I would never eat anyway. I am kidding of course.

Here is the PDF to Print resoution-chart

 To give you a little help I am going to give you an example of how to keep track of your goals and chart your progress. Again I really feel this is the way to best keep you on track. With the example I am providing, you will need all of the basics we have covered. 

1. Your Resolution

2. Your time frame for accomplishing this goal

3. How many factors will go into achieving this goal

4. What type of short term goals can you establish along the way

5. What is your schedule for tracking and recording

With all of this information you can easily fill out the page(s).  Keep this somewhere that you will not miss. I recommend putting it on the Bathroom Mirror or somewhere you really are unable to ignore that it is there. This is fairly universal regardless of your resolution. If it does not work, see how you can tweak it or send me a message and we can brainstorm how to make it work for you.

To do this I am going to do a Resolution for myself and document the process daily. Feel free to follow along or use it as a reference for your own New Years Resolutions.

I am going to Combine the running with the weight loss and add in an additional two fitness goals as well. 

First the the “Look Long” Goals.

1. By February 28th I want to stand on a scale and have it say 170lbs or less

2. By February 28th I want to run a 5k in under 22 minutes

3. By February 28th I want to do 50 perfect pushups

4. By February 28th I want to do 16 Chinups.

I will be testing myself on each of these as well as doing some measurements (waist and chest) to see the affects there as well.

Let me start of by giving you these factors. I am in above average shape. With the schedule I have some weeks I will get 5 or 6 workouts of at least 90 minutes. Other weeks that can dwindle to one lonely workout. I have no injuries or pain symptoms to speak of. I have had injuries to my back in the past but with the help of Brian Cassidy at Adapt Training I am able to go about my life having little to no problems with it. My diet is average. I go in spurts of eating good and then there are those times I do not. My weight has fluxuated from 165 to 195 pounds over the last several years. I am terrible about drinking water, usually 20 ounces at most. Finally I do have a huge advantage in that I have done this before and it is backed by closing in on 20 years of experience in the fitness industry.

So with all that said here is the first short term goal. Today I will drink 100 ounces of water! 

I have one test result. I weighed in first thing this morning at 191lbs. I will step on the scale again next monday.

Tomorrow I will give you all of the stats on all the tests. First I will do the measurements, then as many pushups and chin-ups as I can. (following the warm-up i will provide) Then I will do the 5k test (expect some walking in there I am sure). 

Also I will go over the rest of my short term goals for this week.

If you follow along I would love to here from you! Remember it is better to do this with someone else to help you stay motivated.

So the last group is for the Elementary school kids. Again like we did on the others lets look at a few differences in the age group we are working with. First this age group is far closer to the other two to still having a fairly high level of efficiency. The 1st through 3rd graders in particular should still have decent control over their skeletal system. Assuming their parents did not park them in front of the Nintendo all day growing up. Thats a different topic we can discuss later. So here is a good general warm-up for the Elementary age Kids.

1. Bear Crawl – 20 steps (On hands and feet crawl forward; keep back flat and knees under body in line with hips.)

Since these kids typically have better efficiency you can go right to the larger more integrated movements. It does not take as much focused effort to restore the various component we discussed earlier. Instead think more about making their bodies go through as many movements as you can, using movement to accomplish all your goals. The Bear Crawl is going to be my Flexion/Extension of the hips.

2. Monkey Hops – 20x (Standing with knees bent and hands on the floor inside of feet, hop both hands out in front of you then hop both feet as far forward as you can comfortably to outside of hands; repeat.)

Next I am going to give you an example for the middle School Class. Lets discuss just a few differences between this routine and the High School one. First look at the age factor. What do you need to take into account in the ages of 10-13 that is typically not as severe from 14 on. In my opinion it is growth spurts. Remember I said typically. Obviously some kids will still make major growth gains in High School but Middle School is where they typically get to that awkward stage. It becomes difficult for them to move as efficiently due to the bone growth rapidly out pacing the muscular system. I think you can agree that a majority of kids go through that phases where they lose coordination and flexibility. 

Since these are some issues that your students are dealing with, the best thing you can do for them is to provide them with as much muscular efficiency training as possible. What I mean by this is give as much stimulation to the muscular system as you can to help it continue to promote proper movement of the skeletal system during these large growth spurts. Also if you refer back to the early philosophy posts consider following the natural strength progression when warming up your middle schoolers. 

Since I want to follow this progression I am going to warm this class up on some type of soft surface, either grass or perhaps wrestling mats. 

Once again the components we are looking for include the following; Muscular activation in all 4 directions of upper and lower body, spine rotation, spine flexion/extension, hip flexor and hamstring range, proper introduction of vertical load, and sport specificity stimulus. I am going to add this to the list for this age group, internal external rotation of the femur, and abduction/adduction of the scapulas. I notice in the middle school age group that due to lack of training and growth spurts they typically have terrible posture and an increasing amount of kyphosis (rounding of the upper back). 

So here is the list for the middle school. I will do my best with descriptions on this one, if they do not make sense to you send me a message and I will see what I can do. Just as with the High School one I will eventually send this out in a pdf file as well as in video form.

1. Wishbone Kicks – 20x each leg (Lay on back with knees together and feet apart with hips and knees bent at 90 degrees. Extend right leg toward the sky and lower back down to 90 degrees. Repeat with left leg and alternate back and forth.)

This is one of the best moves I learned while working for Adapt training. It is a great way to introduce proper flexion of the hip as well as hamstring range, and internal rotation of the femur.

2. Butterfly Crunches – 50x (Lie on your back with the soles of your feet together and let your legs relax to the sides. In this position place hands behind head keeping elbows back; squeeze and hold glutes while contracting abdominal muscles and lifting shoulders off the floor and back down; repeat up and down.)

Really focus on proper form. DO NOT allow them to pull their head forward or bring their elbows forward. Both of these are signs of weakness in the abdominal wall. Teach them the height of the crunch is not important, just the contraction of the muscles.

3. Frog Bridge – 30 seconds (Lie on back, place soles of feet together, relax and spread apart knees letting them fall towards the floor.n Now by squeezing your glutes, lift your hips as high into the air as you can and hold. With the hips as high as you can get them, also try to lower your knees to the ground)

This is basically the antagonist to the wishbone kicks. Now the focus is external rotation of the femur and lengthening of the hip flexors and groin. This one is a good example of why compression shorts are a good idea.

4. Active Bridge – 30x (Lie on back with knees bent and feet on the floor. Keep knees and feet at hip width.  Squeeze glutes, raising hips and lower back off the floor and then lower down; repeat.)

A great move for introducing flexion and extension of the pelvis and lumbar spine in a supported position. 

5. Hollywood Stretch – 1:00 min each side (Sit on floor with left leg straight, bend right knee and place right foot on the outside of left knee.  Put right elbow on the outside of right knee and left hand flat on the floor behind you.  Press right elbow into right knee and twist upper body back toward left hand.)

Not sure why my teachers called it this but they all did. I am a big fan of this one for the rotation of the spine. I also like the lengthening of the glutes it provides. The key is to make sure the back is straight. if they are all hunched over it defeats the purpose a bit. 

6. Cats & Dogs – 10x (On hands and knees with hands under shoulders and knees under hips, arch back up and pull chin to chest, then lower back toward floor and raise head up; repeat back and forth.)

Classic yoga move is one of the best there is. Just like i mentioned in the High School warm-up, anytime you twist the spine, do a move to realign the vertebrae. have them do this one slow and really emphasize the movement in the scapulas. This is a great way to work on the posture of the upper back. 

7. Kneeling Push-ups – 15x (On hands and knees, arch lower back toward the floor, hands in front of and slightly wider than shoulders and knees directly under hips.  While maintaining this position of hips and back, rock forward, bend arms and drop chest straight down between hands then press back up; repeat.)

I am going to do the high school one first. This one is to prepare their bodies for a basketball game. I will list the exercises then also break them down and explain why I chose them and how they fit the model we discussed in the earlier posts. I also would like to send you out a hard a copy and will do so in the Newsletter soon. Sign up for the newsletter for these and other workouts to come to be sent out in a pdf format. 

Make sure to do the exercises in the order that is listed. Each one is designed to lead into the following move. I will explain this more in detail on following a few of the exercises.

1. Feet Wide Big Arm Circles – 20x each direction. Stand with your feet out much wider than your hips. In this position contract your glute (butt) muscles and your quadriceps (thigh) muscles. Now holding the contraction in these muscles the entire time, raise your arms out to the sides at shoulder height. Keeping your torso still start to make large circles forward with your arms. Try to keep the arms as straight as you can. Once you have completed the repetitions forward, then repeat, now with a backwards circular motion.

The reason for the contraction on=f the glutes and quads is that I am assuming the kids have been in a seated position for much of the day. This would mean that the muscles responsible for the positioning and movement of the pelvis have received little stimulation at this point. So the contraction is the chance to re-establish the signal from the brain to the muscle fibers responsible for providing proper positioning of the pelvis. This will also pay help to put the lumbar spine into the proper position as well. The arm circles are to work on the 4 directions of the shoulder we discussed in the previous post.

2. Standing Lunges – 10x each leg. Place your right leg out in front of your left so the feet are at least 3 feet apart. Now place your hands on your hips. Keeping your shoulders up high and your back slightly arched as you bend your left knee and lower it towards the floor. Stop just a few inches before the floor and come back up to the starting position. Repeat up and down and then switch legs.

I like doing a move like this following the previous one because it helps to reinforce what you were trying to accomplish in the first one. Here you are now introducing range of motion into the hips based on the fact that you have already supplied some stimulus to the muscles responsible for the hips. This is also a great way to get some extension into the hip flexors. Finally we also get our flexion/extension demand in our hips.

3. Feet Wide Windmills – 10x each side.  Stand with your feet out much wider than your hips. Now Place the arms straight out to your sides at shoulder height. Keeping your arms straight, bend and twist at the waist as you lower your right hand towards your left foot. Once down, return all the way back to the starting position. Now drop down to the other side. Continue back and forth.

This is an old School move but I love it. Now only is is great for Flexibility in the back, hamstrings, and glutes, it also does a great job of rotation in the spine. I also like to do various type of twists on the floor but since this is for basketball I will not have them lay down on their backs on the gym floor. Not that they could not do it but I want to give an example of how you need to build your warm-ups based on what your surroundings are.

4. Standing Cats and Dogs – 10x. Stand with your feet pointing forwards and placed directly underneath your hips. Now place your hands on your knees and bend the knees just slightly. Now hold this position in your lower body and keep your arms straight as you arch your back up into the air like a scared cat and tuck your chin to your chest. Again without moving your lower body and arms still straight, arch your back down and look up towards the ceiling. Repeat up and down.

I feel it is very important to make sure you do flexion and extension of the vertebrae anytime you do rotation of the spine. I just always worry that someone may hold a slightly rotated position in their back from the twist so to help prevent that from becoming a problem I like to do the a move like this to help realign the spine. This is also one of the components we discussed in the last post that is necessary in a warm-up.

5. Feet Wide Hip Glides – 10x each direction.  Stand with your feet much wider than your hips. Now bend you hips and knees and place your hands down on the floor. Try to keep your weight in your hips by leaning back just a bit. Now keeping your hips as low as you can and your back as straight as you can, glide to your right, bending the right knee and trying to straighten your left leg. At the end of the motion, flex your left thigh as hard as you can for a second, then glide to the other side and repeat to the left. Continue to glide back and forth.

This is one of my favorite moves. I like the amount of mobility it forces into the hips and knees and ankles. I also like the range of motion it creates in the hamstrings. This move also takes care of the abduction/adduction directions of the hip that we need as one of our components of a warm-up.

6. Standing Quadricep Stretch – 1:00 min each side. Stand facing a wall with your feet about 12 inches off the wall. Now grab your right foot with your right hand and pull your heel towards your lower back. keep as good of posture as you can throughout the rest of your body. Now holding this position, squeeze your glutes as hard as you can and press your pelvis towards the wall until you feel a big stretch through the hip flexors and quads. Now hold this contraction.

This is not one of my favorites, there is just too many ways to do it wrong but I did want to add another one in to emphasize hip flexor range. I wold much prefer to do this kneeling bit again we are limited by the surface we are on.

7. Bear Crawl – 20 steps. Start on your hands and knees with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Now lift your knees a few inches off the floor keeping your back straight. Start crawling forward taking small steps by reaching out with your left hand and pulling your right leg forward. Now alternate hands and feet back and forth keeping your back flat and knees close to the ground.

This is one of the best moves around. I mention back in the early philosophy posts that this is the most important step in our physical progression. i try to put it in every warm-up and workout I build. It is a great introduction to proper movement and I also like how it places load into all 4 of the structural Joints (shoulder, hips, knees, ankles)

8. Lateral Lunge Walk – 10 steps each direction. Stand with your hands on your hips, now drop your hips into a squat keeping your weight back in your heels. Now keeping your hips low, reach out as far as you can with your right leg and then still keep the hips low as you pull your left leg back towards your right. Continue and then switch and lead with the left leg. Keep your shoulders up tall and you back slightly arched.

I chose this a good intro into sport specificity movements. This one prepares the hips for the lateral demands of the game you are about to play. 

9. High Knee Rotational Skipping – 20 skips forward and backward. From a standing position, place your hands behind your head. Now start a skipping motion as you bring your right leg out to the side, then forward like you are stepping over a trash can. Upon Landing immediately go up with the left leg and continue to repeat. Try to keep your torso still during the skips so the motion is coming just from the hips. Now repeat backwards by lifting the knee in front of you then puling it around to the side.

This one is great on a lot of levels for the specificity of basketball. What I like best is the fact that since you are skipping you will be landing in random angles in your ankles. This to me is very important to help prevent your students from not being prepared for this and twisting an ankle.

10. Hands Overhead Squat Hops – 10x. Stand with your hands straight up over your head. Now squat down keeping your hands up and your back arches, then jump into the air as high as you can. As you land, bend at the knees and the hips and go right back up. Keep your arms up the whole time.

I chose this as the last activity specific one just to prepare their bodies for the rebounding aspect of the game. The combination of explosive hip movement integrated with the angle of the shoulders.

This is a pretty quick version of a warm-up. Normally with one of my classes or especially one of our basketball teams, I wold do at least twice as many exercises, probably more. I hope this gives you a good idea of the components that go into creating a sound warm-up. Give me your feedback. I would love to hear what your expertise has to say as well!

Just a quick note about the importance of water. I mentioned hydration as my goal for both the running and weight loss resolutions. Here is a good sample of examples as to why it is so important.

Incredible as it seems, water is quite possibly the single most important catalyst in losing weight and keeping it off. Water suppresses the appetite naturally and helps the body metabolize stored fat. Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase, while an increase in water intake can reduce fat deposits. Here’s why; the kidneys cannot function properly without enough water. When they don’t work to capacity, some of their load is dumped onto the liver. One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body. If the liver has to perform a portion of the Kidney’s work, it is unable to operate at the level necessary to metabolize the fat, thus preventing fat loss in the body.

 The overweight person needs more water than a thinner person. Larger People have a higher metabolic load and since water is the key to fat metabolism, it only makes since that the heavier you are the more water your body will need.

Water also help to maintain proper muscle tone by giving muscles their natural ability to contract and by preventing dehydration. It also helps to make the muscle definition by keeping your cells buoyed by water so the skin stays tight, clear, and resilient as opposed to loose and saggy.

Water is the bodies main transport system of waste products. During vigorous exercise the body has a higher level of wastes and toxins in the body. Proper water in the body helps it to be flushed out of the system.

How much water should you drink? The easy answer is as long as your urine is clear your body is hydrated. Try to have about 3 quarts a day as an athlete. One in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. One of the quarts should be during your exercise routine. If you are not drinking enough the body will see the lack of water as a threat to its survival so it will hold on to excess water and make you feel lethargic and weak.

Lets use 3 different examples of warm-ups. I am going to put a hard copy for you to look at or print and I will be adding a video for you to download as well. Keep in mind that on each of these you will need to use your judgement in regards to whether or not certain kids should do them. Injuries need to be addressed as do other various physical disabilities some of your students may be suffering from. These are not ballistic in nature but will provide a certain challenge to your students. Some will do better than others on various exercises. That is one of the things I like best about them is that it teaches kids to not criticize based on an inability to perform an exercise because it is quite possile that the individual trying to criticize will be unable to do the next without really struggling. 

I also recommend that you have your older students wear compression shorts or spandex. Some of these moves can leave you a little “exposed” and to avoid this unfortunate event, have them wear something to cover up the upper thigh and hips. I also will warn you that the kids will laugh at a few of these. It happens each time I start working with a new group. It takes a few times for them to adjust but eventually they just come to expect it as the normal way to warm-up

So to help and cover as many groups as I can lets focus on these three groups to warm-up.

1. Elementary Age - we will just give them a general preparation

2. Middle School – they are getting ready for a game of Kickball

3. High School – This group we will warm-up for a basketball game

I am going to do an individual post for each of these so that i can discuss each one without you needing to sift through hundreds of lines of text.