Yeah, I suppose I did feel like a vampire drinking my pomegranate juice out of a wine glass this morning. What can I say?

Point: Get real pomegranate juice everyday. Best suited for the morning obviously (the carbs in liquid calories get absorbed too quickly to be ingested any other time of the day.)

A simple lower body break down

Your "core" muscles resist movement and stabilize every thing in the trunk. They are not designed to produce movement. Otherwise we'd have two hamstring like muscles in place of that sexy, rippled, 6 (sometime 8)pack deal.

The glutes make you move fast. Especially forward and laterally.

They also seem to be eye catching.

And according to the discover channel women prefer men w/ a nicer set of glutes as well (sorry could not find the study online). But this would make sense that through millions of years of evolution it is in our very nature to be attracted to traits linked to survival, like strength, speed and intelligence. Just saying, a guy w/ a big ass is probably going to be faster and stronger.

Could this give rise to saying "His brains are in his butt"? I wish, but I highly doubt it.

The hip flexors produce knee drive which is what it sounds like, driving your knee fwd to increase stride length and move faster.

This picture may help a bit more. They pick up your leg so you can move it fwd, a job often given credit to the quads......nnnnnot totally true, but the rectus femoris does flex the hip up to around 30 degrees so I guess you could say "kinda"....

The hamstrings help the glutes make you move fast, as well as keep your knee where it should be.

They're also one of the most blamed muscles for injuries in athletes when it's really not all their fault. Typically if the hip flexors wouldn't have been so tight, pulling the pelvis into anterior tilt, putting the hamstring in a tight elongated position and compromising the glutes ability to extend the hip the hamstring would've been just fine.

The quads help you decelerate and also help keep your knee from doing abnormal things. I should mention that although deceleration is extremely underrated it still doesn't justify direct, isolated quad work.

On a side note they are also the culprit of "thunder thighs". Not to get all body builder on you however the glutes grow posteriorly, and so do the hamstrings for the most part, but the quads grow the whole way around. So there's another reason to hate leg extensions, besides that they are worthless.

BTW you should've seen some of the pictures I just saw looking up that quad. Gross, ridiculous, and hilarious, like I'm laughing at you not w/ you kind of hilarious, all rolled into one).

The calves help us absorb initial force and vice versa promote turnover and propulsion during running and jumping. It's also the place of my favorite name of any muscle in the body (but not favorite muscle): The Gastrocnemius.

W/o these we'd be bouncing around a lot more.

This is vastly over simplified but my clients tell me all the time that I need to shut up and pretend I'm explaining things to my 5 year old niece, so there you go.

No equipment needed

It sounds like southeast Iowa is about to get snowed in........imagine that.

Anyway, since I'm a slightly cynical, realist that happens to also be optimistic, I like to think that people will still get a workout in even if they're stuck at home. So, I put this together for a friend that is stuck at home tonight.

1a) Pushups 4x10

1b) lateral lunge 4x12/side

1c) 1leg RDL's 4x10/leg

2a) Lunge hops 4x10/leg (get off the ground w/ each lunge) (or you can do jumps w/ 2 feet 4x6)

2b) renegade rows w/ no weight 4x40 total

3a) lateral Plank 3x30s/side (only your feet and one elbow touch the ground while your laying laterally to the ground)

3b) Prone Y super man holds 3x15 (basically just do Y's w/ your chest on the ground and your feet off the ground and emphasis the glutes w/ the hold)

3c) Prisoner squats 3x15 (its a bodyweight squat w/ your hands behind your head)

This workout could also be used by frequent travelers that don't always stay where there's a nice workout area. Although if it's snowing you might as well get your ass outside and start shoveling.

Just don't end up like this

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Get your athletes moving

Different athletes have different needs. Some athletes need more activation than others, some are tight as drums and need to work on mobility, some are biomechanic train wrecks and need an overhaul, there are even kids that have grown too fast and forgotten that their hands are connected to the rest of their body. This is where a strength and conditioning and playing multiple sports throughout the year becomes pivotal in the development of an athlete.

We know that specialization at an early age is detrimental to long term performance and health. Athlete's simply break down when they pitch too much. The best player on the team pitches the most innings and games during the year and gets ruined before his time.

Until 15-16 years old kids need to be exposed to as many sports and physical activities as possible, especially before the age of 12. The need to wrestle, play baseball and football, ride a bike, ski/snowboard, skateboard, roller skate and/or rollerblade, play basketball (although I hate to admit it), go swimming and learn to do a flip, they need to run around, climb trees, get hurt, have a physically demanding job like construction or landscaping, etc...

They need to be active and it doesn't have to be competition or even organized. Play catch in the backyard, hang a rope from a tree, sneak onto a driving range at night w/ a baseball bat steal some balls and see how far you can hit them. Obviously the last one is a stretch.

But in all honesty I grew up where every time you stayed at a friends house you had wrestling matches after dinner every night. Why do you think Iowa is so good at wrestling. This was great for our coordination, body positioning, and all around real world strength, the basis of any great athlete.

Get your kids moving.

I've changed my mind again.

Weighted balls for pitchers:

I used to think what's the point, you throw a ball and catch a ball who cares what it weighs, don't mess w/ it. I also used to feel like swinging a heavy bat a few times before I went up to the plate helped me swing a little better. Although it may have psychologically made the bat feel a little lighter and more comfortable in my hands (increasing my ever expanding ego at the time) we now know that it did little to nothing for my actual hand and bat speed.

We know this w/ training as well. Taking BP w/ a heavy bat isn't going to help bat speed. And really I think it's probably going to mess w/ your mechanics a little bit and/or throw off your timing when you get in the game.

On the other hand, research shows that throwing w/ balls slightly above and below the standard weight of a baseball can improve arm speed. Weird. I made fun of those weighted ball sets when the first showed up in catalogs years ago.

Little side note for overbearing parents, not every kid needs to be using weighted balls. For some pitchers it's useful once in awhile but only when it's necessary. And it's not something you do everyday, nor is it something you start doing w/ everyone of your little leaguers. Be smart. These are people you're dealing w/ and you can screw them up way easier than you can help them.

Weighted balls have their place, but wont replace a solid strength and conditioning program or proper mechanics. Just one more tool.

Beyond conventional upper body work

There’s something to be said for doing upper body closed chain exercises. Beyond Pullups and pushups.

Football players, wrestlers and sports that involve your eyes listen up. The two sports where I see athletes getting the greatest gain from this are the previously mentioned sports but from an experiential standpoint walking on your hands, standing on your head, doing wheel barrels are invaluable to performance and under appreciated.

I’m not saying it needs to be a cornerstone of your programming but an athlete that can walk on his hands is going to have excellent shoulder stability, incredible core and upper body strength, as well as amazing overall proprioception an kinesthetic awareness and in the case I mean his/her awareness of and body control. It also has huge ability to increase hand eye coordination and reactive ability.

When I was a freshman in high school I dislocated my shoulder and cracked the growth plate. It was a bad deal. My scapular stabilizers were terribly weak, and I had horrible scapular winging. Eventually physical therapists made me crawl w/ my hands on a treadmill to work on this. Does this sound like a wheel barrow race?

Think about, what do we do before we walk? We crawl, there is a physiological reason for this. For one we don’t have the balance, strength and coordination to walk yet, but that is the point. Our bodies must learn to move and react in a complete different fashion than we are used to.

Now think of grappling and pumbling. Both are mainstays in wrestling and football (blocking). Both are affective for a reason, much like walking on your hands can be.

Try it out w/ your athletes. Pick one day and do it for 4 weeks, make a competition out of it. Let me know how it goes.

Tip of the day

Tell yourself you're a BAD-ASS constantly.

There is NOT a successful athlete that has a defeated attitude.

Get your head right, step up to the challenge, and always move forward.

5 Recent success/interesting adventures

1. I went dairy free for 2 months.

Yep, no one believed me. I’ve been a huge dairy advocate for years. Many times in my life I’ve consumed over 4 gallons in a week. I often end my days w/ a late night cottage cheese snack, I’m the guy that drank half a gallon of milk every study hall in highschool. So how did this come about and why.

Well mostly cause I’m a complete psycho and seem to be my own regular experiment. I read a few very compelling articles, but Brian St. Pierre’s was my favorite.

Click here for the blog of Brian St. Pierre

I have also become closer and closer to embracing that “treehugger” side of myself that I used to make fun of (live and learn).

How did it go and what’s changed?

It was fine, I didn’t feel any “HUGE” differences but I don’t crave or even slightly desire milk anymore. I’ll eat cottage cheese from time to time mixed w/ certain dishes, but other than that it’s like I never even liked it. Very strange feeling.

2. The vast majority of exercises have become posterior chain dominant.

Actually this is nothing new, we’ve been doing this for a long time. At first I was the experiment and it worked well, then I started w/ my athletes and it’s worked even better. Almost all of our single leg work is off of a box or some type of deadlift instead of free standing like a step up or lunge. From my standpoint it’s been a driving force to their success. This has worked really well. It gives them a depth to hit and keeps the movement more controlled w/o me having to keep them accountable and worrying about spotters.

3. I started drinking pomegranite juice every morning.

This is pretty easy. It’s extremely good for you. Why? B/c in the last year the “acai” berry has gotten a ridiculous reputation for being irreplaceable. In actuality there are a few fruits that would rank higher if there were to be a competition. And in the competition the winner would be the unmistakable pomegranite juice. It’s packed full of good stuff, and is exactly why that Monavie stuff isn’t worth $50/bottle. Yeah it’s good, but so is my $10 bottle of pom.

4. I moved into a new house, and now I were sandals inside.

Yeah my house is awesome and yeah I pretty much don’t wear shoes unless I absolutely have to. I love them but if I had my choice I’d go for sandals or nothing. And b/c I’m not worried about sounding like a wimp my new floors are hard, and apparently my plantar fascia is not used to this. So now I wear sandals inside and roll out my feet about 3x as much. Weird….

5. I’ve increased the amount of external rotation exercises w/ myself and clients.

At least once a week there is some type of exercise whose sole purpose is to work on external rotation.

What have I noticed. Everyone’s shoulders are healthier and look solid as hell. Just in terms of aesthetic appeal….everyone’s shoulders got a little sexier when this all started. Mhm.

It's time to slow down inventing stuff

There seems to be this overwhelming trend that some coaches are trainers are doing lately and really it's not helping anything. Actually it's a little ridiculous. Everyone is trying to be unique and different and reinvent the wheel and make everyone else in the world see their ridiculous new movement or contraption that supposed to change everything we know.

Sometimes things are just good, and we don't need to make drastic changes to them. Some people are trying to take what works and change it. Don't ask me why. I don't totally understand it, but w/e.

Kettlebells made sense to me when they increased in popularity. But they've been around forever, it just happens that they hadn't had much exposure in the US yet.

On the other hand hula hoop exercise did not make sense, and thank god those gimmicky bastards weren't any better at marketing, I might've had an aneurism if the world actually accepted that as good exercise.

Core bars made some sense. I wouldn't call it a mainstay, useful everyday or something that's going to change your athletic career. But it's good.

The shack weight was so dumb.

SO DUMB.....

I'll go over some of the things that should be mainstays soon. Feel free to share your reactions to this stuff in the comments.

Know what your problem is...

I'll tell you, because you probably fit into the 80% (I'm being conservative) of other wimps waiting for life to kick their ass before they realize they are weak and worthless.

If you don't fit here then great, but I bet 60% of you that think you don't fit actually do. Get it?

There are the athletes that will prepare now and sacrifice now to reap the benefits later and those that will stick with their video games and cheetos for 6 hours a day and get their asses handed to them.

"Be the Hammer, not the nail."

You're going to pay for it one way or the other. Now or later. Same goes with health. You're going to pay for it now (exercise, personal trainer, food that's good for you) or you're going to pay for it later (doctors, medicine, death). Get it?

Stop being such a wimp. Get your ass up, this life is too short to take any of it for granted.

Every year we all say,"Jeez, this year went by in the blink of an eye."

Even if I live to 1o0, that's 100 blinks of an eye that go pretty quick. You bet your ass I'm taking everyone of them for everything they are. That's why lift heavy shit, continue to be a student of life and eat as much good food that's good for me as I can.

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