Age Is No Excuse For Infirmity

Dr. DeVries of USC has shown that men and women in their 70s and 80s can achieve levels of vigor associated with people 30 years younger. This means that assuming there are no underlying disorders, exercise can make an 85-year-old as strong as a 55-year-old person. Regular participation in physical activity can raise the fitness level of an active 64-year-old to that of an average, sedentary 30-year-old.

In 1984, Dr. Bortz, co-chairman of the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Aging and past president of the American Geriatrics Society, took all the information he had gathered over many years and compiled them in a review paper titled “Disuse and Aging” for the Journal of the American Medical Association. Bortz concluded that if you recorded a list of all the changes in the human body that are attributed to aging and then compiled a similar list of changes due to physical inactivity, you would notice a striking similarity between the two lists. For example, changes associated with both aging and inactivity include changes in muscles, bones, brain, cholesterol, blood pressure, sleep habits, sexual performance, psychological inventory and so forth. The near duplication of the lists demonstrates that many of the bodily changes we have always ascribed to the normal aging process may really be caused by disuse. It is imperative that older adults understand the significance of this information and are educated as to how to prevent many of these changes with activity.

The founder of the American Running and Fitness Association, Richard Bohannon, MD, says that more than half of all older adults believe they get enough exercise through minimal walking and routine activities. In truth, more strenuous activities provide greater fitness gains and more preventative benefits; with proper supervision, older adults are perfectly capable of training at higher intensities. Gerontologists tell us that once we reach the age of 50 the need for fitness is even more crucial due to the many physiological changes that occur with age.

Another myth of aging is that as you get older, you naturally become more fragile. However, when we look at the bones of older runners, like the runners mentioned previously, we see minimal loss of bone due to the continual force applied to the bones over many years of running. Wolf’s Law, named for the German pathologist who first proclaimed it, states: “The robustness of a bone is in direct proportion to the physical forces applied to that bone.” In short, if we remain active our bones will remain strong. Participation in vigorous exercise and recreational activities regularly over a lifetime can yield rewards garnered well into the later years of life. Adults who lead a sedentary existence lose bone density and increase their risk of fracturing bones in accidents in their homes or of becoming unable to perform daily living activities. People who continue to lead healthy, active lives into their later years are at less risk for such serious and debilitating injuries. Researchers at UCLA performed a study on 4,300 people. Of that population, only 12% who exhibited few or no unhealthy habits became disabled over the next decade. Nineteen percent of those who had many bad habits paid the price by way of illness, disability and death.

Healthy habits not only reduce the risk of fatal heart attacks and cancer, but also reduce other chronic ailments that can be physically, psychologically and financially debilitating. The bottom line is this: The more exercise has been a constant in your life the better your chances are of living long and well.

Older adults who want to maintain physical and emotional independence must engage in regular exercise.

International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) 8th Edition Text

 

The Female Knee (cont.)

The other problem is one of ignorance and tradition. Women are simply trained like “girls.” This is unacceptable. Even when female athletes are trained, coaches often use a hodge-podge of techniques driven by “that’s what I did when I was on the team.” Many are taught to be weak. Way too often, sports coaches just throw excessive endurance training at their athletes in the form of long distance running because they simply do not understand the energy system requirements of their sport. They don’t actually know what to do so they just dismiss it as “running far builds endurance.” Unfortunately, it is rarely the type of endurance required unless you happen to be a track or cross country athlete involved in the sport of distance running. Most often you only get bored, fatigued, overheated athletes with overuse injuries and muscles that are too worn out to perform the explosive elements required in most sports.

Things don’t get any better in the weight room. Everyday I fight the notion that “I can’t do that; I’ll get bulky.” Many women have absolutely no idea of the wonderful things they are capable of obtaining in the gym. Those who are involved in sports are often mistreated and under coached. My dream is for everyone who trains to use the same science and the same care and attention regardless of gender and regardless of how many advertising dollars their pro career will be worth. I want to see athletes trained like athletes, plain and simple.

One of the first things I do with all of my athletes, male or female, is to teach them to squat correctly. Just the simple neurological programming of learning to squat with the posterior chain while pushing the hips back gives females a better choice of technique to use in landing. Women tend to decelerate a landing with their quads, which is the opposite of the male tendency to use the hamstrings/glutes to decelerate. I always ask people if they have ever seen a toddler deep-squatting to play with some toys on the floor. Watch them. Head up, chest up, hips back, and the knees are over the ankles. We spend our lives unlearning what is a very natural squatting position. I want all of my athletes/clients to relearn it.

Once people learn to use the posterior chain properly and strengthen it to previously unconceivable levels then landing and decelerating with it become natural. With the exception of the squat/deadlift and its variations, the all time best weapon against knee injuries is the hamstring bulletproofing movement know as the Glute-Ham-Gastroc raise. Many people, even the strong ones, cannot do a single rep at the beginning with the footplate set on its easiest position. This shows you right away how grossly under trained the hamstrings are.

In my years of coaching athletes, I’ve encountered many people with tremendous quad strength, weak hams, and, of course, knee pain. Once they bring up their posterior strength, the knee pain usually disappears. The posterior chain is engaged in this exercise from the bottom of the toes all the way to the back of the head. The large calf muscles cross the knee joint along with the hamstrings from the other direction, and a stronger muscle-tendon junction here would help with increased knee stability.

Training should come at knee stability from other angles as well. Knee valgus, or being knock-kneed, is fairly common and dangerous to the medial collateral ligament. One of the best ways to shore up the knee and prevent, or even potentially alleviate this condition, is to strengthen the muscles on the upper/outer side of the hip. Specifically this would be the gluteus medius/minimus, tensor fasciae latae, and the I.T. band (iliotibial). There are several great athletic movements to help these muscles. No angle should be ignored. The structure of the knee demands that it be strong in all directions. This means making all of the muscles of the lower body strong and ready for action.

One of the biggest things differentiating my training from others is that I don’t consider women to be second-class athletes. They are different, to be sure, but are capable of unbelievable heroics, athletic grace, and beauty. I’m lucky in that I get to see women doing amazing things in the gym and on the field all of the time. I’m not interested in hearing about estrogen and menstrual excuses for knee problems. Furthermore, there have been differences noted in landing technique between male and female athletes. These can be addresses by proper training and are therefore not a huge issue.

I’ve often said that female athletes use brains and heart to accomplish things that testosterone makes much easier. Smarter training will prevail. The real issue lies in the lack of proper coaching. People need to be educated. Our little girls deserve it. Our moms deserve it.

Bob Jodoin is an ISSA master trainer, a New York strength master trainer, a NBFE fellow, and a former director of strength and conditioning at Total Performance Sports. He is now a strength and conditioning coach as well as a personal trainer in sunny Orlando, Florida. Bob serves as a strength and conditioning advisor for youth sports to the Winter Springs Pop Warner Midgets, the Wild AAU 13U baseball, and M-PACT Sports. He can be reached at bobjnys@aol.com.

Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.

 

The Female Knee

Being a father of 3 one boy athlete and two young female athletes, this article is probably my most favorite of all time.  I will break this into two sections so follow along.

“Girls are stronger. Boys are stinky” This is what my 6-year-old little girl says when asked who is stronger. I want her to understand from a young age that women are not second-class athletes. My baby girl is never going to be sent over to the pink dumbbell rack and the treadmill and told to lift light while the boys are overtraining the squat. She’ll be under the bar with the boys, and if they give her a hard time, she will only have to say, “Don’t make me call my Dad!”

Sports opportunities are on the rise, and female athletes keep gaining more recognition. It isn’t near enough, but it’s slowly getting better. There are many incredible role models out there. Female athletes are my heroes because they do things with their brains and heart that the males need testosterone to do. They are fierce! This is all a good thing.

The bad thing is that female athletes are tearing up their anterior cruciate ligaments at an alarming and epidemic rate. This is sad, wrong, and most likely preventable, at least to a much greater degree than what is currently happening. Any sport where female athletes need to decelerate and change direction on their feet shows an ACL injury rate some eight times more than in male athletes.

The whole issue really came home to me when a good friend of mine, Dr. Jack Barnathan, DC (ISSA director of fitness sciences), gave his talk on female ACL injuries. I found the problem to be absolutely outrageous, especially when I learned what the medical community was doing about it.

I’m going to do something about it. I’m doing something about it right now. My strength does not lie in the lab or in the halls of academia. I do my work in the gym. I teach women how to squat.

First, I want to identify one of the problems. Bodybuilding is a sport. I give my iron brothers and sisters respect because they work hard and are more dedicated to diets than probably any other group of athletes. There are techniques used in bodybuilding that serve a special purpose for correcting issues of symmetry and proportion. Their primary goal is isolation. However, these techniques typically have no place in athletics. The human body is not meant to work in isolation but is rather a remarkable machine that does its best work when working in concert with different aspects of itself.

One of the biggest demons rears its ugly head in the name of isolating the quadriceps muscle group. This is the sinister and malevolent creature known as the leg extension machine. Since the predominant media force comes from the bodybuilding magazines, the public has learned all of its technique and terminology from them. Unfortunately, this includes our athletic and fitness community.

The bodybuilder, when posing in the mirror, is very concerned about the biceps, quads, rectus abdominus, and the pectorals. These muscles are not, however, the most important for athletic human movement. The more important muscles are those of the posterior chain, the ones that you cannot see in the mirror. The posterior chain starts at the heel and continues up the back of the leg right into the muscles of the lower back. As a group, they are under trained. This is one problem.

Bob Jodoin is an ISSA master trainer, a New York strength master trainer, a NBFE fellow, and a former director of strength and conditioning at Total Performance Sports. He is now a strength and conditioning coach as well as a personal trainer in sunny Orlando, Florida. Bob serves as a strength and conditioning advisor for youth sports to the Winter Springs Pop Warner Midgets, the Wild AAU 13U baseball, and M-PACT Sports.

Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.

 

WEEKS OFF

Wow!  Taking any amount of time off will make a person feel like they are completely out of touch with what’s going on anywhere. 

That’s exactly what I have done over the past few days.  I’ve posted but I’ve had these last couple posts in my Manage file for several weeks. 

Due to the effects of my surgery I haven’t trained in 2 weeks and I’ve lost 5 pounds as a result, which doesn’t make me happy. 

I have not had any contact with any of the people I train.  Which really seems like it puts me out of touch.  I may not be, but I feel that way. 

I haven’t read anyone else’s entries, which, now I’m behind.

 I guess the reason I am writing this is because life changes on a daily basis and unless I am up on current events in my life and others’ I can miss some very important information. 

Oh well, I hope you all are still on the correct path to your goals and didn’t allow the distraction of yet, another holiday, foil your plans.

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

 

IT’S ON YOU

EVIDENCE, CONSPIRACY, URGENCY, TRUTH, WHO KNOWS?  Is there any surprise these days that health care costs are at an all time high?  DECEIT, MISDIAGNOSIS, MANIPULATION, LIES, WHO KNOWS?  Has anyone ever questioned how or why when we need costs to be at an all time low, they are at an all time high?  TRUST, ILLUSION, SECURITY, VULNERABILITY, WHO KNOWS.  Are we all frustrated with how things are going in the medical field in regards to care, treatment, prescription costs?  DESTITUTE, WEAK, HUNGRY, FIEND, WHO KNOWS?  Are we all going to take care of ourselves by exercising, eating right, resting, avoiding stress, managing stress, encouraging others, or, are we going to depend on the institution to do it for us.  FREEDOM, ACCOMPLISHMENT, JOY, SUCCESS! 

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

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OKAY, I’M FINISHED BEING A BABY

 

It’s all good, I think!   

 

STRENGTH DEVELOPMENT

I have been inspired to write this post from a person I don’t even know who told me I was wrong in my thinking on myths.  There is no way I am wrong because if you notice at the bottom Joe D. is the author.  Occasionally I will use other sources to add other reliable information to my blog.  However, I always acknowledge where these articles come from.  I will start out by saying that not only is Joe D. correct, I am also correct or I would have never posted his myth. 

Let me first explain that in order to do any type of aerobic conditioning (plyometrics) you have to have some sort of muscle development.  For example, think of the time you or a person you know broke a leg and had a cast put on it.  What happens to the muscle?  The muscle begins to atrophy (loses muscle), right!  Depending on how long the cast was on or how long a person has gone without using this damaged limb, will determine what a person can or cannot do after the removal of this cast.  Let’s say the cast was on for 8-weeks.  Who does a doctor send you to after the removal of this cast?  A physical therapist right! (Which most people fail to follow through on).  Does a physical therapist have you go out and jog (plyometrics) a mile before they have you do resistance training to rebuild the muscle.  Of course not, even though the bone is healed (and in most cases stronger than before, due to the calcification around the break area), you must develop a level of strength to engage in any high impact plyometrics (running).  We have all seen the knees buckle on a baby that is learing to walk and using the coffee table to hold themselves up? 

Knee pain, joint pain, and lower leg muscle tension is a common concern for most runners, especially if you haven’t developed any level of strength (not in all cases).  Now, take into consideration that both legs have been inactive for a prolonged period of time and are weak in comparison to a person’s overall bodyweight.  Please consider, if you’re overweight or just beginning a fitness program, beware of any type of high impact plyometrics (especially running off/on concrete) before building a solid foundation of strength.   

 LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

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Turn Back the Aging Clock

  What are your views on aging? Is fatigue and joint discomfort the inevitable result of growing older? If so, do you believe that the elderly should take it easy when they are tired and suffering from mild aches?

The fact is that many age-associated declines occur not because of the aging process itself, but as a result of our lifestyle habits, including exercise. In our sedentary society, many muscle and joint problems are the result of weakness and inflexibility. By increasing your strength and flexibility, you can prevent injury and slow the age-associated loss of muscle function. This means that some of those old cliches turn out to be true…”use it or lose it” and “you’re as old as you feel”.

Inactive people become more frail than active people and are more likely to sustain a serious fall that could lead to hospitalization, permanent disability, dependence and even death. According to the federal government., Americans live an average of 73.7 years, but spend their last 11.7 years in “dysfunctional life”, which is marked by disease and impairment. Reducing the number of years lost to restricted physical activity has become a national priority.

Exercise itself, can slow and even reverse many components of the aging process. It’s probably the single most effective way to lengthen life. Proper exercise can rejuvenate you and take years off your chronological age- it’s the closest thing to an anti-aging pill. In other words, exercise can add years to your life and life to your years. The U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, claims that a 50 yr. old today can expect to live, on average, to over 79. This is a lot of time spent in the “golden years”. Instead of believing that over 50 means “over the hill and declining”, you should view it as “over the hill and picking up speed!”

It was once thought that aerobic capacity and muscular strength decreased dramatically as one grew older: Studies revealed that a sedentary 65 yr. old has only 60% of the aerobic capacity as a young sedentary adult, and that after the age of 30, people not engaged in strength training lose muscle mass amounting to about six to seven pound of muscle each decade. Remember that these declines apply to sedentary adults.

A 25-year study on runners performed at Ball State University found that many of the runners who continued to train had aerobic capacities similar to what they had 20 years ago. A ten year study from the Center for Exercise Science at the University of Florida found that runners who took up resistance (strength) training were able to maintain their muscle over the ten years. Those who did not, continued to loss muscle mass. The results of these studies apply to everyone, not just athletes.

Each person over the age of 55 who I have trained has found that they have marked increases in their muscle tone, strength and aerobic capacity: they have become more fit and vigorous then ever before.

One of the things that happens when you begin strength training is that connective tissue, such as ligaments and tendons, gets stronger along with your muscles. This helps to protect your joints from injury and makes everyday tasks easier, such as walking up stairs, carrying groceries and keeping up with grandchildren.

There are community programs available to help older adults stay active. Many wellness programs include low-impact aerobics and strength training. Bowling, and croquet leagues are also a fun way to stay in shape. Whatever form of exercises you choose to do, you should include ones that employ a mixture of endurance, strength, balance and flexibility exercises.

Before starting, check with your doctor to see if there are any medical concerns. Appropriate exercise can reduce frailty in old age thus helping to make a person’s last few years be filled with active participation instead of the bedridden existence that too many elderly people now experience.

We were designed to be active..don’t rust out before you wear out because you aren’t putting your body to proper use. If you want to stay strong and mobile, look and feel well, and continue to live independently instead of ending up in the care of others,then you better START MOVING!!    Deborah L. Mullen, CSCS

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

DIET SODAS

How much of a diet is diet soda?  You may be one of those people that doesn’t want to pick up those extra calories from regular soda, but unfortunately you cannot resist the sting effect that the carbonated drinks have to offer.   There are many things to consider when mixing diet sodas into your strength-training, weight-loss, and fitness lifestyle.  Here’s a few facts worth considering the next time you think it’s okay to drink a diet soda.    

Diet soda is carbonated. A byproduct of oxidative energy production is CO2 carbon dioxide. CO2 is eliminated through normal cardiovascular processes, however during intense exercise CO2 buildup may occur and you do NOT want to add additional CO2 gas from carbonated drinks. In addition, carbonation may interfere with hormone production as well as cause dehydration. Diet sodas contain artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners cause the brain to react to sweet taste (cephalic phase response) by preparing the liver to receive a new supply of sugar. Additionally, if no sugar appears, the liver signals an urge to eat, or possibly over-eat. Irrespective of the possible adverse effects of diet sodas on weight control, no one disputes the lack of nutrition in these diet drinks. Typically, diet sodas sole contribution to dietary and nutritional requirements is a little sodium. 

If you’ve been struggling to control your appetite and your favorite drink is carbonated and artificially sweetened, you may need to eliminate it from your ‘diet’.   

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

MYTH #5

I had to post this because my mother just totally annoyed me by telling my daughter that stretch bands are good for women because they don’t give you manly muscles.  I want to make it clear right now, bands develop muscle and they are not isolated for women only.  Where did she hear that?  My mother is 60 years old and I know for a fact that I have exposed the “manly muscle” myth to her.  My point here is, if you don’t know what you’re talking about, please do not engage in conversations if you don’t have facts. 

Myth #5: Women should focus on performing aerobic activities because weight training will give them a “manly” appearance.

This myth just won’t go away, mainly because of bodybuilding magazines. People associate females who strength-train with the female bodybuilders pictured in bodybuilding magazines. Professional female bodybuilders usually resemble men because of the massive amount of anabolic, androgenic drugs they consume. However, these “females” shouldn’t be confused with drug-free women who incorporate resistance training into their fitness programs. The next time that this topic comes up, remember the following facts: 1) Much of the difference in muscle mass between males and females is attributed to hormones, specifically, Testosterone. On average, men produce ten times more Testosterone than females. Unless you’re a female who’s taking anabolic steroids or other male hormones, lifting weights will not make you look like a man! It’s actually harder for most females to build muscle compared to their male counterparts. 2) There’s also a difference in muscle mass distribution between men and women, especially in the upper body. If you do build a significant amount of muscle, you still won’t look masculine. So, it’s important to remember that male hormones and muscle mass distribution are the two main reasons that men usually carry more muscle than woman. Ladies, get in the weightroom!

                                                           

J. Defranco           #5 of Top Ten Traininig Myths

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD! 

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

STRETCH OR NOT TO STRETCH?

Most fitness enthusiasts typically tend to overemphasize flexibility training, to the neglect of developing functional strength while in the stretched position.  Significantly improving your joints’ range of motion without also improving the strength of your surrounding musculature (especially at its new range of motion) can be an invitation for injury.

For example, when you improve your flexibility (in a given joint or group of joints) to the point where an additional five degrees of motion exists, the affected muscles now have a reduced amount of overlap between the actin and myosin filaments, resulting in a substantial reduction in force output ability.  For this reason, strength and flexibility training programs must occur concurrently.

During the stretch, the fibers elongate as each sarcomere extends to the point where no overlap between the thick and thin filaments exists at all (specialized elastic filaments comprised of titin keep the sarcomere together in the absence of overlap).  At this point, the remaining stress is taken up by the surrounding connective tissue (sarcoplasmic reticulum, sarcolemma and endomysium).  If the stretch tension escalates beyond this point, microscopic tears develop both in the connective tissues and within the sarcomere itself.  Such microtraumatic injuries eventually heal, but at the cost of scarification and micro-adhesions that may leave the muscle fiber less capable of contraction and extension.

Rather than short, intense bouts of stretching (which tend to trigger the proprioceptors), opt for longer, frequent periods of stretching where less tension is used.  Soreness after a stretching session is a sign that hydroxyproline (an amino acid found in connective tissue) and other biochemicals have been released into the muscle fiber to help repair damaged tissues.  It is probably a sign that you are stretching too hard. 

Warming up before stretching is important in two regards. First, core body temperature is elevated. Second, muscles are subject to thixotropy, which is the tendency of gels (e.g., body fluids) to become less viscous, following a period of being shaken or otherwise disturbed by outside forces. This explains why periods of inactivity tend to cause muscular stiffness, and why muscular viscosity is reduced when muscles are active. The most appropriate time to stretch a muscle (from the perspective of body temperature and the thixotropic effect) is after training.

International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA)  8th Edition Text

People often wonder why there are so many injuries in baseball when it is the least physical sport in terms of running, jumping, or physical contact.  Stretching is just another form of physical fitness and should not be taken lightly.  I have added a few thoughts worth considering when planning to stretch.

1. Be sure to improve strength while improving range of motion.  

2. Although you may use stretching as a warm-up, such a practice is often counterproductive. 

3. Prior to performing stretching exercises, core body temperature (not surface) must be elevated. 

4. Always stretch after intense workout sessions. 

 LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

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18:10

I didn’t have much time to update today but I just finished watching the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight and wanted to give you all the update to the first race.  If any of you saw these athletes, you had to be in awe.  Boxers have always amazed me. 

The two of us are totally pleased with the 18:10 that he ran in his first 5k after a full year lay off.  Sure, we would’ve loved to see him crush the field, however, this is not what we are training for.  Eighteen-ten was good enough for a fourth place finish which kept him a full 2:30+ off the leader.  His next race is a 10k on June 16th.  This gives us a full month and a half to train, therefore, we should really see an improvement.

Remember, training a marathon runner is something new for me and this is the first time that Keir has ever used a personal trainer to improve his speed-strength.  As with any type of training we all must follow a systematic approach for long-term strength, conditioning, speed, athlete specific, weight-loss or whatever else.  I could train him and produce instant results, but the long-term effects would prove detrimental.  Building this foundation is as important as building a house on rock.  I’ve included this piece from one of the best trainers and sports scientists in the world.

 A premature velocity increase negatively influences the devleopment of the degree of training.  Thus, in sports disciplines requiring speed-strength, this method causes excessive muscular fatigue (in some cases even injuries) and an alteration of the bio-dynamic structure and rhythm of movements.  As a consequence, the morphological and functional specialization process is slowed down, while motor co-ordination is created that does not correspond to competition conditions.  A gradual increase in the intensity of the load, spread over a longer period, produces a greater and more stable development of the functional possibilities.  (Y. Verkhoshansky)

This applies to any ‘instant results” methods used in todays weight-loss, strength, and fitness societies.  They may satisfy a short-term want, but the negative future impact will prove detrimental.  Long-term progress, improvement, health and conditioning will likely suffer. 

 LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

 

FIRST RACE

My marathon runner (Keir) is racing today in his first 5k of the season.  Even though I do realize what we have done so far has only helped with his endurance, I also know that it has had a minimal effect.  Today I will share the first two of the five strength and conditioning phases that we have to go through in order for Keir to be in peak conditioning for the September marathon. 

Our first phase is his Adaptation period.  This period is utilized to help his body become accustomed to the new demands that strength-training will place on him.  Even though Keir has maintained some conditioning year round, we still utilize this brief period of training to avoid shocking the central nervous system and potentially injuring muscles or joints with this added stress.   

The second phase is his Foundational period which is pretty much where we are right now.  This is where I have placed a little more stress on the muscles to prepare his body for heavier weights (strength).  During this period of training I will incorporate high reps with about 55% of his one repitition max.  This is where I need Keir’s body to respond to strength-training by developing total body-strength and muscle endurance. 

We all have to realize that becoming an above average athlete is a slow gradual process, sometimes taking multiple years to peak.  Some novice runners or weight-lifters fall prey to the “more is better” fallacy.  When we take on this “more is better attitude” we are more susceptible to injury, overtaining, and failure (burnout).  It is imperative that we take the human body through its much needed transitional phases of training to ensure a positive training effect.    

You can read my previous entries here http://mcgheetraining.wordpress.com/2007/04/29/first-session/ on Keir’s strength- training in preparation for this years marathon.

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

OREO COOKIE ICE CREAM

Well, yesterday I managed to figure out a recipe to accomplish my daily 4200+ calories.  With my son’s baseball game last night I was forced to train later than I normally do, therefore, my post-training meal would have to be later than normal.  

During the time I was training, my wife went to the grocery and for whatever reason decided to buy two half-gallons of ice-cream.  Naturally, I wasn’t happy because I knew I would eat some and because I have a sweet tooth, I might not be able to stop.  On the other hand, I knew I needed more calories and because she buys natural ice-cream (no additives or high fructose corn syrup),  I began to rationalize and justify why eating this ice-cream wouldn’t hurt.  Boom, here’s my bright idea. 

About 30 minutes after training I always take a protein supplement, glutamine, and my BCAA’s.  At this point I knew I was way under my caloric requirements and because I had a three hour window of opportunity post-workout to consume about 1/3 of my calories, I was going to take full advantage.  This is when I looked at my protein, looked at this ice-cream, then looked in the cupboard to see if the blender was still there (you never where anything might be around here).  My last ditch efforts to consume these calories were between 8:30 and 11:30 pm.  During this time frame I managed to mix 96 grams of protein with 2 cups of Oreo cookie ice-cream, in two separate shakes.  :)  With milk added that’s a grand total of 1340 calories in a 2 hour period of time.  I’m pretty sure I got my 4200, but the problem came when I went to mix a protein shake today, I almost got nauseated. 

If you have read my MENTAL TOUGHNESS post, it explains that I am on a mission to gain 15 or more lbs. by eating like a pig, training hard, and eliminating all cardio so that I can build muscle then lean back down to around 8% LBM.  It’s not a matter of gaining that worries me, it’s a matter of hating cardio and seeing if I have the mental toughness that it requires to attain my goals.    

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

MYTHS

Myth #7: It’s important to build an aerobic base of conditioning before getting into more intense anaerobic work.

There’s no physiological basis for this statement. Having an aerobic base doesn’t help you perform or recover from anaerobic work. Think about this, do you think a marathon runner would be able to withstand the demands of an intense football game? On the other hand, do you think that one of the NFL’s superstars would be able to complete a marathon?

Of course not! This is because the physiological demands of both sports have about as much in common as Howard Stern and Kathie Lee Gifford. Yet athletes who participate in anaerobic sports still tend to associate getting in shape with long, slow, distance training. Nothing can be further from the truth.

A more productive alternative to jogging or cycling a couple of miles would be to perform multiple anaerobic activities with short rest intervals over a prolonged period of time. For example, performing a GPP (general physical preparedness) workout that consists of bodyweight calisthenics (jumping jacks, bodyweight squats, squat thrusts, etc.), movement skills (power skipping, side shuffling, backpedaling, etc.) and mobility drills, is far superior to linear, slow, long-distance running.

By performing exercises that challenge an athlete’s relative strength, balance and coordination in a continuous fashion, we’re able to improve their endurance without the loss in muscle mass, strength and speed that’s associated with the slow distance method.

Joe Defranco’s            # 7 of Top Ten Training Myths

 

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

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