Now the brain is the victim in an inflammatory response due to the build up of a protien called amyloid or amyloid plaques.   No one really knows why amyloid builds up in the brain. It is a widespread protein within the body but why does it appear in the brain and destroy neurons? Research has shown consistant patterns in lifestyles that have lead to alzheimers.  Take a guess what I am going to say next? Lack of nutrient dense foods and lack of regular exercise has been shown to lead to the build up of amyloid which leads to, or they say, leads to alzheimers.  Many of the suffers of this disease are diabetic, have high blood pressure and are in active.

Inactivity as one gets older is a open invitation to the speed up of degeneration of muscles, lowering function of organ systems, in turn builds up body toxins which increases the body’s acidity level and all-round inflammatory response.  Your body begins to kill itself because you are not taking care of it!  Why survive and live taking up our food and our oxygen when your not contributing to your own health?  It’s pretty crazy that when nature suspects you of neglacting your life… it will slowly begin to take it from you!  It takes years for the inflammation to eat away at your brain cells, so there is always time to hault this destruction.

Pretty harsh right?  It’s true, but you can reverse the effects.  Changing your diet, exercising your mind with games, puzzles etc. will keep neurons firing.  As a functioning human being, loosing any connection between brain cells will be detrimental.  There is nothing on this planet that can bring life to new connections from neuron to neuron other than…. EXERCISE!  Yes, exercise has been shown to drastically improve older individuals memory and thinking processes.  Elevated cholesterol levels is another “red flag” when it comes to being diagnosed with Alzheimers.  What lowers cholesterol?  Eating nutrient dense healthy foods along with regualarly exercising lowers cholesterol.  Individuals who take medications to lower their high blood pressure and/or cholesterol have also shown to have lower occurances of Alzheimers. Remember, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol cause a build up of amyloid.  The body than responds to kill and remove the amyloid by way of inflammation, which slowly destroys the brain cells.

Therefore, being healthy will lower the occurances of inflammatory responses.  Now we can’t change the genetic factors that label you a candidate of coming down with this disease but research is showing more and more that if you take care of yourself then you may never experience or you may even postpone the onset of alzheimers disease (long sentence).  One life… take care of it!

What makes you buy a vegetable?  Could it be the vibrant color of the vegetable that appeals to your eye?  I mean would you really buy a bunch of potatoes covered in dirt or the nice clean ones?  Well, did you ever think what makes those vegetables so colorful?  Lets look at those baby carrots and cocktail carrots that are sold in bags.  Baby carrots are made from other deformed carrots “that wouldn’t sell.”  Makes sense- why waste a carrot because it doesn’t look good?  When these carrots are cut from bigger carrots their skin is stripped off.  This leaves the carrot without any protection, which would start the oxidation process causing the carrot to rot.  Are you still with me?  Now for those who have bought those carrots and left them in the fridge, have you ever noticed the white covering that appears on the carrots?  This is chlorine! Yes, chlorine is used to preserve the carrots because their natural skin that protects them and keeps them fresh is gone from the production process.  Chlorine itself is a carcinogen, which means that it causes cancer.  We swim in it, we bath in it, some places actually have it in their drinking water, and now it’s on our carrots! 

• Know who you buy your food from
• know who they buy their food from

If you go on being blind when it comes to nutrition, you might as well just kiss your ass good bye!

Over the past few years I have come across a few people who talk a big game, but can’t back it up!  These are the type of people who watch the Rocky movies and get motivated to workout. They do a few sessions then they disappear off the face of the Earth.  The only time I would hear from them is when their season is close. Honestly, what the hell can I do in a week when the previous weeks have been spent lolly gagging?  Then when they perform badly, they get upset, pissed off and want to quit.  I think alot of coaches have come across athletes like this.  It’s such a waste of time on the coaches part to be involved in this viscious circle.

Motivation > workout hard > Disappear (excuses for not working out) > Workout desperation (close to season) > Poor Performance > Low self esteem/attitude

Then it starts all over again.

What athletes need to understand is that if they want to succeed in a sport, then they need to realize that it has to become a year round regimen.  Most of that year would be mediocre, meaning performance would be less than his or her best.  This should not discourage an athlete.  This is part of the plan.  Understand that athletes are organisms and training programs need to be programmed as if this were a science experiment, which it is. The body can not hold a peak performance for more than 2-4 weeks, and all the rest of the year is just hell in the way of repetition.  From this repetition, movements become second nature.  I try and relay this to my athletes as every practice, good or bad, is incrypting html for a website.  Over time the amount of script that is put in begins to turn into structure, pictures, content, pages then an internet traffic monster! We can’t launch it until it’s ready, and without putting in the work we could never get there.  So, each rep, practice, visualization etc grows and grows over time.  Each excuse for missing practice, not eating right, going to a sports club that “didn’t have the right equipement,” or staying up till the late hours of the morning is like a virus attacking and destroying your website.

I am begining to sound like a broken record, but if you can take one thing from the poorly written post (lol) then take away being consistent at practicing when you are suppose to be practicing! Oh and girls and guys…. pound cake is not a breakfast.

Link to video here 

Fruits and vegetables are making us fat!  That’s the new buzz according to YAHOO NEWS and  Frederick vom Saal, Ph.D., curators’ professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri.  Of course fruits are sugar and they need to be strategically eaten at certain times of the day for best results, but I am talking the chemical that so called ‘protects’ the apple.  These chemicals are known as ‘Obsesogens’ that are present in or on our food that wasn’t 50+ years ago.  These Obsesogens are pesticides and the chemicals found in plastic drinking/cooking devices.  It is believed that these chemicals are taking over our natural endocrine system functions.  For those who are not familiar with the endocrine system, it’s the system that regulates hormones.  If your tall and skinny, short and fat or horny all the time (I had to throw that in there) it’s due to your endocrine system.

Obsesogens have an effect in the way estrogen does.  For the men out there… we don’t want an estrogen hormone floating around in our bodies.  For men this will lead to more femanine features (more fat, breast development, etc.). For women it could lead do extreme health problems in the way of stroke, breast cancer, heart disease and more!

What Obsesogens do is make us put on the weight. This may be the explanation to why you are heavy and not loosing any weight even though you eat ‘clean’ and exercise regularly. 

So what can you do? Well, the most obviouos is to stop eating the chemicals.  It is suggested to go organic, which I find funny.  Isn’t organic 100% natural occurring? It amazes me that we came this far into a situation and now we have an option to go back to the way it was…organic.  Well, if you go back to your primitive ways of eating what nature provides you will see a dramatic decrease in your pesticide levels within the body.  Research where you get your food!  Some farms introduce insects into a crop that will eat the other bugs that are destroying the food.  This is farming at it’s best- absolutely no chemicals!

Have you ever microwaved plastic?  It said “microwaveable?” Well stop it! No plastic should be subject to increases temperatures- NONE! Heat breaks down the chemical make-up of a plastic and draws it into your drink or food.  Always use glass….porcelean would be best.

• Don’t place plastic wrap over a bowl and microwave it
• Don’t use a weight watchers, Jenny Craig etc. dinner bowl (plastic bottom/plastic wrap top). Take food out and microwave in glass
• Don’t drink from plastic, only drink from stainless steel containers or glass.  Drinking out of glass or stainless steel draws in no chemicals when in the presence of heat. So, if you leave your glass water bottle in the hot car all day, it’s still safe to drink. You drink out of a plastic bottle that sat for a hot 3 hours… consider yourself toxic and leading to a life of CANCER!

Since I am on the topic of drinking, purify your water buy purchasing a facet water purifier. Forget the Brita or the Brita’s container…it’s plastic. Purchasing a water purifier is a safe bet to help rid the water of industrial pollutants and pesticides.  Following these tips will cut down on the chemicals that pollute your body, thus reving up your endocrine system to function properly making you into a fit, lean and mean fighting machine!

If you want to read up on this in more detail go here

ps… did you ever think why there is so many kids being diagnosed as ADHD? http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/17/pesticides.adhd/index.html

pss…. did you know your cholesterol levels are due to the environment you live in? A toxic environment equals high cholesterol levels. It’s a protective force field. So, if you take medications to lower your cholesterol then you are welcoming toxins into your body! Watch the video at Garage Strength

I have a fascination with what people think…especially before they kick the bucket; either on their own terms or a higher power’s terms.  I am not trying to be morbid here… I am …Pause sneeze… OH SHIT!  Has anyone sneezed and your arms began to hurt really bad?  My god that sneeze hurt…now I am freaking myself out. My head is pounding after that too.  Wouldn’t be ironic that while I am writing this I drop dead?  Ugh. Okay, so as I deal with this weird feeling, I will post the video. I must warn you that this is graphic… But lets look at this as a pre-competition approach. His goal is death (for some reason he wants to end his life).  In the video you will see him walk in the camera frame and he has a pop in his step.  You wouldn’t think this guy was just about to end it.  Instead you would be thinking that he is loving life.  This is a walk of determination to complete what he set out to do.  No one stops him and he puts on a show! This is how you need to be when approaching a game or competition; setting out to acheive your goal, confident and determined.

Video Here!

Yesterday was a farm filled day! My girlfriend and I went blueberry picking at a local farm in Nj.  If you live in the north east then you know that it is hot as hell right now!  Who would have thought blueberry picking would be so labor intensive?  Well, it wasn’t that bad… the heat just made it so.  Picking the blueberries is a good way to connect with your food. Too many times people eat food without even appreciating it. Most people don’t even know where their food comes from.  Which reminds me… I watched FOOD INC. last night and I can tell you that I knew most of the content but there were things I didn’t know.  It’s amazing the disrespect that occurs to animals. For instance, chickens are grown fast (46 days to grow a 5+ pound chicken) rather than the way nature intended.  This makes the chickens weak and they can only take 2 or 3 steps before falling.  Chicken farms for Tyson and Perdue are closed in. Meaning “chickens will never see sunlight….ever.” How terrible is that?  These companies run animals as if they are a peice of manufactured equipment. Well, they are! Most of the animals we eat are designed to be loaded with meat, same size (due to machine, packaging etc specifications) and ready for slaughter at the same time. Do they respect these animals? No!

There needs to be more support of our local farms. Local farms respect their animals and provide open range and high quality foods (grass not grains) for their animals.  This leads to a slower production of meat, but the quality is a hell of alot better.  Farming this way provides a healthier product.  In cases of Salmonela poisoning, this is due to animals eating grains, other dead animals or being covered in feces. They are made quick to die quick… this means more money for the big companies.   It’s just terrible how this process is happening and it will happen most likely forever.  So if we can’t change our world, we can most definetly change our life or the quality of our family’s lives. LEARN WHERE YOUR FOOD COMES FROM AND HOW IT EFFECTS YOU!

Have you ever come up with a program that you were sure to work to then change it a week later?  This has happened to many athletes around the world. This happens because you may be without a coach, something you read sparked your interest to try, or you just don’t have a clue.  These are the common problems that exist within athletics that can easily be changed by changing the way you think.

“A program works as long as you believe it will work.”  Adam Nelson told me this back stage at the 2009 Millrose Games and this quote alone can have a profound impact on your performance. It’s the ‘placebo effect,’ if you think it works then it does. Now of course there are poorly designed programs floating the internet as I write this and coaches are giving them out to their athletes.  For instance, did you know kids are doing power cleans for 5 sets of 10 reps? Yup, and it happens more than you would know!

So how can you come up with a program that you can tell yourself “I know this will work” and really really believe it?  First you need to know what your goal is.  Next you will have to come up with a plan to reach that goal.  Small battles win the war!  Your workouts will be broken down into many micro cycles (4-6 week phases depending on the year) for a complete Macro cycle (1 year or more).  The most basic way of doing this is by thinking in terms of Off Season, Pre-Season, In Season, Post Season.  Just like the Earth’s season’s of the year. It’s important to train, adapt and develop to peak conditioning the same as it is for a tree to grow into a towering green leafy beast! We respond to seasonal training as follows:

Example: Track & Field Shot Put Late Spring Peak

• OFF SEASON Fall months: (Sept-Nov)- Low impact plyometrics (high volume) high volume weight training
• PRE-SEASON Winter Months: (Dec-Feb)- Low-high Impact Plyometrics (moderate to low volume, intensity increases) Strength Training (lower volume, increased intensity)
• PRE/IN SEASON Spring I: (March-May)- High impact plyometrics (low volume, high intensity) Strength to Power transition weight training.
• IN SEASON Spring II PEAK PHASE: (May-July)- High impact plyometrics (very low volume, very high intensity) Absolute Power weight training. Key note: Here weight training at plyometrics reflect that actual speed used in competition. If your total throw time from start to release is .30 seconds then you lift at that speed. Why bench press a weight that takes you 1+ seconds to lift?

Each athlete is different and if you have a great strength coach team, then they will develop an individual program that addresses your needs, athleticism etc.  You may do the ‘Fall Months’ strength and conditioning phases exactly like other athletes, but as you progress through the year you may need different exercises because of your begining status or elite status.  It’s amazing to think back on how my training progressed to what it is now. Here is a quick look of my high school training (’94-’98) to my current training (2010):

High School Training Tues, Thurs. & Sat went as follows:

• Throw (no warm-up)
• Lift: Squat 4×5/Bench 4xfailure (rep range 4-8)/Deadlift 4×5
• Squat and Deadlift weights increased 10-15lbs every week
• Bench weight increased only if first weight reps were 7 or more

This type of lifting was done 3x’s a week from the 1st week of December to March with no platues experienced. My age at this time from was 15-18yrs. At 25 years old I repeated this scheme but only 2x’s a week. Within 14 days I platued and my body ached. Taking age into consideration when planning a program is key too. I could lift for ever when I was a teenager, but now I could never repeat those workouts. Who would any way. 85% of the exercises I did (especially football lifting) had no correlation with throwing a steel ball far. The last 10 years and especially the last 3 have been directed towards throwing far.

Current Training Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri goes as follow:

• Monday-specific warm-up I/hudle drills/throw/lift (legs)
• Tuesday-specific warm-up II/Running drills/throwing drills/lift (upper body)
• Wednesday- Active Recovery (General warm-up, dynamic strentch, static stretch, foam roll, Ice)
• Thursday-Specific warm-up I/Hurdle Drills/throw/lift (Speed lifting)
• Friday-Specific warm-up II/Runnign Drills/Throwing Drills/lift (Speed Lifting)

Speed lifting : (done on thursday and friday)

• Clean pulls to release high 3×5
• Push press (quick) 3×5
• Dips (quick) 3×5
• Lateral outside leg box step up 3×5 (each leg)
• superset w/Box step jump ups 3×5 (each leg)

(weight nor sets/reps do not change at all for this phase. This phase lasts until shot distances peak)

 I have gotten great results from most of my prorams because I have learned what actually works and what doesn’t (for me specifically).  Currently when I put together a program I am very confident that it will lead me in the right direction to obtain my goal.  Believing in your program is a key ingredient to success but so is the failure of doing terrible workouts. You learn what works for you and what doesn’t.  Without having a coach is rough, but if you continue to dig in, and track your body’s response to workouts then eventually you will find your way. 

Either way, believing in what you are doing is key inorder to get the most out of a workout.

I am guilty… I have driven under the influence of an extreme workout.  Did you know you can get a ticket for this? Well you can!  It happened yesterday in New York.  Jeff Milliron was out in the sun doing ”…pud throws, sprints and jumps…”  Any healthy individual can handle the heat. Hell, most of us athletes and fitness freaks love working out in this weather and that is just what Jeff Milliron did.  An accomplishment, a victory in the heat, a workout that stressed the body to the max!  Just what he wanted.  With his skin burning from the sun and sweat pouring into his eyes he perceeded to get into his car and drive.  We have all done this, jittery hands as we would steer, sweating our asses off.  Has anyone ever kept the windows up to get an extra mega sweat going? 

As Jeff drove and wiped sweat from his face a police officer followed then pulled Jeff over and questioned him.  The cop asked Jeff why he think he was pulled over? Jeff replied “not sure.”  The cop said suspicion of driving under the influence.  He directed Jeff out of his truck.  Jeff got out and his legs were wobly. The cop asked him again if he had done anything.  Jeff says no he was working out.  The cop makes him stand by his truck for ten minutes and comes back and says “here’s a ticket… dui for extreme exhuastion!”  Jeff’s father had to come and pick  him up because the officer said he was not 100% to drive.  This is the first time I have ever heard of someone getting a DUI for working out.  I wonder if this holds up will his insurance go up? Loss of license? hmmmm?

Jeff that was one of the best reasons to ever get a DUI. That is just positive reinforcement that what you did in your workout was absolutely amazing! If you don’t get a DUI after leaving the gym… you didn’t work hard enough!