The warm up exercises are a crucial part of any sports or fitness training program. The importance of a structured warm up routine should not be under estimated when it comes to the prevention of sports injury.
In order to be ready to perform speed work or compete at high intensities, you must get warmed up properly. An effective warm up must consist of a series of dynamic and active movements that start with low impact, low intensity exercises and progress naturally to high intensity, full speed exercises that simulate the intensity of the upcoming practice or competition.
Dynamic flexibility is the act of quickly moving a joint through its range of motion with little resistance, improves flexibility, coordination, balance, proprioception, elasticity of the muscles and ligaments, increases core body and deep muscle temperatures, elongates active muscles, decreases the inhibition of the antagonist muscles and stimulates the nervous system and therefore helps decrease the chance of injury.
Conversely, static stretching involves passively stretching a giving muscle by placing it in a maximal position of stretch and holding it for an extended time, usually 10 seconds. The disadvantage of static stretching is that it may only improve flexibility and does little to elevate core body temperature.
Stretching is a critical part of the warm up, but stretching is NOT the warm up.
Perform dynamic exercises that are similar to the types of movements they will be going through during practice and competitions. Keep moving and gradually increase the intensity of your activity. That way you can get the blood flowing into the muscles through a natural progression.
The movements should be performed in a continuous and “down and back” fashion over 10-20 yards and be of low to moderate intensity. The entire dynamic warm-up can be done in as little as five minutes or as long as 20 minutes.
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Sign Up Today for the 2011 Sprint Camp
This program is designed to increase your speed, agility, coordination, explosiveness, injury prevention and much more.
WHAT CAN OUR PROGRAM DO FOR YOU:
· Increase acceleration and MAXIMIZE breakaway speed
· Increase your resting metabolic rate (burn fat while you rest)
· Teach you proper sprint mechanics to get faster immediately
· Learn drills, cues and workouts teaching you how to accelerate smoothly and reach your fastest top speeds
· Discover the secret tomaintaining near top speed so athletes can outrun their opponents every time…or run them down
This is a great opportunity for athletes to receive top of the line professional CERTIFIED instruction to significantly improve game-day speed.
Call me now at 410-645-0231 for more information.
Monday, April 25, 2011
How To Properly Warm Up Before Practice Or Competition
Friday, April 22, 2011
Ladder Training For Speed And Agility
Agility is the skill of being nimble, being able to change direction quickly and respond decisively to a rapidly changing environment. According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the agility ladder helps improve neuromuscular coordination, or the relationship between the brain and muscle action. Some people are naturally more agile than others, but tailored exercise drills can improve reaction time and direction-changing speed, as well as strengthen muscles around knee and ankle joints to help protect against injury. The hopping and quick directional changes help prepare the ankles for unanticipated movements, such as tripping, so your body learns how to react to prevent injury.
Agility ladder training will increase speed, power, agility and coordination skills for better performance in any sport or in your personal workout. You can make ladder drills the main focus of your workout or perform them as part of a strength or cardio workout by weaving some of the ladder drills throughout your existing routine.
For each ladder drill, begin by learning the footwork pattern and then work at increasing the speed with which you put your feet down and get through the entire ladder. These drills help you increase the speed of your footwork.
Perform these agility ladder exercises either by alternating drills and repeating the entire routine several times or by focusing on one element during each workout--either speed, power or lateral motion. Whichever method you choose, you will see improvement in your performance by training with the agility ladder on a regular basis.
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Monday, March 28, 2011
3 Lessons I Learned About Success From The Book Of Eli
Besides all the action and cool colors, The Book of Eli had some deep lessons on what it takes to be successful
Lesson 1 – Keep Going West
Eli had a goal and laser beam focus. “Take this book and keep going west until you get there.” No matter who got in his way, how many battles he had to endure, the next day he brushed him self off and kept going west.
Lesson 2 – Know Thyself
*Spoiler Alert* Eli knew he was blind, but that didn't stop him from kicking ass and going west. He used his strengths to get him through. He smelled his enemies before they had a chance to attack, he could hear the intention in their voice, the rhythm of their breathing. He was well aware of his strengths and worked with them masterfully.
Lesson 3 – Watch What You Eat
There are cannibals out there, feeders of human flesh. Eli knew he couldn't eat just anyone's food and neither should you... If you want to be successful. Be careful of what you eat. Poor nutrition no matter how dialed in the rest of your program, your results will go up in smoke.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
6 Things You Must Have For A Successful Spring Training
Throughout my quest to achieve this goal, I have always been looking for programs that work. I’ve tried EVERYTHING. I bought about every book, dvd, attended every seminar I could find and talked to as many people as possible for ideas. Some of the programs allowed for some success while others have been an epic fail.
So, my quest continued as I patched together programs and had moderate success, but not the success that I knew that I could achieve.
Finally, though years of trial and error, I have come to the conclusion that success is the result of hard work—brutally hard work—that follows a well-developed plan of attack. The reason that most people are not successful is that they are victims of poor planning or not planning at all.. I get the most out of my clients because in addition to making them work hard and want to win, my training involves careful planning. Success depends on identifying needs along with your weaknesses and then formulating an appropriate plan of attack.
The Next Level plan of attack includes the following:
Strength training – the foundation on which the plan of attack rests. We use barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sleds and more with the idea to develop the greatest levels of strength possible.
Speed training - my thoughts on the significance of speed can be summed up in this quote from The Art of War, by Sun Tzu: “Speed is the essence of war.” Special sprint training will employ a variety of drills to maximize absolute speed.
Agility training – start, slow down, change directions, and accelerate with a minimum loss of speed. Agility drills require rapid changes of forward, backward, vertical, and side-to-side movement.
Mental Toughness training – toughness is flexibility, responsiveness, strength, and resiliency under stress. Toughness training puts you in control of your performance level on and off the field.
Recovery Training – recovery must be planned, scheduled and “trained” just like any other element of your complete training plan of attack. Knowing how and when to recover may prove to be the most important skill in your life.
One thing is for sure the possibilities are endless and there’s no way you’ll get bored with your training using this plan of action..
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Sign Up Today for the 2011 Sprint Camp
This program is designed to increase your speed, agility, coordination, explosiveness, injury prevention and much more.
WHAT CAN OUR PROGRAM DO FOR YOU:
· Increase acceleration and MAXIMIZE breakaway speed
· Increase your resting metabolic rate (burn fat while you rest)
· Teach you proper sprint mechanics to get faster immediately
· Learn drills, cues and workouts teaching you how to accelerate smoothly and reach your fastest top speeds
· Discover the secret tomaintaining near top speed so athletes can outrun their opponents every time…or run them down
This is a great opportunity for athletes to receive top of the line professional CERTIFIED instruction to significantly improve game-day speed.
Call me now at 410-645-0231 for more information.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Mental Toughness Advice From Ancient Japan
1. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
“Once you have trained yourself well, your body and limbs will move automatically without any conscious effort. Your mind will not be overwhelmed by your physical movements. You will employ techniques without having to think. Once you have attained this state of mind, not a single doubt nor hesitation will arise... Train yourself thoroughly and then forget about it. Throw away your mind.”
Yagyu Munenori – the most respected samurai serving the Tokugawa Shogun family.
2. HAVE A SHORT MEMORY
“It is not good to hold on to one's previous thoughts or to retain what is presently in the mind. You must make a clean and complete cut between the past and the present. If the mind is drawn off into thoughts of the past, that means it has stopped. It is important that the past does not interfere with the present, so cut off your previous thoughts and be careful not to stop you mind.”
Takuan Soho – revolutionary samurai priest who was fired because he advocated the separation of religion and the shogunate government. He was later rehired by our friend Yagyu Munenori.
3. EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN
“Never forget to make your mind work when your body is quiet, and to make your mind calm when your body is in action. It is important to make your mind useful and enrich it with knowledge. Take no account of the trifles and thoroughly keep your spirit strong... Keep your mind clear and maintain a broad view of things.”
Musashi Miyamoto – genuine samurai badass. Between the ages ages of 13 and 39, he had over 60 to the death sword fights and never lost one! Not only was he a master swordsman, he also was a master of drawing, poetry and sculpture.
Marinate on that....
Friday, March 11, 2011
The Mental Toughness Pyramid
How do the super-successful separate themselves from the rest? The average?I'll let The Don answer this one...
“Creative people rarely need to be motivated – they have their own drive that refuses to be bored. They refuse to be complacent. They live on the edge, which is precisely what is needed to be successful and remain successful.”
Ya see... The average live their lives on cruise control, resisting change and avoiding risk. They have the same talent and opportunity but they choose to play it safe to avoid the pain of failure and the agony (temporary) defeat.
At Next Level S&C, we use the Mental Toughness Pyramid as a tool we use to help you determine which stage of the pyramid you are performing.
At the first stage you are Playing Not to Lose, which is doing just enough to avoid getting fired, benched, or cut. The next level up you are Playing To Cruise, which is just going through to motions without really engaging in any serious thought or action. The next level is Playing to Improve, which is when you begin to actively engage their mind and body to the task of getting better. The level above this is Playing to Compete, which is when you begin to believe you are capable of beating the competition and being the best. Sadly, at this level you can find success and power, but since this stage is highly ego driven people are sometime left felling empty wondering if “this is all there is?”
If you have never challenged yourself beyond your known limits, either physically or mentally, I suggest you find an area you desire to push yourself in and set a goal in that area that will stretch you for an extended period of time.
Whatever goal you set, if it is high enough and hard enough, by definition, you must question yourself somewhere along the way: “Do I really want to do this? Is the reward that great?” You will rationalize how little you want the reward, and you must think about how much easier it would be if you were to rest, if only for a little while. If you do that, you are pushing yourself. If you quit, you quit; you lose for now. If you continue to try, you are among the minority. If you continue to quit, you are part of the majority. It does not matter what excuse you make. They all have the same result—failure. If you continue to try and you succeed, you are part of the elite, a winner.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Discover The Secret Formula For Dominating The Competition
Adapted from Mark Bender's Train Tough The Army Way
“Set the example in physical fitness. It is a fact that physically fit people are mentally, physically, and emotionally stronger than people who are not. Physically fit people are better able to withstand stress in peace and war.” - Army Field Manual
The secret?
Are you ready for it?
The secret to dominating the competition is... SUPERCONDITIONING
Huh? What's that, you ask?
It's the result of almost all world class athletic performance... It helps to cover up the weaknesses in your game... and it will pay off when you see the other guy quit and you are still ready, pushing forward.
Superconditioning is being SUPREMELY conditioned for your sport. And the only way to get there is to train harder and smarter than your competitors.
YOUR ROAD TO THE PATH OF SUCCESS
OK Dorothy,
Here is your yellow brick road:
First, list the critical skills for your sport. Focus your plan on these skills, and be sure that what you are practicing is fundamentally sounds. It is a big waste of time getting good at doing the wrong things.
Next, tailor your conditioning program to the sports you play. Undoubtedly, this will include a mix of strength, flexibility , and endurance training. It should also include speed and agility training.
Again learn correct technique. The best way to do this is to hook up with a competent trainer. There are also a number of helpful videos and books on the market. Trust me, life is too short to waste time training without the right program and the proper technique.
Along with strength training, you need an aerobic workout and for most of us that means running. You run to build endurance and stamina. Running raises your metabolism and burn off fat. For maximum effect in the shortest amount of time, consider wind sprints. Try sprinting 100 yards at 70 percent effort and jog back to your starting point. Do that 6 times and add a rep each workout until you can do 12 sprints in a row.
With any strength and conditioning program that you choose, you must first establish a base and never allow yourself to get to the point where you have to start from scratch. You lose 80 percent of your conditioning after 4 weeks of inactivity and it would take a whole month of hard work to get it back to where it WAS. And don't forget about the basics, like push ups, pull ups, squats, lunges, jumps, and sit ups – it's amazing what you can accomplish with no equipment at all.
To discover how you can take your game to the NEXT LEVEL call me NOW at 410-645-0231 to request your Free STRENGTH ACCELERATOR Audio Interview and Special Report.
STRENGTH ACCELERATOR is a unique, no nonsense, and powerful sports performance
system conceived to hone your mental and physical strength and toughness. STRENGTH ACCELERATOR will prepare you to take on the competition – and the world!
Call 410-645-0231 for your FREE CD and Special Report.
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