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You can follow this link to find my online store and see what products I currently offer. All orders have free shipping with no minimum purchases!

If you have questions regarding what products are right for you just shoot me an email and I’ll help you get started.

Protein - How much and when?

Protein has long been used in the hopes of increasing athletic performance and improving body composition, however, the world of supplements is filled with landmines and false promises so it’s not always easy to determine what you should be looking for or if what you have has a high enough dose to work properly. I’m going to take a quick dive into protein to give you a better idea of what to do to maximize its benefits.

First let’s look at why, protein supplementation has been shown to increase muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and increases both muscle mass and strength when combined with a resistance training program. In addition to this, increased protein consumption has been shown to decrease fat mass even in highly trained athletes.

When it comes to these benefits from protein, it appears that in order to realize the biggest benefits, first you should make sure that you are eating a balanced diet with plenty of protein dispersed throughout the day. A good rule of thumb is to get 1g of protein for every pound you weigh. So for a 150lb person, you should get about 150g of protein each day. But, for athletes with more extensive training you should go up to about 1.5 g/lb each day, which would equal about 225g for the same 150lb person. This should be broken up throughout meals every 3-4 hours throughout the day with each meal having 0.2-0.35 g/lb of protein in it. This comes out to 30-55g of protein at each meal.

While in a perfect world all of this would be met through a food first approach, when it comes to eating this much protein it’s pretty difficult and for those who are pressed for time this becomes even more difficult. Having a source of readily available protein can help fill in the gaps of your current diet and make getting the amount of protein needed easier to come by.

So now that we’ve found a need for supplementation, what should you look for? First thing to do is to look for NSF certified products, while supplements are a messy business with little regulation, NSF certified products are regularly tested to ensure they include what’s on the label and nothing else. Next you should look for protein products that will provide 20-30g of protein per serving, with about 2-4g of Leucine in each serving. These amounts are shown to stimulate MPS the most, however larger amounts per serving haven’t been studied as extensively.

When it comes to timing, assuming that your total daily intake is good, and that you’ve spread this out throughout the day, it is best to consume a protein source within 45-90 minutes of beginning exercise. Whey protein has been shown to be one of the most bioavailable proteins, but other protein sources will work as well should you not be able to digest whey protein without discomfort. While in the past it was thought that you needed to consume carbs with protein to maximize the benefits this hasn’t been shown consistently, so I recommend finding a protein powder with a low amount of carbs so as not to add unnecessary calories.

Now that we’ve gone through the basics of protein along general recommendations, let me know in the comments any specific questions I may have left out or what you’d like to see next.

Exercise Progressions for Performance Training

Implementing exercise progressions is a key part of creating a good training plan, and how it's done can help set the athlete up for success or put them on a route to unnecessary frustrations. Below are a few ideas I keep in mind when planning and implementing progressions.

First, progressions should have a reason why they're being implemented, randomly deciding to do something different "just because" isn't a valid reason. Understanding what physical abilities you need to be successful in your sport, with a clear understanding of where you're currently at is the foundation for planning exercise progressions.

Second, and just as important as the first point, you should only progress once the athlete has shown that they are ready for it. This seems simple enough, but many times progressions are made because that's what the plan says to do, or the coach is itching to get to the good stuff. Yeah, getting to more complex exercises is fun, but unless the athlete has shown that they can do the very basic things well first, you'll only end up spending more time having to double back and correct issues that arise because they weren't ready in the first place. 

Lastly, progressions shouldn't add unnecessary complexity for the sake of novelty, this comes back to having a reason why. Training is to prepare you for your respective sport and that should be reflected with the exercise selection and progression plan. So instead of progressing to kneeling on a bosu ball while overhead pressing kettlebells (please don't do this), transition from a regular squat to pause squats where you hold the bottom position for a few seconds. This changes the force-velocity demands of the exercises and helps increase isometric and inertial strength (starting from a dead stop) which are beneficial for almost all athletes.

Ultimately the goal of a good training plan is to give you the physical capacities to be better at your sport. This is accomplished through the use of proper exercise progressions that emphasize different physical characteristics of the core lifts instead of moving to something else entirely. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel, just refine it.

If you're interested in personalized coaching services to help prepare you for your next sport season, click here for more details regarding online training.

Four Benefits of Strength Training For Runners

Running has always been fairly popular among recreational athletes, but for those who have decided to get a little more serious let’s briefly look at four benefits that adding strength training will have on your running performance.  

• Decreased injury risk by improving both muscle and tendon health and strength.

• Increased endurance by improving neuromuscular pathways, thus improving running economy and lessening the amount of work done to maintain the same pace.

• Improved mobility by working in more than just one plane of motion and developing the less used muscles in running.

• Improved speed, by increasing the maximum force output of the muscles, you’ll be able to run faster throughout the race or at the end during your last sprint.

These are are just the beginning of the benefits that strength training will have for runners, and at this point the research overwhelmingly supports adding strength training to endurance training as a way to get better.  

Basic Principles For In-Season Training

When it comes to in-season training there are a few important principles to keep in mind to ensure that you're creating the best program that will allow your athletes to be successful in competition. While traditionally periodization models have been built around single competition sports such as weightlifting or track and field, team sports are unique due to there long seasons and having competitions each week and possibly multiple times a week. So how do we reconcile this with physical training? The answer may not be to use a traditional periodization approach, but rather one that looks at the schedule and adapts to the needs of the athletes. 

First it's important to point out that the overall goal is to manage stress and keep and athlete healthy. At no point should adding unnecessary volume or chasing numbers be the goal or the direction taken when planning out an in-season program. Important in this is that it's not just training stress, it's stress from competition, classes if they're in school still, from their spouses, and also just general life stress. All of this must taken into account and be managed to ensure the athlete is in the best place for competition.

Piggybacking off of this, you'll want to limit exercise variation and not put anything new in the plan here. New movements and exercises tend to cause soreness and that's the last thing you want during the season.

It's important to realize that while commonly done, there is no "maintenance" phase, you are either getting better or worse, so when putting together your plan be sure to not fall into the trap of wanting to be conservative with intensity for fear of injury, as this may actually increase their injury risk because they will lose strength throughout the season. And with many team sports having relatively short off seasons and preseasons, utilizing the in-season to get better should be at the top of the list because this will be the longest uninterrupted block of time throughout the year. The key point is to find windows of opportunity to train hard, so obviously don't plan a max strength session right before competition, but rather by knowing how much time is necessary for supercompensation, this will allow you plan when is most effective to get your training in. This also means that you should have a working knowledge of how long your athletes can maintain their biomotor abilities (strength, speed, flexibility, endurance, technique) to ensure that you train each quality within this timeframe to maintain and improve it's capacity.

When it comes to exercise selection, you want to keep variation to a minimum, always changing exercises or doing unfamiliar work will cause soreness and this is the last thing that you want to happen during the season. Generally you should only pick exercises that are specific to the demands of the game and allow for large ranges of motion to maintain mobility throughout the season.

A final point, is to acknowledge the demands of their sport. Practices and games provide a good stimulus for biomotor abilities based on the sport, so it should be noted to only add in what is necessary on top of this. But on the other side of this is realizing that sport is not the best stimulus for fitness, so realizing where the sport adds fitness and where it falls short is the important point here. 

Putting this altogether is a good starting point to plan an in-season training program, however all of this assumes that capacities have been built in the offseason and preseason and the in-season is the time to continue to progress to ensure that athlete is at their best for the entire length of their season.

My 4 Basic Nutrition Recommendations

When it comes to health and nutrition there's a hell of a lot of conflicting information out there. And it seems like everywhere you look there's a new diet that is best for you. From paleo to vegan, high carb to primal, it seems like there's no end to the madness so what should you do?

Obviously this isn't an easy place to be in, nutrition science is difficult and determining if the conclusions reached in research are valid is a difficult thing to do so I'm here to make it a little easier for you. Below are my general recommendations that will help you get your nutrition under control and get you closer to your fitness goals.

1. Eat your veggies. - No matter what diet you subscribe to no one is gonna tell you not to each vegetables. Making sure to get different colored vegetables is key as different nutrients are generally found in the different colored vegetable groups.

2. Everything in moderation. - Again, this is kind of a no brainer. You shouldn't come out the end of each meal feeling stuffed and bloated because you ate too much. Don't eat so fast and stop when you're satisfied and you'll start to see improvements in your health if you're looking to lose fat.

3. Get plenty of lean protein. - Whether you're looking to build muscle or just lose a bit of fat mass, adding more protein to your diet will help in both aspects and can be the difference in getting past plateaus or not. And while it's commonly thought that excess protein may be bad for you, it's been shown in numerous studies that you really can't have too much, so aiming for about a 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is a good place to start.

4. Be consistent. - This isn't totally about nutrition, but if you want to see progress you can't just pick and choose when you'll do what you're supposed to be doing. If you only eat well a few times a week you're obviously not going to see results, you should aim to eat good healthy meals in at least 80% of the time. It's also important to note that in that other 20% when you're not on top your game, you shouldn't go off the deep end and just eat everything in sight. You should still try and stay in control of your portions and do good that way.

So there you have it, my 4 basic nutrition recommendations that will help you out. They're not overly complicated, and they're things we already know we should be doing but sometimes we have to be reminded. 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and what you'd like to see in the future.

Does Resistance Training Provide any Cardiorespiratory Benefits?

Introduction

The importance of cardiorespiratory fitness cannot be understated, but currently this is an abundance of literature that investigates traditional aerobic exercise (running, cycling, swimming, etc..) with little focus on potential cardiorespiratory benefits that may come from resistance training. While initially thought to provide no cardiorespiratory benefits due to the long rest periods, there are now more methods being used such as circuit training which may have potential benefits on cardiorespiratory fitness.

Review of major Findings

For traditional resistance training, there does not seem to be substantial contributions to the cardiorespiratory system due to the relatively short work periods and long rest periods, however upon comparison between aerobic and resistance training it has been shown that resistance training increases blood flow when compared to aerobic exercise (2). This would suggest that there may be benefits to cardiorespiratory fitness if training is manipulated accordingly. Ratamess et al. found that mean oxygen consumption (VO2) and ventilation (VE) are inversely related to the rest interval (RI) length, with the greatest VO2 measures seen with RI of less than one minute. When RI was three minutes or greater the benefits of increased oxygen consumption were no longer seen (7). However, with the shortened rest periods, the load had to be lowered each set so that each group (high and moderate intensity) could still hit their goal of 5 and 10 reps per set. This loss of force output would immediately dictate whether to use this method depending on the goal of the session and whether strength or muscular endurance/aerobic capacity are what is being trained.

In a separate study, Alcaraz et al. looked at the relationship of bar speed in the bench press when done in a traditional training protocol and also during a circuit training protocol and the effects that these two training protocols would have on the cardiovascular demands of the individual. What they found was that there was no difference in bar velocity or power despite the circuit training protocol having two lower body exercises substituted for the passive rest period of the traditional training protocol (1). Despite there being no differences in performance, the cardiovascular load was much greater in the circuit training protocol with a higher average heart rate during exercise and rest. This suggests that resistance training circuit protocols can be a viable training method to increase cardiorespiratory fitness.

In another study, Mukaimoto et al. studied the oxygen consumption of three different circuit resistant training (CRT) protocols; a high intensity (80% 1RM) with normal movement, low intensity (50% 1RM) with normal movement, and a low intensity (50% 1RM) with slow movement group. What they found is that the low intensity group with slow movement had a greater total VO2 consumption and energy expenditure, despite a lower average VO2, due primarily to the fact that the total exercising time was much greater than the other two groups. They also found that the blood lactate levels were lower in this group which would suggest that the slow movement training had a greater aerobic component when compared to the same load at normal movement speeds (5). It should be noted that in each of the three groups, the average VO2 for the training session did not reach 50% of VO2Max and thus may not be a suitable stimulus to increase cardiorespiratory function. This may have been due to the fact that all exercises were done on nautilus gym equipment and used only a small amount of muscle groups per exercise. In a study by Gotshalk et al. they investigated the cardiorespiratory responses to a CRT protocol. They found that VO2 was elevated above 50% of maximum indicating that this low intensity (40% 1RM) six exercise circuit could be used to increase cardiorespiratory fitness, possibly as a cross training option or when traditional aerobic exercise isn’t done. A second finding from this paper showed that during resistance exercise, heart rate and VO2 do not increase at the same rate as during aerobic exercise (4), with heart rate reaching above 80% of maximum while VO2 hovers over 50%, thus basing resistance training prescriptions off of heart rate is not a viable option until further research is done. Similarly, Ortego et al. found that there may be gender differences in regard to oxygen consumption during resistance training as they found that women had lower absolute VO2 levels during exercise while having similar heart rate measures (6). This further complicates the issue of prescribing resistance training for increasing cardiorespiratory fitness as sex, and fitness level may be factors that effect if adaptations are possible.

Another factor that may affect oxygen consumption and potential for increases in cardiorespiratory fitness is the exercise type. In a study done by Farrar et al., they measured the oxygen cost of a 12-minute kettlebell swing test. What they found was that average relative VO2 was 65% for the test and heart rate was 87% of maximum (3). At a closer glance, VO2 and HR both rose dramatically within the first minute of exercise and then plateaued for the rest of the 12 minute test after the second minute. These results show that kettlebell swings are a sort of middle ground between traditional aerobic exercise and circuit resistance training. At first glance this shouldn’t make sense, however differences between kettlebell swings and the majority of exercises used in CRT do exist. First, kettlebell swings are full body exercises which is the most obvious difference between exercises selected. Secondly, many exercises selected for CRT protocols have defined concentric-eccentric phases which are typically done in a controlled steady rate. Kettlebell swings however, can be argued as a ballistic exercise which alters the dynamics of the concentric and eccentric muscle actions, which may provide more cardiorespiratory benefits when compared to traditional resistance training and what has commonly been studied in the circuit training protocols.

Conclusion

While there is limited research regarding the cardiorespiratory benefits of resistance training, there is evidence to suggest that circuit resistance training protocls can invoke a cardiorespiratory response which could be greater depending on the speed of contraction and also the amount of rest allowed between exercises and sets. In addition, it seems that dynamic resistance training may provide the most benefits to cardiorespiratory fitness as this shortens the concentric muscle action which would allow for more blood flow to pass through the muscle tissue, however this type of training hasn’t been investigated fully and needs to be looked into more, along with what intensity level (%RM) may elicit the greatest oxygen consumption.

Sources

1. Alcaraz, PE., Sanchez-Lorente, J., and Blazevich, AJ. Physical Performance to an Acute Bout of Heavy Resistance Circuit Training Versus Traditional Strength Training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 22: 667-671, 2008.

2. Collier, SR., Kanaley, JA., Carhart, R., Frechette, V., Tobin, MM., Hall, AK., Luckenbaug, AN., and Fernhall, B. Effect of 4 Weeks of Aerobic or Resistance Exercise Training on Arterial Stiffness, Blood Flow and Blood Pressure in pre- and stage-1 hypertensives. Journal of Human Hypertension 22: 678-686, 2008.

3. Farrar, RE., Mayhew, JL., and Koch, AJ. Oxygen Cost of Kettlebell Swings. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 24: 1034-1036, 2010.

4. Gotshalk, LA., Berger, RA., and  Kraemer, WJ. Cardiovascular Responses to a High-Volume Continuous Circuit Resistance Training Protocol. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 18: 760-764, 2004.

5. Mukaimoto, T., and Ohno, M. Effects of Circuit Low-Intensity Resistance Exercise with Slow Movement on Oxygen Consumption During and After Exercise. Journal of Sports Sciences 30: 79-90, 2012.

6. Ortego, AR., Dantzler, DK., Zaloudek, A., Tanner, J., Khan, T., Panwar, R., Hollander, DB., and Kraemer, RR. Effects of Gender on Physiological Responses to Strenuous Circuit Resistance Exercise and Recovery. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 23: 932-938, 2009.

7. Ratamess, NA., Falvo, MJ., Mangine, GT., Hoffman, JR., Faigenbaum. AD., and Kang, J. The Effect of Rest Interval Length on Metabolic Responses to the Bench Press Exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol 100: 1-17, 2007.

New Year's Resolutions

With the first month of the new year just about over, many health and fitness resolutions are going strong, but sadly even more have already failed or have been given up on. Why is it that so many of us fail to make our resolutions last any longer than a month? And if you are still holding strong you're more than likely on the brink of just saying quit and go destroy a large pepperoni. 

The reason that most resolutions, or any new habit for that matter, fails is that we tend to set too high of goals. We have to work out 5 days a week, eat super "clean" while also eating half of what we used to, all while more than likely trying to change some other non health related habits. While many see this as the road to a healthier life, it's nothing more than a recipe for disaster. These high goals we set leave us nothing but a long hard fall when we fail.

So next time, instead of shooting for the moon, aim a little lower. Make one small change that will be so easy there's no way you can fail. And once you've identified your goal, only make that one change for two to three weeks. After proving to yourself that you're able to do it consistently, make another small change. And continue like this until you look back and notice that you've made huge changes over a long time period but each step towards that goal was small and manageable. It is this way that we can make long lasting changes that will keep us from falling victim to quitting on our resolutions each year.

Don’t load dysfunction!

This is a common theme and is followed by many performance coaches, but what does it mean and is it the only way? The basic premise for this is that loading dysfunction will only further increase the dysfunction of the individual, either pushing them towards injury or creating bad habits. An example would be that if an athlete cannot perform a bodyweight squat, they should not have a barbell on their back doing back squats. And while this may make sense at face value and is a great catchphrase to say when viewing training as black and white (functional vs. nonfunctional), is this the only way to go about things?

The first issue that I have with this is that you’ll always be chasing perfection, because anything less than that is dysfunction which can’t be loaded right? Well if you chase this rabbit you’ll never get past correctives and will essentially waste your time. And all this time spent fixing the smallest of details will take away time that could’ve been used actually training. Because that’s what we as coaches are here for right? To train and coach the athletes and give them the physical tools to be successful. So while I’m by no means saying that you should allow shitty technique for lifts, what I am saying is that you should embrace the ugly technique and have a bandwidth of acceptability for every athlete, so that they will simultaneously progress towards better form while also receiving a physical stimulus.

So then how do actually do this, how are you supposed to get someone stronger while also improving their technique and form? One way is to change the environment. This is a great way to coach and facilitate learning without actually “coaching”. For example, imagine your teaching a brand new group of athletes how to hip hinge, but like many who have never done this before they end up doing some squat back rounding hybrid that just looks painful. Many athletes will be able to fix their back rounding problem by a simple “proud chest” cue, but the excessive knee bending can be much tougher for them to grasp. So instead of cueing till your blue in the face and telling them they’re doing it wrong, simply place a bar in front of them just below their knees. This environmental constraint limits their range of motion at the knee and forces them to solve the problem of hip hinging without bending their knees. This environmental cue sets the athlete up for success by allowing them to be in the correct movement pattern, as well as being able to still load the exercise and give the athlete a sufficient stimulus to adapt to.

Another method is to change the force vector of the exercise. For those athletes who either have pain, limited mobility, or a lack of stability that doesn’t allow them to complete an exercise with proper form, altering the vector of action is a great way to allow them to execute the exercise while improving their form. Let’s take a simple forward lunge as an example. For some athletes this can be challenging either because they lack the stability to maintain their balance, or they could be recovering from a lower leg injury and they can’t control their forward foot and keep their knee from caving in. To help these two scenarios, altering the lunge from straight forward to a 45º lunge will help. By changing the lunging direction to 45º, you improve the stability of the exercise by increasing the width of the base of support. This added stability also has the benefit of improving the athlete’s knee control and over time you can decrease the lunging angle back to straight forward (35º, 25º, 15º, etc..) as the athlete improves their balance and control.

The key takeaway here is that just because an athlete is not able to perform an exercise due to mobility, this doesn’t mean you have to regress them to lying on their back and teaching them control, or only using bodyweight until they achieve this perfect form. By expecting perfection in every rep, it will do nothing but bring you headaches each session, yes you should have standards for each exercise, but there should also be an acceptable range for the athlete as daily lifestyle factors can affect how an athlete moves each day. Instead find ways to put the athlete in a position to succeed, and progress them to where they need to be. 

Understanding Resistance Training

Resistance training may be one of the most misunderstood topics in fitness and performance. There's plenty of misinformation out there on the inter-webs so let's look at some common myths and misconceptions regarding resistance training.

• Lifting weights will not make women bulky or "manly".
  • This is a common one that I hear all the time and frankly isn't true. It's almost impossible for women to get "bodybuilder bulky" from strength training because they don't produce enough testosterone to support that amount of muscle building, so to get to that level there typically needs to be some form of supplementation to get that amount of muscle building.
• Resistance training makes you slow.
  • I get this from my young track athletes who are just starting out their journey of athletic development. It's been thought that resistance training will make you slow and this isn't the case. To go sprint faster you need to put more force into the ground, so strength training is necessary for speed or power athletes.
• Girls shouldn't lift heavy weights.
  • Every time I have my track girls I see them not wanting to grab anything heavier than an 8 lb dumbbell when they can clearly go much heavier. This comes back to the false notion of them not wanting to get bulky, but to get strong you have to lift heavy weights and progress to heavier weights as you get stronger.
• A good workout will leave you exhausted and sweaty at the end of it.
  • This is something I get from parents, that their kids aren't tired enough at the end of a session, or that they rested too much to get a good workout in. While it may come from good intentions, this "no pain, no gain" thinking that has surrounded fitness and performance training has gone on too long. For high intensity work (max strength, speed, power) there needs to be plenty of rest time so that the athlete can perform to their abilities. While there is a time and place for exhausting workouts they should be used sparingly depending on the goals of the individual.
• You'll see results immediately.
  • I sincerely hope no one truly believes this. For physical changes to occur with resistance training it takes generally 6-8 weeks of consistent training. Before this, you'll see increases in strength, coordination, and power but these are primarily neurological improvements and the physical changes begin to show soon after this. The key with this is that you have to be consistent to see improvements.
• Endurance athletes don't need resistance training.
  • This topic has gained a lot of attention recently and many endurance coaches still won't budge from the way they've always done things. The truth is that resistance training helps stave off injuries, improves running economy and can make you faster. This works because your muscles have now been stimulated to a level that allowed them to fire in a more efficient manner that wasn't happening with just running, cycling, swimming. The benefits of adding resistance training are very clear for endurance athletes and should be part of every training plan.