Females continually use the excuse “I don’t want to get big and bulk” to skip out on weight training or even working out at all together! In actuality it’s impossible for women to get big and bulky like men because they lack large amounts of testosterone. Males can produce up to 10x’s the amount of testosterone than women do. So, we can throw that excuse out the window.
Weight training for females does the obvious; increases strength, balance, bone density and prevents injury. I am sure this is old news. So, I will shine a different light on it. Women who workout are more attractive than those who don’t. No guy wants a girl that is skin on bones. Yeah you may look good now but as time passes and you age your skin will loose it’s lasticity, hang and jiggle! MUSCLE TONE IS ATTRACTIVE not floppy skin.
Your body reveals who you really are. I guess it’s the primitive drive of searching for someone you can have children with to keep your DNA going. It’s a natural thing to spread the seed, but most beneificial for human kind to spread the seed with other healthy individuals. Those women who workout reveal an inner truth about themselves. They are determined in reaching a goal, they are out to attract the best males for the sake of healthy vibrant children, they want to live a high quality action packed healthy life, they can easily deal with stress and they love to look good by hard work, not by covering things up with clothes and make-up! This is what men look for.
So how can you get motivated to pump some weights or do some road work? Get up and look at yourself in the mirror. Is this really what you want to look like? Is there a dress you want to wear? Is there a type of guy you are trying to attract? DO YOU WANT TO LIVE AS LONG AS YOU CAN? There are so many things that you could use to get your ass working out. You just have to do it and remember… 90% of the time you will not be motivated to workout, just do it anyway. These days where you don’t feel like working out, and you have every excuse not to, are the days where you will make the most gains physically and mentally!
New Jersey Strength Athlete Miles Austin is rumored to be dating Kim Kardasian of the reality show “The Kardasians”.. I already love this show and now it’s going to be even more interesting!
Miles Austin is a graduate of Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. While at Monmouth he tore up the record books which put him on the NFL radar. After his season he began to work with Defranco of www.defrancostraining.com where he made huge gains. Miles was given the opportunity to play for the Dallas Cowboys and it seemed that every opportunity he had to touch the ball, he did something special, making him one of the top recievers in the NFL today.
I wonder when he will call Bruce Jenner “dad?” WOOOOO! BRUUUUCCCCEEEEEE!!! Bruce I challenge you to a game of horse shoes!
Being a private coach and a personal trainer I have come across some stupid excuses for clients being tired, but this one takes the cake. I have been helping out this one kid who is now obsessed with being lean and mean. The only problem is that what he does outside the gym is killing him… and I mean really killing him! While training this kid he keeps complaining about how tired and weak he feels. I asked him “what did you have to eat today?” He says, “I had gummy bears, Doritos and did dope (heroin) earlier this afternoon.” Gummy bears! Doritos! Holy Shit! This kid is running on no fuel!!!!!!!!!!! How does he expect to gain muscle?!? Oh yeah, and the Heroin thing… Terrible. He was basically wasting my time and stressing his body out in the wrong way. Though he may be the only heroin addict that shoots up then proceeds to workout. I have a good feeling that this way of living is not going to do him any good. It’s like talking to a wall!
Another person I trained a couple years ago was training for CFL camp. This guy looked as if he was 240lbs and his skin was as thin as plastic wrap. He only weight 195lbs but was shredded! As we begun an upper body warm-up I asked him, “what did you have to eat before this?” He says with a serious face, and his gold teeth shining “Hennessy and a Twinky.” Ugh You got to be kidding me?
If people would understand the importance of eating nutrient dense foods and living a healthy life… life would be so much more enjoyable.
While being hurt I have been able to keep my competative fire going. I have been working with ten high school athletes, all of which have qualified for New Jersey State Group Championships…. except for two of them. One chose Prom over the qualifying meet and the other didn’t qualify for States but threw a personal best on his last throw of his junior year. That is a confidence builder to finish at your best.
It’s been cool to see the group of throwers become more dynamic. They are talking to each other and goofing around a bit more. One drill we did to finish the last session before the weekend was a 3 throw meet situation with distraction. All athletes including myself would stand at the back of the circle doing anything to break the concentration of the thrower. It’s a good drill to try and turn of the outside world and focus on movements. Once an outside distraction slips in, focus is lost resulting in a less than perfect effort. At this time of the year perfection in technical detail is essential. Even though they did not hit a big throw or keep a straight face, an unconscious lesson was learned. Hopefully they will be able to take this lesson and apply it to an actual meet situation.
One thing that I emphasized was approaching their throws. The nervous system is going to be on edge this weekend. Using it as a positive element is a must. My college coach told me “once you hit a good throw in warm-ups… shut it down. Then open up at 85%, the rest will be taken care of by the adrenaline.” This is true. If you throw at 100% + adrenaline = a bad technical throw. If you approach your first throw at 85% + adrenaline = +85% effort throw. Each throw to follow you should increase the intensity, so as long as your technique is not being destroyed.
So that’s where I am at now. With the meet this weekend, will the throwers be able to use their nerves to their advantage? Their bodies are in shape, their technique is better than it was 2 months ago, their minds understand the throw a bit more. So, common sense would tell me that these all add up to a personal best?! We will see!
One athlete I have been working on to peak out at the State Meet Of Champions has a very good chance to go top 3 in both the discus and shot put. If she is in the right frame of mind and if the peak program she is on works as it has… she may be even able to take 1st in both events. This is what excites me about being a private coach. It feels like I am competing! Will they hit a personal best? Will they advance to the meet of champions? Will my program work? I will know in a weeks time!
Good Luck this weekend everyone!!!!
Within a training phase coaches choose a “main lift” and auxillary lifts. For legs we first think of the SQUAT, but now things are changing. In elite level Olympic athletes it’s becoming more apparent that High Step Ups are the King. How can this be? How can the squat be over taken by an auxilary exercise?
High Step Ups are being shown to show greater gains in hip and thigh power output compared to the squat and prevention of injury. A single support is safer than a double support? That particular subject is out for debate, but the load amounts from a step up to a back squat are obviously at different ends of the spectrum. In the bottom (hole) of the squat, it is believed that the weight load is doubled resulting in huge stresses on the lower lumbar region. So, if you are squatting 500lbs x1 in the bottom position the back is reading it as 1,000lbs of stress. When an athlete in the ‘hole’ they are in a position that is never replicated in sport… so why do it? (this is a whole other arguement)
Training programs that are utilizing step ups as the main exercise realize that different heights bring different results. The higher the step up, the more work being done by the hamstring. The lower the step up, the more work being done by the quad. Now, it’s begining to sound like a science. Coaches can now have their athletes focus on different range of motions for different desired effects and incorporate them into training sessions with other exercises. Do you see the poetry of a workout developing? Also, the positive measure is that now the athlete can not use large loads of weight with a single support system which relieves lower back stress.
Squats have their place, I love them, but eventially the tides need to change. Step ups are huge in Eastern Europe training and from their results over the last 30 years of Olympics… they must be doing something right. Step-ups suck… and usually the things that we don’t enjoy we need to do more of.
Injury, it’s a word that no athlete wants to udder, but it happens from time to time. Recently I injured my Illiospsoas Minor & Major muscles. This muscle is so unique in its anatomy that it literaly can physically shut you down. I have not been able to get a quality workout completed in 5 weeks. Frustrating, yes, but because of my consistancy this year I had the most volume of training that I haven’t seen since college. So, is this injury a set back? I don’t believe it is. I believe sometimes injurys are needed in order for an athlete to take a deeper look into why he or she is working towards a goal.
How do I (you) stay positive when we can’t perform:
- Volume- tons of pre-season volume has allowed this injury to be a recovery phase.
- Technique- When injury occurs, technique needs to be slowed down, even analyzed more seeing why things happened-good or bad. Slowing of technique allows greater tenchnical advances. You must crawl before you can walk.
- Physiologically- Most likely you needed the rest. Not that you were over-training, but it was due for a chill out session to allow any aches and other injurys time to catch up in the healing process (Note: My calcium deposit on my wrist has diminished along with the ‘tennis elbow’)
- Mentally- No matter how much we want to, we can’t be 100% mentally into something 24/7. Eventually, our brain needs a break. During this break I have begun to read more and put things together in my life. Before there was no time to do so.
- Life- Training takes up a huge part of your life. Injury could be nature saying, “take a look around and enjoy your self”… because as much as you nor I want to admit it… there is more to life than our sport.
The new super human is here! Well, the original boy was discovered in 2000 but most recently a 3 year old named Liam Hoekstra has been diagnosed with the same disease, a disease for the positive. It’s called Myostatin-related hypertrophy or muscle enlargement. This disease only effects skeletal muscle so the heart is not effected. If this holds true for the rest of his life, we may be witnessing the an evolutionary event unfold infront of our eyes.
Liam Hoekstra has 40% more muscle than kids his age. This added muscle allows him to stand out amongst his classmates. I feel bad watching the kids try to do a sit up looking over at Liam perform them as if they were nothing. However, Liam may hold the key ingredient to help people suffering from Muscular Dystrophy and other diseases. Fingers are crossed!
There is a down side… well I can’t tell if it is or not. Athletes are using steroids… lets face it, there are alot of athletes using performance enhancing drugs that are giving them an edge. Could the myostatin-related hypertrophy gene be minipulated and incorporated into a human? Most likely YES! Scientists have minipulated the gene and experimented with mice. Click here to see pictures of a normal mouse compared to a myostatin-related hypertrophy mouse. Oh Okay.. a fellow employee just told me they have the inhibitor to block the gene. WHERE CAN I GET SOME!?!!? We are going to see this filtering it’s way into our professional sports. Coaches are going to be going after these kids. Why wouldn’t they? Can you imagine working with a kid that has 40% more muscle? 
This is a cow… yes it’s a damn cow!
It’s too early to determine side effects. Will this extra muscle inhibit movements? Will muscle become so strong that it breaks bones or tears tendon? Or will this be the next stage in human evolution? The strong survive and the weak die. Will China make a super army and take over the world? My imagination could keep going but I will stop here!
So your athletes are strong as an ox but can’t throw, run or jump any better than when they were scrawny? Most likey, no most difinetly their rate of developing force is lagging. What an athlete and coach’s attention needs to be focused towards is explosive strength. Explosive Strength is the ability to exert maximal force over minimal time. Some of the best exercises that increase explosive strength are jumps (double support & single support), Olympic Lifts (Barbell/Db Snatch, Power Clean), Med ball throws (many different exercises). The combination of a strength foundation and explosive exercises leads to greater sport performances. If a coach ’only’ lifts their athletes, we can ‘only’ expect the same results with bigger stronger athletes. This is where the phrase ’speed kills’ comes in. Athletes that are able to do something quick pretty much means they are explosive. Some athletes are just wired for explosion. Others have to train hard to develop a nervous system that is efficient enough to allow satisfactory performances. With a well developed program, training blocks can be set up depending on their strengths and weaknesses. This is where it gets a bit complicated. Athletes vary in talent… no one is the same. That is why workouts need to be individualized. Of course this is time consuming and strength coaches have 300+ athletes to work with. So, to evaluate each athlete and develop a program would be time consuming. Off season programs can be a higher volume of work with higher volume of explosive exercises at lower intensities. This will develop a foundation of repeatative movement. These off season programs work well for all athletes. The only factor that would differ from athlete to athlete would be weight percentages used. As pre-season arrives programs need to be focused a bit more towards the athlete. This is where I believe athletes can be split into 3 categories.
- Athletes that adapt Quickly (1-2 weeks)
- Athletes that adapt Moderately (3-4 weeks)
- Athletes that adapt Slowly (4-6 weeks)
Understanding the type of athletes you work with will allow you to pull a program previously done for that time of year from previous years. There will need to be 2-3 training phases for data collection. From this you will see what type of athlete you have (Quick, Moderate, or Slow).
Exercises that should be used for testing strength:
- Bench
- Squat
- Clean
Exercises that should be used for testing explosive strength:
- Back over heads (LINK) All sports should do this not just T&F athletes
- Double leg hop into sand pit
- Standing long Jump
From this information a strength coach can understand what an athlete is missing, incorporate the proper movements and sit back and watch the monster he has created!
Since I am dealing with an injury of the iliopsoas muscle, I decided to write about it. Two weeks ago I was finishing up the last couple practices that consisted of three sets of throwing followed by lifting. On this particular day my body ached. I was joking around with some other athletes that I had a bone disease. Man, were my bones and previous injuries acting up! My decision to workout this day is a decision that has now left me crippled. I strained my iliopsoas muscle, once injured I continued to practice the following 5 days… not a smart idea.
The iliopsoas muscle is a funny one. At first I thought it was just a lower abdomen issue, but then realized that more was involved. I started getting lower back tenderness. I have delt with this many times but now the tenderness and aches have moved into the whole right leg. It was as if my right leg was being strangled. Once I mentioned this to Sharon, one of Central New Jersey’s best physical therapists, she knew that it had to be the iliopsoas muscle.
The iliopsoas attaches to the spine goes through the hip and connects to the femur. This explains my pain in the lower abdomen/groin area and the aches and pains in my lower right back.
Treatment: Rest is so important at 29yrs old. I am not a teenager anymore! Warm-up Currently I do a bike warm-up and dynamic stretching. The range of motion is limited and intensity of movement is low. Doing the movements to keep the muscle loose and muscle memory in tacked is key to not loosing much in the way of sport performance. The key is to perform the range of motion without pain, that is why it’s limited. I finish with a static stretch. This must be performed slowly and careful. Too much of a quick stretch could further injure the iliopsoas muscle. ICE & STEM Ice will help cut down the inflammation and stem is just an awesome feeling that stimulates the muscle to prevent atrophy. All this combined should help improve the injured area. Patience is very much needed when recovering from an injury such as this. If an athlete jumps into his or her sport too quickly then greater injury could result, maybe even an absolute tear from the bone! That means surgery!
