3 Missing strength training program tips ?

Hey to all,

Your strength training program can suffer. There are so many elements to think about when designing a strength training program. I will not name them, but I will give you 3 useful tips to boost your strength program.

Here they are:

1. Assess and then Re-assess. If you want to see if you are making any progress....is simple assess and then reassess. You can easily see if something works and what does not work for you. Well, daaaa if it does not work...Change it!
2. Recovery. Yes you need to rest 2 or 3 days a week. Your body will function ways better and your results will be much better believe me evenif your goals is fat loss or hypertrophy. Exercising every days is not the way you go unless you are an athlete. You do not want to get bored either.
3. Spice up your strength training program with Olympic lifting. At first a qualified person needs to demonstrate and show you the Olympic moves such as Snatch, Clean, Jerk. Then you have to practice them with a PVC pipe or a broom stick and then you go heavy. Challenge your body with these specific exercises and stop doing those easy workouts.

These are the tips. What do you think? I'm out....

'Bad ' orthopeadic/ physiotherapist/ chiropractor practices?

Hey to all,

I think I talked about this topic in the past, but is still coming up. Lately, I came across a lot of people that are injured. Either their shoulder, knees, back etc. Most of them seek out for a doctor, yet they are still not feeling good and they are in pain. They can not work out or play their favorite sport, yet they think that time will treat their injury.



Hmmmm......are there 'bad' practices around such as orthopaedics, physios, chiros or 'bad' individual choices? I think the answer for both questions is YES. I'm not an expert on the topic, but I will give you some useful hints that can help you determine if the person that is going to treat your existing injury is a true professional or a phony?


Some point that you should consider before:

1. Is the person qualified enough? I'm talking education here and experience and not if he/ she is famous and everyone visits them.
   
2. Did the person perform an assessment to diagnose your condition, so he can know what is the plan of rehabilitation....hands on assessment is what I'm suggesting here.......or did they relay only on X-rays and MRI's?
3. Is the rehabilitation process going anywhere? Does your pain decrease after 2-3 weeks, what about your range of movement?
4. What does the rehabilitation process includes....medication, stay at home/ do nothing and usage of only machinery to get you back in action....these are some warning signs of 'bad' rehabilitation regimes. It all depends on the form of injury of course.
   
5. Does the professional that is treating you answers all of your questions and explains you the WHY BEHIND OF ALL OF HIS/ HER ACTIONS?

These are some valid points that you should consider when choosing someone to treat you. If you know the answers to the above questions it will make your life easier when you facing any kind of injury and TRUST will come after this process. IGNORANCE is not the way you go, but RIGHT CHOICES. I'm out...and please give me some feedback on the topic....how do you go about choosing your 'Rehab person'?

Interesting Notes from Nancy Clark NSCA Webinar: Nutrition- Your Missing Link?

Let's go straight to the point...here are some interesting points from this Nutrition Webinar:

1. Why there are so many missing links? No time to food shop or eat, erratic schedules, concerns about digestion, or desire to lose body fat.
2. Some individuals do not respect the power of food. You should training at your best, if you are nutrition is at your best.
3. To lose weight...start with decreasing 20% of your calorie needs.
4. Dietary ' healthy' fat can increase your performance, yet fat stores in muscle that can increase your stamina and endurance.
5. No food intake at critical times especially before and after the gym.
6. Carbohydrates are important because of glycogen stores that fuel your muscles.
7. To refuel for recovery you should eat adequate carbs daily and plan rest days.
8. Too much engineered food is probably not the way you go cause your body functions differenty compared with real food and
9. A food coach maybe is a smart choice for you to perform better, for weight management, eat healthier and increase your energy during the day.

These are some excellent points that Nancy Clark mentioned during this webinar. As you can see, Nutition is the missing link and believe me peolpe ingnoring it. What to you think? I'm out........

POWER......When?

What time of the day we should train for Power?

Check this interesting NSCA article abstract.....

Effects of 5 Weeks of Training at the Same Time of Day on the Diurnal Variations of Maximal Muscle Power Performance
Blonc, Stephen; Perrot, Sébastien; Racinais, Sébastien; Aussepe, Stéphane; Hue, Olivier
The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. 24(1):23-29, January 2010.
doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181b295d6

Blonc, S, Perrot, S, Racinais, S, Aussepe, S, and Hue, O. Effects of 5 weeks of training at the same time of day on the diurnal variations of maximal muscle power performance. J Strength Cond Res 24(1): 23-29, 2010-The purpose of this study was to investigate whether maximal muscle power production in humans is influenced by the habitual time of training to provide recommendations for adapting training hours in the month preceding a competition. Sixteen participants performed maximal brief squat and countermovement jumps and short-term cycle sprints tests before and after 5 weeks of training. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a Morning-Trained Group (MTG, 7:00-9:00 hr) or an Evening-Trained Group (ETG, 17:00-19:00 hr). They trained and performed the evaluation tests in both the morning and evening in their naturally warm and moderately humid environment. The results indicated a significant increase in performance (approximately 5-6% for both tests) after training for both groups but failed to show any time-of-day effect on either performance or training benefit. These findings could be linked to the stabilization of performances throughout the day because of the passive warm-up effect of the environment. In summary, our data showed that anaerobic muscle power production could be performed at any time of day with the same benefit.

What do you think about it? Actually, I will check it out personally and with my clients and give you some feedback on the topic.....I'm out.

'BAD' NUTRITION+'BAD' SLEEP= 'BAD' HEALTH

Hey everyone and a 'Happy New 2010',

It's been almost a month that I have been out with a cold. Today is the first day I will admit that I'm doing much better. The other day I was thinking why it took me all this time to recover and what was the reason behind it.

In my opinion, all that Christmas holidays was 'bad' for my health. I admit that I had a nice time with my family, but that was not the case. The 'bad' nutritional habits during the holidays eating 1 huge meal was one of the reasons to blame. I admit I went a little overboard.....eating a lot of food accompanied with alcohol was not the right way for a healthy body. No fruits, little veggies and the most important not much sleep resulted in a weak immune system that could not bounce back.

Did you ever consider how your nutritional habits and sleep reflect upon your immune system? Well, it is true that these 2 main factors were the ones to blame for my endless flu . I learned my lesson.

A well balance nutrition plan is needed not only for a lean body, but as well as for a healthy body with a strong immune system . In addition, sleep is a very important element for a strong immune system, yet your nervous system is rejuvenated at the same time. Of course there are a lot of other reasons why your immune system can be 'out of order' . Make sure you do not avoid these 2 key elements: nutrition and sleep. I'm out.......

Costumer's attitudes regarding training/ nutrition

Well well well, today's post is dedicated on client's views about training/ nutrition. I will admit that these attitudes are very common in the 'cypriot training population' and to be honest I either want to laugh or yell really loud to these ignorant individuals.

Here is my list:

• The 'PILATES/ YOGA' clients: These people, especially women are obsess with these training regimes. There is nothing wrong with these training philosophies, yet people do not know why they are attending these kind of classes. Women think that these classes are the only training classes for them. In my opinion, after a while these classes are getting boring anyways.
• The 'CARDIO FREAKS' clients: These clients are the ones that perform endless cardio. They think that the best regime to have a healthy body and drop some kilos is to do 1 or 2 hours cardio daily. My opinion....hmmmm if you are lazy and you do not know why you are doing endless cardio which is in a way 'bad' for you....just go ahead.
• The 'HUNGRY' clients: I can not stand these clients. These clients only eat once a day or they follow a low fat diet like the Gambridge or any other low fat/ low calorie diet. These individuals think that they are healthy.....oh my God! These nutrition rerimes are really bad for your health.
• The 'LOOKING GOOD' clients: These clients are obsessed with body parts. They only want to train specific muscles..... abdominals or glutes for women and upper body for men (chest and back). Although, I have a chat with these kind of clients many times depicting the negatives of such regimes, they keep doing the same and the same routine.

What can I say....I do not say that I know it all, but if something is not good for your health....do you want to keep doing it? That's the most frustrating thing of all, these group of people mentioned above keep doing the same mistake over and over again. You make sure that you always ask the WHY???? you are doing what you are doing.

Hmmmmmmmm....... I'm curious if you are you one of those kind of individuals mentioned above or if you know any other people training/ nutrition attitutes that get on your nerves? Drop me a line and let me know...I'm out!

FROZEN SHOULDER PART 2

Hey to all,

This post is a continuation of the last post Frozen Shoulder Part. I have added 2 more stretching exersices that are important related to the Frozen Shoulder disorder. You must realize that these stretches are useless if you are not following a rehabilitation regime either from a physical therapist or chiropractor. If muscles (connective tissue/ fascia) and tendons are healthy around the shoulder joint then these 6 stretches are good to get your Range of Motion (ROM) back.

Today's stretches are:

Shoulder Extension with Band

Make sure you maintain neutral spine. Contract the abdominals and with the help of the band walk few steps forward with arms extended. Its really important that your back does not arch. You can do holds of 20'' x5.

Shoulder Sleeper Stretch for Internal Rotation

While lying on your side, push with opposite hand downwards. The shoulder stretched should be around 90 degrees and maintained on the floor. Push down until you feel a stretch inside of your shoulder. Hold 20'' x5.

As stated in the previous post, all these shoulder stretches can be performed even if you are healthy. Let me know what do you think...I'm out!