Keep things simple

The more I learn and interact with others the more I realize how much I want to simplify my life.

Creating principles to guide what you do and what you stand for helps you keep your programming, networking and interactions simple. They can guide you in what you do and provide your basis for  your system. 

Over time you can evaluate your principles for their effectiveness and make any necessary changes to it. These principles also serve as talking points when you talk with others about how you are different and how your system provides results. 

Depending in your client base, their goals and your background, the principles you use may be different. They main thing is to understand what those are, how they work together in a system to provide results and how you evaluate their effectiveness. 

By simplifying your approach and streamlining your process you can maximize your time for other things. 

Power of a team

As much as we can try, we can't know everything. This is when it is nice to call upon those who know more than you do.

When you devote yourself to developing a specialty you learn as much as you can in that area. While your knowledge can, and often does, expand in other areas, it is hard to know everything about those subjects, too. 

When you are presented with a challenging case or a client that wants a specific outcome you need to know who to send them to. Cultivating relationships with others that have specialties different than your own can help ensure that you meet all your client's needs. 

Your clients appreciate knowing that they can ask you a question and you can find the answer. This will keep them coming back and continuing to trust you.

When you choose people to refer to it is important to make sure that they perform work at the same high level you do. Keeping the client satisfaction levels high will increase referrals and continue to expand your client base. 

Fitness Secret

Whenever you see someone really fit, strong or looking good, it is tempting to ask what their secret is. Unfortunately, there are no secrets.

The truth is it takes hard work and dedication to meet your goals, both fitness and otherwise. 

I was talking a colleague about this and some of the new research and, really, we know what works. We know that following a clean, calorie controlled diet will assist with weight loss. We know that lifting weights is important for muscular strength, power and health. Interval training will help with weight loss and fitness improvement. Doing these things will help when it comes to losing weight and building muscle. 

It is important to structure your workouts to achieve maximum results. Your goals will dictate the type of workout and training you need. In order to get the best results it involves committing to the workouts, working hard for each one, and eating and resting enough to adequately recover and adapt. These secrets will allow you to meet your goals. No shortcuts, no gimmicks, just hard work and recovery over time. 

Hamstring injuries

I was visiting a friend over the weekend who injured his hamstring a couple of months ago and is still having discomfort.

He asked me for some help and this is what I discussed with him. 

Hamstring injuries are tough: they are a main leg stabilizer and decelerate your hip and knee. When they are injured they heal weaker and shorter. Treatment is dual phase, increase the extensibility to restore normal motion and increase strength. My favorite exercises combine these things. 

Airplanes or single leg Romanian dead lifts. Hinging off the hip with the knee in one position puts stress on the hamstring to eccentrically strengthen it. 

Single leg drops help to improve the flexibility of the hamstring. 

Russian hamstrings are a very tough exercise and excellent for increasing the strength in the hamstrings. Once again the focus is on eccentric strengthening. 

Baseball presentation yesterday

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to work with a youth baseball team for speed and agility. The coaches asked me to show them some skills that they could incorporate into practice and during the off season.

Since the kids were younger pre teens or early teenagers my goal was to show some basics and not overwork them.

Our focus was on a warm up and speed drills, full speed sprint work and base stealing techniques for shuffling and transitioning to a sprint. We also did some shuffles and runs into a fielding position in order to prepare for the season. 

The kids worked hard and were pretty tired by the end. 30 min sessions over 2 hours is a lot to stay focused on and theywere struggling by the end. 

It was a good workout and prepared them for when they get outside in a couple weeks. 

Achieving fitness success

In order to effectively meet your fitness goals you need to decide what those goals are. If there are several goals then rank them in order of personal importance so you know what to focus on.

Once you have decided what your goal, or goals, are then you can create a system to achieve them. In general, the human body is very good at adapting. When you apply a stress to your body it responds. Ideally, this stress will result in changes that make it easier to withstand that stress again. This is how strength and fitness is achieved. 

If you follow a structured workout that is meant to achieve specific results then your body will undergo stress. Recovering from that stress allows your body the chance to adapt. 

Following this process of progressive overload and adequate recovery will lead to long term, consistent results. 

When injuries occur, it is attributed to your body not adapting properly. This may due to too much stress, not enough recovery, or both.

Remember, long term gains are made over time. Your workout is only as good as your ability to recover and adapt. 

Youth strength training

             When should young athletes start to strength train? Is it safe? These questions are asked of us all the time and it can be a challenge to convince parents of the safety of training since they have grown up believing that it can inhibit growth or affect the growth plates.

            It is safe for young athletes to start a resistance training program prior to puberty without risk of inhibiting growth or sustaining an injury. The American Academy of Pediatrics has published a policy statement outlining their position. The greatest risk of injury in young participants is poor coaching, and I would add unrealistic expectations.

            While a lot of us do not work directly with young athletes, we do see injuries and compensations that have originated from when they were younger. The goal of resistance training with young athletes should focus on the development of neuromuscular control, coordination, balance and movement. With this population, it is vital to lay a foundation that they can build off of as they grow and develop over the years. Programs should start with body weight exercises to develop movement and kinesthetic awareness and progress over time to include the introduction of typical strength training exercises once they have demonstrated movement proficiency. 

            Instruction should focus on teaching basic movements such as squats, lunges, lateral lunges, planks, pushups, pull-ups or rows, landing mechanics, and deceleration and change of direction drills. These key movements form the base of their sporting movements, as well as their future strength and conditioning protocols.

            Every athlete is different and has different needs, so they will progress at a different rate. Working with them to maximize their movement quality and efficiency will pay dividends for them later on. 

What do you do when you work with young athletes? What do you start doing with them? What recommendations do you give to parents of young athletes?

Resources:

American Academy of Pediatrics. Strength Training by Children and Adolescents. Policy Statement. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/121/4/835.full

IYCA. Kids Fitness Programs, should they really lift weights? http://iyca.org/kids-fitness-programs-should-kids-really-lift-weights/?inf_contact_key=5741d93b459a43e2580d5eda2335479261206ebaa7255ec5b8e680dff0b0c96f