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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Education vs. Learning

I wasn't always an avid reader. In fact I used to quite literally hate it. But around my junior year of college, all of the sudden I found out there is this wealth of knowledge and interest, mindtrips lets call them. A 'mind trip' would be anything that completely turns your head upside down and makes you stop everything you're doing to say...wow.

I had been turned on to some really good resources of which changed my life in many ways. But the point is books are incredible, they are cheap, and packed fulla learnin (to speak in my native tongue. Just kidding, but only a little).

But to be honest I went through college, it was okay. I don't really want to speak bad about it., college definitely has it's purpose, but I'm also not one to hold back his opinion. It taught me how not to drink, act, or eat, and that you can borrow absurd amounts of money to do close to nothing for four years. But someone will hand you a job because of a little piece of paper.

I'm not against all education, but what I am for, with every part of me is learning. I don't know how many books I've read in the last 3 years but I know I learned more from just one of them than I learned from 4 years of college. Think I'm exaggerating? I'm not.

You're trying to get into better shape? Find a book that inspires you. Want a better life? Pick up something on life style design or that you are passionate about. You want better relationships? Pick up something on self help? Because it's not you it's me? Yeah right. It's always the person in the mirror.

What I've found that works for me, is I go to people I know of that are in positions I'd like to be and find what they recommend and I buy it. Don't ask questions, just do, and follow through.

Here's one to start you out. It might seem stupid but to be honest I wish someone would've given this book to me when I was 14 or so. It's called The Inner Game of Tennis. Although I'm not a tennis player I still think it is a great book for any athlete in any sport, and Pete Carroll says so too.

It's actually extremely good. Short read, which is nice for young athletes with the attention span of zilch. There are a couple chapters devoted to tennis technique, so you can probably skip those if you're not interested in tennis, but otherwise it's a great book to keep around and read regularly.

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Attitude: you cannot be a badass without it.

I remember being in college and hearing other guys say how they'd take plays off in high school. Well my main sports were football, wrestling, and baseball (yeah I ran track too), non of those are sports where you can take a play off during the game.

I had a great attitude when it came to sports. Truthfully I didn't really know any different. I had a heavy go hard or don't show up mentality. That type of crazy kinda runs in the family.

This is my mom. She's a badass.

Attitude is huge, in any sport and in life. You have to have that edge, where there is only one way to go, and that's hard. I tell you what, when I played I had one speed. Like I said I was probably too stupid to know any different but I guarantee you one thing, you put everything you have into every play and your opponents are gonna remember playing you. They'll respect you, they'll probably even fear you.

This is probably the coolest part of this whole movie, but if you haven't seen it I suggest you do.

Facing the Giants

You want your team to play better, you want to be a better athlete, or you want to help your kids be the athlete's they want to be I suggest you work on your attitude. You can't control anyone else's and you can't teach something until you've mastered it yourself. Get your attitude set the right way and reap the benefits.

Till next time, keep being a badass.

Can you play up to pressure?

There is a rule in sports and in life as far as I can tell. It's the 30% rule.

Under pressure athletes will play 30% better or 30% worse. So are you an athlete that steps up or wimps out. Either way, you're training needs to prepare yourself for those moments. Every move, down, practice, every moment needs to be done with as if it were everything. Think of how much effort, focus, and tenacity that will take. This is how champions are made, and by that I don't mean all athletes that are good, I mean champions.

I don't know where I originally heard this saying but I use it all the time with my athletes. I'm sure it came from football though. It's

"Always move forward"

I used to take it simply as, on offense move the ball forward, on defensive drive them back, when you hit a guy drive through him, that kind of thing.

The cool thing is that the other day I used it in reference to playing football, my athlete complained about something else going on his life and I had to explain how it applies to more than just football. He texted me later telling me how he understood. I like moments like that.

New years resolutions are crap

It's about that stupid ass time of year again. When you all poop out your new years resolutions. Personally I hate these stupid things. If you really wanted to do something about it you would've by now. Everyone is guilty of it (some more than others) but there's a reason people come up with excuses not to do something, even when they really want to do it. You've heard it.

Why?

I don't know all the answers but what I've found so far is that people are afraid. Not afraid of actually having it, but of accomplishing it. Afraid of what it will take to earn it. In my life I've found one simple truth, there is no easy quick fix to the great things you want. You want to be the best athlete on the field, lose 80lbs, make a ton of money, etc....It's gonna come one way, and you gotta earn it. That means no excuses, no holding back, no tomorrow's.

You are the only thing holding yourself back. Fear is a terrible little deal.

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Work:Rest Rations don't matter....??

I'm gonna keep this pretty simple, but since everyone right now is on the holiday edge it would seem appropriate to promote a little way to reduce stress.

First of all, when it comes to program design everyone's worried about what cycle/phase their in. I will tell you some pretty great advice given to me by Paul Chek once, and it was that there is only one cycle to worry about, until that is mastered nothing else will matter, and that cycle is the Circadian cycle. Circadian rhythm is what gets thrown off when you travel long distances and get jet lag, and is based on sunlight. Get it?

So until you get the daily cycle and what you need to do during that daily cycle it is absolutely pointless to move on from there. So you need food, sleep, exercise, recreation, work, and relationships. Missing any one of these and you're missing out on life.

This is NOT me but he does a good job of backing me up. So in the end, eat whole foods that taste good, sleep, stay social, and enjoy relationships, exercise, work while you're at work then leave it there, and get outside and partake in something enjoyable. We may live in the midwest where it happens to be a nice and cozy cold and snowy, but there's plenty to do. Take your kids out and pull them on the sled. It's a great workout and your kids will love it.

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Lessons of Strength: Florida Gators

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

Psychology will always beat physiology.

"Talent will never replace hard work."

These could go on forever, and you've probably heard most of them. But truth is perception of what's hard is a daunting idea. You're athletes might think they're working hard, but I almost guarantee you they've not even gotten close to potential....Yet.

Here's a clip from University of Florida. The guy might still be playing with a group he didn't recruit but like it or not he's getting it done and so are his guys. There's lessons here.

Even though I can't stand an immature, cry baby, wimp of a quarterback. But Urban Meyer says it just the way it needs to be said.

Just for the hell of it, this is one of my favorite quotes.

"You have to beat the best to be the best."

How's that for pressure? Get's me going.

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Lessons of Strength: Pete Carroll USC

This is what it's about man. Ask any coach anywhere. Strength practices, environment, and a relentless desire to improve and you have yourself an athlete that's gonna be successful.

You can say what you want about USC this year, they're still one of the most successful teams in history.

And Chris Carlisle (USC's Strength Coach) knows his stuff. It's not about being a weight room hero. The weight room is nothing but preparation to enhance what you already have.

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