Sleds

I hope everyone had a merry christmas and is looking forward to a new year. 2009 will be upon us soon. This is the first change of year for High Impact Training and that is exciting. Thank you to all of those that have supported us so far. 

Something that comes to mind as I look out my window today is the snow. Right now we have more than plenty of it and I hear a lot of the blame game being played that you can't exercise outside with the snow. 

Now, I enjoy the cold even less than I enjoy long distance jogging. But the snow gives a great avenue that we can use to get some real exercise in. Best part you can get some real FUN along with it, even better if kids are involved. I'm talking about DRAGGING SLEDS.

 

Rocky does it.

Pulling a sled around is great for your body in numerous ways. We get a ton of work on our core, posterior chain, and I typically dislike the word 'cardio' for its common misusage but this is the perfect type of cardiovascular work. You get a total body workout in a very dynamic, safe, and physically taxing way. Nationally recognized Strength Coach Mike Boyle rates Sled work as the king of exercise. He labels pushing a sled as the #1 exercise if he could only choose one. When I look at someone pushing a sled I see a single leg squat, core and shoulder stabilization, I see huge force production and power development, I see dynamic effort and I could go on for awhile here, but this is a blog. 

Get outside, rip a sled around for awhile. If you have a partner take turns pulling each other around, if not throw something on the sled that will act like weight. You'll see what I mean very quickly. For an add exercise carry around a sandbag or some heavy at the end while pulling the sled this will get your body worked fast. Have fun, try it out. 

"Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you respond to it."

Learning: A Humbling Experience

Hello again,

Today Im writing from a very humbled state of mind. During my typical day it seems I am regularly explaining training and psychological concepts and having discussions on differing topics of the same venue. Sometimes it is easy to let myself get a big head. Then I dig into my daily research and somehow my ego gets a nice little reminder and the trips over. 

Point is, learn as much as you can. Someone out there has probably been right where you are already, whether it is training or not. Find good resources and stick with them, they have much to teach. Learn from successful people, there is usually a reason they are there. Most of all, Ask questions. The athletes that have all the answers and no questions probably just don't know much and they will never go as far as they could have with an open mind and a driven attitude. Seek out information like crazy. Knowledge is power, the more you know the better you can train and the better you can perform. Even now after years and years of studying and experience I still find myself looking to others for information to further my knowledge. The more I learn the more it seems like I don't know. There is a whole world out there with tons answers. Dig your feet in and go for. Till next time. 

Go hard or go home.  

-Adam Rees

"Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you respond to it."

I suppose I should start this thing.

Hi, 

I am Adam Rees, Director and Head Performance Coach for High Impact Training.  Its about time this blog gets started. Soon this will be a great place to refer to for athletic development, exercise, and nutritional information.

Just to warn you I do not see myself repeatedly spell checking this or making sure everything is grammatically correct. It'll be purely content. Please keep in mind that almost everything I say is meant in the best of ways, and not to be taken offensively as many things can be with fitness and health related issues. 

To give a little background on myself, I grew up in an athletic family that valued athletics. The majority of my earliest memories are being around athletic activities. This was most likely the source of my obsession into the confines of the human body and what it is capable of. I remember being very young and having a strong desire to increase my ability, which is not uncommon, but it always amazed me how some of us were better than others at certain things. What made them better or what made me better? Just like most kids you're told it came down to who worked 'more' or 'harder'. Looking back this obviously had a ton of merit but it was not the only answer, and this became more clear as I got older. 

As a young athlete I worked very hard to make myself better. For a 9 year old to be doing 30 push ups and 100 sit-ups before bed and then a junior high kid to do over 100 pushups and sit-ups every night before bed seems a little crazy, but that was me (that went on and off over, but looking back I think "jeez, did I really do that?".  I was actually very very fortunate to have had one coach in Junior high who really made a difference in my athletic career and he was our wrestling coach. He'd even tell me then but I didn't totally understand, he say "what is your record this year?" This is after my 9th win of the year. "I'd say 9-0." He'd say whats different about you than last year and I didnt know, couldn't tell. The year before I had gone 6-5 in duals. He'd then say,"This year you believe you can wrestle. Last year you didnt believe it." My first year I wasn't that good even though Id been a fairly successful wrestler for a few years before that, its like I forgot how to wrestle. The next year I went 11-1, zero points given up in referee's position, and 13 points given up on the year (dont ask me how I still remember that), and I beat the AAU National Champ that year also. Crazy huh? But I could barely tell you my record from the year before. This was a big step in my athletic career and why I am writing this right now. 

The potential of athletes is an obsession to me. What would happen if we could unleash all the potential of an athlete at any moment in time and then on top of that train that potential to grow and be more applicable to their sport. What if your head/thoughts never got in your way, and you never had to think about what to do, you just 'did'. Wouldn't that be amazing, think of it. Think how many times you hear an athlete say "I'm just thinking way too much". This is a problem, and a very small one compared to lack of motivation and inspiration, and other issues like that. Now, how many athletes do you know that could benefit from being faster and stronger? Every single one of them no questions asked. In every single sport ever developed speed and strength will always be factors, even games like chess, xcountry, and bodybuilding. 

Usain Bolt (by the way, if you cannot see his whole body, then take a look at the foot crossing the finish line that is Usain) just killed olympic records this year in a sport that is highly developed. The training for track and field is ridiculously highly researched, we know tons about this type of training, and we've been implementing these practices for many years, so how is he all of the sudden able to just kill these records and perform feats that no one has even gotten close to before. That is the potential that is still out there that I see. Usain bolt was once just another random boy out there that showed somebody some talent one day and go lucky it was the right guy to show it too. 

Growing up I always wanted that one person to come into my life and tell me this is what you need to do today, tomorrow, next month, etc... I researched and tore through everything I could find. What I found was a bunch of misleading junk most of the time, but really I didn't do sooo bad with all things considered. It sill could've been tons and tons better. The point is that I later set out to become that guy for the other young athletes that are now the ones dreaming of becoming the best and want someone to show them the way. 

I think that is enough for today. Train hard, refer to this regularly as there is much more to come. Next time I will be answering some of the questions I get throughout the week so if you have some go ahead and ask. Till next time.

-Adam Rees

"Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you respond to it."