Are You Developing Routine and Rituals in Your Training to Produce Peak Performance?

Training can be boring at times because of the repetition that is sometimes necessary dependent on sport, level of fitness and training objectives.  Overload and adaptation lends itself to routine.  However, there is an important place for routine and ritual in training.  It is astonishing to me the number of clients that get so concerned about doing the same exercise two days in a row.  This is based on a ridiculous belief that your body will adapt after one day of an exercise.  In addition there are so many combinations of reps and sets and rest and weight that you could do the same exercises but never really do the same exercise.   The exercise itself is not as important as the design that supports the exercise. 

 When training our athletes early on I want them to go through a mental checklist or routine prior to executing any particularly difficult exercise.  In competition, preparation instills confidence and confidence produces winning performance.  This applies not only to sport, but to anything in life.  They call it the practice of medicine for a reason.  It is something that is practiced ongoing.  The last thing NASA says before liftoff of a space shuttle is "All systems are go".    A lot can be learned by this systematic check list in both training and competition.  It also reduces the risk for injury and reinforces good movement patterns.  I want the client to focus on the excellence in the movement not the win of a heavy lift.  That will come with excellence in execution.

 With that in mind let's say an athlete is performing a heavy dead lift at Sirens and Titans www.sirensandtitansfitness.com .  I encourage the athlete develop and execute the same routine prior to every lift.   How they approach the bar, visualizing a successful lift, how they grab the bar.  It may be left hand first, then right hand, foot position, breathing, etc.  It doesn't really matter what is in the routine.  What is important is that a conditioning response system is developed that prepares the mind for success in training.  Do not forget that the idea of training is not just strength, power, endurance, etc.  It is also the time that you learn to take risks without anything at stake.  

 To create an environment that is comfortable so that when game time comes around you know you are prepared and you have already been at this point many times before.  You do not know how many times I have seen great athletes make major changes in things very close, or immediately before competition.  This is a result of lack of confidence and poor preparation.  Including rituals and routines prepare you mentally during training so that game time is relaxed and you play at your best.

 So next time you approach an exercise, develop your own personal routine.  Stick with it, and utilize it to get great gains in training and also on the field.Sometimes routine is not so boring.

 TRUTH IN FITNESS

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

CEO Sirens and Titans Fitness

Sirens and Titans Equipment Highlights:

Most people that are new to training with us are pretty unfamiliar with much of the equipment we utilize to train our athletes and clients.  The equipment we utilize supports the sophisticated design of our programs for all of our clients. 

There is a lot of equipment out there for sale and as a purchaser of the equipment you have to evaluate what is useful and what is not.   When you come into our center it does not resemble a typical gym.  Of course you will have dumbbells and weight plates, squat racks, and bars etc.  However you will see very little else that resembles what you see in most fitness centers.  This is a result of our focus on movement and function and athletic performance. 

I thought it may be interesting for the reader to discuss the benefits of the equipment.  

2 MVP Shuttle Jumper:  The MVP is used mostly in rehabilitation settings.  It is used in rehab because a client can be completely unweighted in a lower extremity exercise.  We like this equipment because we can execute a number of athletic movements under both lighter loads for power to heavy loads for strength.  We can perform unilateral (one leg) work and also perform jumps and different angled jumps and landings.  Because we are able to completely unweight the client we can utilize this equipment for any level of fitness.  http://www.shuttlesystems.com/product_listing/1/shuttle-mvp

18 Versaclimber:  This is one of my personal favorites.  I think it is the best piece of cardio equipment available today.   There is zero impact and is perfect for both intervals and long cardio.  It is metabolically taxing because you are carrying your entire body weight and incorporating both legs and arms in the movement.  It will tax you more than treadmills, elliptical, bikes etc.  It burns up to 23 calories per minute.

In our evaluations of new clients we have a one minute fitness test which gives us a snapshot into a client’s overall cardio baselines.  http://versaclimber5.reachlocal.net/

2 Slideboards by Ultraslide, http://www.ultraslide.com/   we utilize this piece of equipment for all types of exercises.  Great for core cardio, legs, shoulders. The slideboard is great for lateral movements and has great versatility.

1 Go2Altitude Simulated High Altitude http://www.go2altitude.com/  this is a wonderful piece of equipment for improving cardio capabilities.  It can simulate over 20,000 feet of altitude.  You intermittently put a mask on and off breathing hypoxic air.  Great for endurance athletes and before you go to altitude for climbers.  It is great when an injury takes place and the client wants to maintain cardio fitness while the injury heals. 

Westside Barbell Reverse Hyperextension: Louie Simmons and Westside Barbell is the mecca for the strongest lifters.  http://www.westside-barbell.com/index.php/professional-health-care-reverse-hyper .   This equipment is wonderful for improving and minimizing lower back risk and allowing heavy lifters to lift with less lower back issues.  We like to get clients to lift heavier loads and this equipment allows us to minimize the risk for injury.

Versa Pulley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozvT_WcdXrc .  This is one of the most versatile pieces of equipment for training athletes and movement for all our client’s.  It allows us to get eccentric loads in almost any plane or movement.  The machine is a wonderful addition for training all levels of fitness.  http://versaclimber.com/versapulley/

Glute Ham Machine http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/legs-exercises/how-master-glute-ham-raise

This is a great posterior chain exercise machine.   Posterior chain is lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.   We combine this with bands and weights to increase or decrease the load.  It is also great for clients that have knee issues and still want to train strength and power in the posterior chain. 

Deep Muscle Stimulator (DMS) - http://d-m-s.com/

The DMS provides deep muscle tissue with kinetic forms of deep, rapid, short-duration percussion vibration, which allows the client, patient or athlete experience a number of benefits: pain relief, increased circulation and lymphatic flow, the break-up of muscular scar tissue, soft tissue release and regeneration, and reduced lactic acid build-up. This, in turn, increases recovery, allowing you to maintain your active lifestyle.

The DMS can also be effective in managing acute and chronic pain from tendonitis, bursitis, edema, frozen joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, and even migraines.

This group of unique equipment, coupled with great program design and nutritional coaching brings rapid results for both athlete and non-athlete alike.

Truth in Fitness

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Are You Performing Your Intervals Correctly?

There is a ton of research in the last few years that has lead everyone to believe that intervals are the cure of everything.  They definitely should be a regular part of your training.  The hormonal response and gene expression that comes from intense efforts for short periods of time have proven that they have a roll for all clients.  The problem in fitness is that the industry takes a small amount of science and markets it to create programs that are just shorter, but not necessarily better. 

Many programs claim that only doing intervals is all you need for long duration cardio events.  This is not true although some of what you read would lead you to believe that intervals will solve all the problems of any fitness program. 

Intervals can definitely improve a cardio competitor’s maximum sustained power but the longer duration energy system still needs to be taxed on a regular basis and properly developed.  However, in tandem one could achieve improved results.  

The other problem with many interval training sessions is that they are no longer intervals but just harder than normal cardio for short periods.  This is because of inadequate output levels and poorly timed rest between intervals.  We are in a fitness world where harder is always considered better.  This is so wrong!   As you get fitter you need to increase intensity, but you have to build in greater rest in order to increase intensity.  If done correctly 6 to 10, 30 second intervals completed in a half hour can be brutal.  However, many would look at this as too short of a workout.  This is because they are not measuring the output to make sure there is an overload in the efforts.  5 min of total work time can be one of the hardest workouts of the week. 

Our FUBAR VersaClimber workouts have utilized the science behind intervals very effectively and the VersaClimber as a machine is perfect for these types of overloads. 

When starting interval training spend time on developing baselines so that you know what type of output you are capable of in a maximum effort.  These baselines are dynamic, so as you get fitter they change.  Pay attention to these changes and make adjustments.   If you want the most sophisticated measure you may find lactate testing and VO2 max testing helpful in determining these baselines.  I find that power is the easier and most effective way to measure output.  You spend time identifying power outputs at different levels of intensity.    You have to have a good understanding of your capabilities before you can determine the interval time and intensity.   

This leads me to one of the most important parts of utilizing intervals.  Measurement of output!  Typically this is where the wheels come off the workout.  You must measure the amount of output!   If you do not, then the intensity of an interval late in a workout will diminish in output to such a point that there is little value.  I call this no man’s land.  It is not hard enough for overload, but leads to overtraining and valueless fatigue.  Without measuring output you cannot determine if the time of the interval and rest period is adequate.   Utilize power as your primary measurement tool.  This eliminates most other issues that may be impacting performance.  In our Fubar classes we put output on the board and look at pacing to help the client determine appropriate outputs based on their fitness level. 

How do you measure output of an interval?  Time and distance is the poor athlete’s power meter.  For example you are doing sprint intervals for 20 seconds on the track.  You want to measure the distance you are covering during these intervals. This will tell you whether you are producing more power than the previous interval.  On the VersaClimber we look at time and distance.  If in a 30 sec interval the total feet increases more power needed to be produced if all else is equal.   On a slide board we use number of touches in the time of the interval and record it.  More touches mean more power produced and now you have a way to measure improvement.  It also allows us as coaches to determine if the interval should be shorter/longer, or should there be more rest between the intervals and also how many total intervals to perform.

The quality of the interval is of great importance. Poor output in your interval sessions will just make you fatigued with little performance value.  This can lead to the start of overtraining.  This is typically the problem with poorly coached group cardio workouts.   Intervals are also an excellent window into your fitness.  If you have in the past been performing much greater power outputs than the interval currently being performed then maybe you have not had enough rest since your last workout.  If we observe this lack of output we would skip these intervals and pick them up again after the athlete has had adequate rest to perform at the desired output.  The interval is a great barometer of how rested you are and the speed of your regeneration and health.

If you are going to perform intervals in your training one of the first things you need to think about is determining your baselines and then coming up with a method for recording the output on an ongoing basis.  This will allow you to see what type of training outside of your intervals is adding or subtracting from your performance in an interval and also what type of intervals are adding to your performance outside of the intervals.

TRUTH IN FITNESS:

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Do you have a Primary Objective for your Workouts? You should!

At Sirens and Titan www.sirensandtitansfitness.com we not only look at the long term strategy of the training based on a well-developed evaluation of the athlete, we also spend a lot of time on the tactics of each training session.  The long term or grand strategy evaluates the long term objective of the athlete for the off season training and beyond.  If someone is not an athlete we like to create seasons for them.  This allows them to “peak” at different points in the year and give them psychological breaks from training year round. 

Each individual training session is another rung in the fitness ladder.  In order to make the next step up in fitness each of these sessions must be developed in a thoughtful manner.  At Sirens and Titans we have primary objectives for each training session.  The Primary Objective may be lower body strength, power, stability etc.  The Primary Objective may be active recovery.  The point is that if you do not have a primary objective you may want to look at incorporating this concept into your workout.  The Primary Objective of a workout allows our training staff to focus on one area of training that is the most important part of the grand strategy for that day. This will improve performance and move the athlete forward at the most rapid rate possible.   The Primary Objective must be dynamic.  In other words if the Primary Objective was to obtain an overload in lower body power utilizing plyometric exercises and the athlete was not able to perform at a level that produced the overloads necessary we would change the session and revisit the primary objective after the athlete has had enough recovery time to perform at the appropriate level to attain the output necessary to meet our objective.  It also gives you a goal for the specific workout.   There are often workouts where you just are not on your game.  Having an objective will allow you to focus and eliminate the secondary objectives and cut the workout short while still making progress. 

Time is the real enemy of an athlete and non athlete who wants to improve the performance of their body.  Establishing Primary Objectives for each workout insures that workouts are not wasted or contributing to overtraining. 

Truth in Fitness

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Are you performing high force activity on legs prior to training for lower body power? If not you should be!

Yesterday I had a conversation with a talented basketball player about the Whys of fitness.    My last blog entry discussed this concept and I gave him the example of how we will train his legs with high force production exercises prior to leg power workouts and he asked “Why?” 

I told him that it is based on the principle of Post Activation Potentiation Principle or PAP.  As athletes become fitter and fitter it becomes harder to get overloads when training.  PAP helps to increase the ability of an athlete to produce greater amounts of power in exercises subsequently to a high force activity. 

Most of the research has revolved around jumping.  The act of jumping is a good measurement of power production in an athlete’s lower body.   The research looked at performing hack squats at 90% of the athlete’s one repetition prior to jumping.  Subsequent ability to jump was increased when the intervention was utilized. This also has validity in a number of other power exercises.   The optimum time between the heavy lift and the power exercise seemed to be around 12 minutes.    Andy V. Khamoui, MS, CSCS, Edward Jo, MS, CSCS,and Lee E. Brown, EdD, CSCS,*D, FNSCA )  At Sirens and Titans Fitness we utilize this science in training the body for many different types of power production training.

Keep this idea in mind the next time you perform your plyometric workouts both for upper body and lower body exercises.   The practical application of the science allows a strength coach to experiment with different types of loads and rest dependent on the athlete and the part of the body you are training.  This can also be reversed to improve maximum strength exercise performance.  The order is reversed.  The power is done on the front end to elicit a bigger lifts in the subsequent lower body lift on the strength side.   

Truth in Fitness

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Why would you execute a deadlift over a squat if you take out the differences in the biomechanics?

I have recently been interviewing for new coaches to add to our staff and through the interview process I get a good understanding of the state of the fitness industry. This industry has a low barrier to entry and often times the learning stops after someone is certified. Very few trainers in this business really understand why they do something. Typically the answer is someone told them to do it that way. The human body is amazing in how it adapts to new stresses, so often any change can elicit a change in someone’s body if the change is big enough and consistent. However, understanding why the change takes place and how to manipulate the change is often lacking. If you start asking why 3 sets of 10, or why not 5 sets of 5 or 2 sets of 20 things start to breakdown. When training world class athletes (or exercise junkies) it takes a much greater understanding of the science at play or as I like to call the WHYS OF FITNESS in order to get the desired result! So that brings me back to the title of this entry.

Why would you do a deadlift over a squat if you take out the difference is the biomechanics?

All of our new coaches’ intern with us for a period of time until they are up to speed on our methods and have an understanding of the high level of training we want to deliver to our clients. We discuss with our coaches what makes a great coach vs. a mediocre coach. We conduct in house continuing education where we discuss the “whys” of strength and conditioning.

Deadlift vs Squat.

If you take out the bio-mechanics of the movement what are the primary differences? There is a thing called the stretch shortening cycle. What occurs is there is an active lengthening or stretch of the opposing muscle group that is immediately followed by concentric or shortening of the muscle to create more force. In a squat this Stretch Shortening cycle is occurring when you un-rack the bar and descend into the lift. All of the muscles are firing in order to hold the bar up and not collapse to the floor. As you descend there is an eccentric (negative) lift taking place where muscles are actively lengthening to hold the weight up as you descend. This energy is stored and released when you start to rise into the lift. In the Deadlift you start from a dead stop from the floor. Hence the name deadlift. They do not call it a dead squat. When your body starts a movement with no muscle tension their needs to be a high rate of force development in order to begin the movement upward because there is not eccentric load into a descent like the squat. This type of contraction is an important component in sport and should be trained. However, if you do not unweight the weight to the floor for each rep the Stretch Shortening Cycle kicks in for the deadlift as well and then will act more like a squat. How can you make a squat have a high rate of high speed muscle contraction like a deadlift and eliminate the stretch shortening cycle? Execute a box squat. This is why powerlifters like box squats. If you want to increase force production, lifts from a dead stop are great additions to bump your strength. You do your normal squat, but at the low end of the lift you sit on a box or bench so that you are unweighted and then proceed to rise from the seated position. This requires a huge amount of muscle contraction to execute the lift. (Note: be really careful of lower back integrity in a box squat and you will need a lighter weight than your normal squats). If you get creative you can incorporate this idea into a large number of other lifts.

The answer to these questions and understanding the science behind the answers is typically where the wheels come off in training today. If you are looking for the best use of your training time you better start asking why you are performing a particular exercise. Ask a trainer and you will be surprised at the answers or lack of answers. In many cases it is similar to when you were a child and your mom or dad did not have an answer so they said “because”. Intensity of a workout is oftentimes the smoke and mirrors and the “because “of poor training. Many trainers make a workout so hard that you will crawl out of the session and the perceived value will be greater so you will not ask why.

Developing higher levels of human performance is a dynamic process. There are so many variables that affect the progress of an individual that if a coach cannot answer the why, progress will slow dramatically.

Truth in Fitness,

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Are you Fit enough to get really fit?

At Sirens and Titans Fitness (www.sirensandtitansfitness.com) I always tell our clients that I have to get them fit enough to get really fit.  The majority of people’s fitness stops at this level because they just exercise and never develop a training strategy.  They finally start to see improvement and ease up oftentimes giving up all the hard work.  If you can get over the hump and move to the next level then maintenance of this level is actually easier than getting to the level.  This is because there is now a base of fitness and as long as you at minimum maintain the base you can slow the regression.  Also the workouts become more enjoyable and actually take less time because you are able to elevate the intensity.  You become one of those people who are envied by many because you can work out so little and with proper nutrition maintain a fit and healthy physique. 

I was recently working with two women who are fit enough to get really fit and their training is reflecting this fact. As a strength and conditioning coach it was enjoyable to train them because we can create workouts and long term strategies that allow them to make great strides in improving their fitness.   In addition they can execute an hour workout that would bury the average person and then head off to the rest of their day feeling great about what they just accomplished.  So how do I measure this level of fit enough to be fit fitness?

In all honesty fitness takes some work and a measured amount of suffering.   Those of you who are training at a level that never gives you some higher level of stress on the body will walk into the no man’s land of fitness year after year.  The main culprit is the marketing of fitness today and a number of myths that harder is better and sweating more is the path to great fitness.  Most individuals want a magic coach that will tell them that they do not have to work hard in order to accomplish their goal.  This person can magically transform their client’s body into the body they want without any real work.  It is a bunch of nonsense.  What a great coach can do is regulate the progression of the training to ease some of the pain and lower the risk for big injuries and also nagging overuse injury in order to elevate to a base level of fitness to build from. 

The evolution that I have seen with our athletes and our non-athletes is that first we must obtain a general level of fitness.  That means that the body has the ability to stabilize and mobilize.  This takes a minimum level of strength, balance, flexibility, power, and cardiovascular fitness in order to perform certain minimal exercises and reduce the risk of injury.    We define minimum as the ability to control the body with body weight only.    We utilize a dynamic warm up (Peak Performance Online has a great explanation of a dynamic warm up, http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/warming-up-the-dynamic-alternative-to-static-stretching-1051 ) S&T Fitness dynamic warm up would be considered by some as a workout within a work out to prepare the body for more intense forms of movements.  After we have established that body control is sound then we start to focus on the ability to produce more intensity and volume in the movements.  Intensity can be defined as movements that are more complex or at higher speeds or under greater loads.  These speeds require a minimum level of strength and power production as well as the ability to stabilize the body so that the athlete is not injured.   We want the ability to stabilize effectively.  Bracing the core, adequate balance, strength, and power. 

There are very few movements of the body that do not employ the core in stabilizing the body.  However, the type of complex multi-joint exercises we utilize are regularly taxing the core and forcing a client’s body to stabilize effectively or the exercise is too advanced.   Imagine a 100 meter sprint on your bicycle and you have to sprint without your hands on the handle bars.  You would be hard pressed to beat your opponent without gripping the bars.  Once you grab the bars you have a kinetic chain that starts from your hands and travels all the way to your feet and back.   If your wrist was injured the kinetic chain would be compromised and your performance would be affected.   This is a good example of core strength.  It does not just come from your torso.  It is the coordination of multiple muscles that all tie to the center of mass in a movement.  The contact points are sometimes different and in some cases we see examples of body control by elite athletes in midair that are absolutely incredible and leave us jaw dropped with the body control displayed.

Volume is the amount of a particular exercise that is performed.   It can be measured in repetitions, time, foot pounds of power, wattage, miles, feet etc.  I like to define it as total time in the zone.   The zone to me is the training goal of a particular exercise and how much time you spend producing an effort in that particular goal.  For example you are doing short intervals on a bicycle of 1 min at a power output of 350 watts.  The volume would be the total time spent at 350 watts.  If you did 10 of these intervals then the time in the zone or total volume would be 10 min at wattage of 350.   So volume must be measured and tied to the intensity in order to have any relevance in your training.  It is for this reason that recording workouts is so important. 

I have talked about the no man’s/woman’s land of training where many spend hours and hours of training time.  This is a training level that is too hard for recovery and not hard enough for an overload.   Without recording volume and intensity most fall into this type of training.  Most group workout have little measurement of performance, or are always super intense across the board, not allow for overloads in any particular movement. 

When we train a professional athlete they typically have an adequate general level of fitness that is very high.  However, even the best athletes of the world have dimensions of their fitness that need to be addressed to lower the risk of injury in the future. 

FIT ENOUGH!

Once you have obtained this general level of fitness the workouts change and the focus begins to narrow.   Both intensity and volume can now be increased and major changes in fitness can be obtained.  We incorporate exercise that will focus on energy systems necessary for a particular sport.  We begin to stair step up to higher and higher levels of fitness.  Periodization and long term strategy become very important as well as individual workout tactics to produce greater and greater overloads as the client becomes fitter.  Just going harder does not always result in greater levels of fitness.  Sometimes complimentary exercises must be the focus to aid in the performance of the core movement patterns. 

All of these are wrapped into a dynamic training package that allows a client to become really fit and not just what I call average man fit.   When you get to this level of fitness you will know it.  People will call you a fitness nut and you will start looking at yourself as an athlete, not just someone who works out.  You will then be training and not just exercising. 

Truth in Fitness

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Functional Fitness, Mobility, Stability, Strength, Power, Power Endurance…

My definition of functional fitness for an athlete is really no different than the definition for the layman.  The difference lies in the fact that the layman’s sport is everyday physical challenges that present themselves and the athlete’s ability to function is tied to an athletic challenge. 

For an athlete the idea of being functionally sound is of great importance.  At Sirens and Titans Fitness www.sirensandtitansfitness.com we spend a lot of time and effort into making sure that our athletes and clients are functionally sound before we begin higher levels of volume and intensity in training.  Unfortunately a Thoracic Spine mobility exercise does not make for an exciting Instagram moment.

Functional capabilities in any client are demonstrated in the ability to move the body through space with a strong base of overall body control.  This control comes from overall body mobility, stability, flexibility, strength, coordination, and endurance.  This control of the body allows this movement to take place with a minimal amount of stress to the body.  In other words, if an athlete cannot adequately perform certain multi joint combination movements then we have to determine where the gaps are in their fitness and take the proper steps to improve those weaknesses.  Gray Cook and Lee Burton developed the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) as a tool to gather objective data on an individual’s ability to perform movement patterns and identify areas of weakness and prevent injury.  This is a good tool, however we believe it has to be coupled with a good eye for movement patterns and identifying gaps that could lead to future injury. 

At Sirens and Titans Fitness we utilize a number of tools in assessing fitness to help identify potential problems.  Our dynamic warm up will often times expose issues in a client’s movement. Looking for muscle imbalances in different movements can tell us much.    The functional movement screen (FMS) also helps us establish a starting point for developing the overall strategy of training an athlete or non athlete.  The data generated from this screen coupled with additional fitness evaluation gives us a good window into the fitness of an individual prior to the start of training.  This is VERY important information.  Any individual starting a fitness training program should spend time gathering this data. 

The screening we do helps to reduce injuries, identify muscle imbalances, provides benchmarks for evaluating training, and areas where a particular sport may be leading to chronic injuries or movement impairments. 

In the last entry I spoke about periodization and how you need to develop a long term strategy to insure success.   The start of all of our periodization is functional movement and fitness capabilities.   Depending on the individual’s ability to perform functionally will determine the amount of time in the periodization devoted to correcting imbalances that are discovered in these screens.  Even if an athlete is determined to be functionally sound all of our training is driven by a foundation of human movement and the ability of the individual to perform movement at higher and higher levels of output for the given sport. 

Truth in Fitness

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Are you just exercising and wondering why you are not making gains? Periodization: What is it and why you should know!

Periodization is a concept that can be viewed in a very simple fashion or at very complex level.  In theory it is the management of work, stress, volume, intensity versus rest in a systematic fashion.    The objective is to create a strategy for the training that produces the maximum amount of improvement allowing athletes and non athletes to reap the greatest benefit from training.  It also integrates training into the competitive calendar of athlete during the competitive season.  

As mentioned before one of the most important parts of a successful training program is the strategy developed around the training to reach a particular goal.  Most fitness programs today are all heavy on tactics and low on strategy.  The tactics do not take much thinking.  Just push someone hard and people believe it is a better workout.  Strategy would evaluate the athlete and identify areas that need to be addressed like mobility, stability etc. to insure that tactics can be properly executed.    The tactics are the day to day training modalities that support this strategy.  If the strategy is weak then the tactics do not have as much of the intended effect and the athlete’s progression is slowed or reversed. 

Therefore, periodization should be a large part of the strategy for an athlete.   From my experience you see endurance athletes or cyclic sports paying more attention to periodization.  I think that is because the volume of training time is typically greater.  Also with cyclic sports the training and the sport are often times the same.  Think of cycling.  In other sports or non cyclic sports the strength and conditioning is usually much different than the sport itself.  Think tennis.  However, non cyclic sports would be well served to look closer at periodization to maximize training results. At Sirens and Titans Fitness www.sirensandtitansfitness.com we utilize periodization principles in the training of our athletes in both cyclic and non cyclic sports as well as with personal training clients. 

So in principal periodization is a well-planned, systematic, methodical training plan that maximizes the concept of overload and adaptation.  This periodization should address the neuromuscular requirements of a sport, the metabolic requirements, and the cardio respiratory requirements. 

I have found the most effective method to creating an effective periodization is to work backwards.  The training should be based on an evaluation of the current fitness level of the athlete and how these relate to the goal of training.  The eastern bloc countries during the 1960s and 70s were structuring 10 year periodization.  I think the periodization should be long.  Today’s fast food mentality makes this difficult for many and increases the risk for overloads that are too great and subsequently injure or over train the athlete.  It is important that the long term perspective is evaluated even though many would state that 10 years from now is not that important today.  That is a naïve perspective that will hurt the progression of the athlete in the long run.   By working backward and understanding the starting point, coupled withlong, medium and short term goalsa periodization can be developed.

Overloads and regeneration must be monitored and managed through the periodization.  This progression and regeneration both in the short run and long run must be monitored and measured.  This also allows the strength coach to better understand total stress on the body, plus how athletes and individuals adapt and respond to training stress.  Training stress is cumulative and must be measured both on a macro basis and a micro basis. 

The periodization is usually broken into micro cycles and macro cycles.  The coach must understand the energy systems utilized by the athlete for a particular sport and the time it takes for the athlete to recover.  Without this understanding training becomes a patchwork of stresses and recovery that does not maximize training time.    The goal should be both physical and psychological.  The psychological aspect is of even greater importance from  an athlete’s perspective. 

I will be addressing the different approaches to periodization in future posts.  The two most common approaches to periodization are linear       ( small incremental progressions in volume and intensity) or undulating ( regular changes in both volume and intensity). 

Truth in Fitness,

Jacques

THINKING ABOUT RECOVERY:

If you have not spent much time thinking about recovery you need to start thinking about how this impacts your performance and training gains. Whether you are an athlete or not this is of great importance if you value your time. I discussed earlier the idea of overload and adaptation and the need to obtain greater and greater overloads with appropriate rest to illicit a positive training response. This is the idea of supercompensation. If the body has adequate time for recovery from overloads it will adapt and become stronger. (Bompa, T. Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics (2001))

Much of the adaptation takes place when you are not exercising and recovering from the stress that exercise puts on the body. This stress is not just physical, but psychological. Many athletes today have very busy lives outside of their sport and do not take into account the toll that mental stress has on the performance and recovery of the body. Make sure you keep this in mind when looking at your own recovery strategy. There are a number of areas of recovery that must be thought about. When people think of recovery the first thing that usually comes to mind is the time between training sessions. Next people think about the rest between particular sets of exercises. For example someone does 10 squats and then rests before performing more repetitions of the same exercise. The area that many people spend no time thinking about is the time between repetitions within a set. At Sirens and Titans we have spent a lot of time focusing on this recovery period to maximize our training overloads. This is what much of the book I am writing on Maximum Overload is all about.

All of these are areas of recovery need to be addressed to allow the maximum overloads and the quickest adaptations from the overloads. The area that must also be considered is the competition stress and recovery. In many cases the physical stress may not exceed what is experienced in training, but the mental stress of game time environments must be taken into account when recovery time is being considered. The objective behind the tactics and strategy of recovery are to allow the individual to adapt and improve from training and competition.

Below is a table that outlines some of the different methods of recovery between workouts and what are some of the pros and cons. At Sirens and Titans www.sirensandtitansfitness.com we have had great success with active recovery for our athletes. Active recovery also helps the athlete relaxing from mental stress as well as physical. The idea of just going easy is great for an athlete when training and competition become intense. It is a great relief when a coach tells an athlete to go easy.

Recovery pros and cons

Strategy , Pros,  Cons

• Passive rest, Requires minimal effort, Not effective for quick Recovery

• Compression garments; Requires minimal effort, good for travel; Expensive, requires correct fitting, inconclusive data

• Contrast water therapy; Works well, quick ; Requires facilities, difficult for large squads

• Active recovery; Free, easy to do, effective; Bad weather and team talks can distract or delay

• Cold water immersion; Passive, effective; Can shock the player and actually be stressful, requires facilities

*Table from Peak Performance Newsletter, June 2010

The strategy of rest between sets and rest between reps is something that needs to be addressed. This is a subject that I will have to address at length in another entry because it is an important component in getting the greatest value from every workout. Utilizing the appropriate time between these efforts allows the athlete to maximize the training overload within individual workouts.

I will go into more detail on this subject in a future post, but if you are reaching plateaus in your training start adjusting and experimenting with the rest between exercises and repetitions. Small changes here can result in big gains in your performance. I have found that most of the time there is inadequate rest in these areas, especially as athletes become fit.

TRUTH IN FITNESS

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Genetics and Sports

I think the most overused and one of the most dangerous terms in athletic vernacular is “gifted”.   Of course there are certain body types that are much more appropriate to certain sports and movements than others, however the term gifted is often overused and in many cases discourages individuals from the recognition that hard work and diligent training will overcome most gifts.  Genetic athletic gifts are like a glass.  It is true that some people are born with bigger glasses (DNA/Genome).  However, the size of the glass is only a measurement of potential; training is the act of filling a glass (Epigenetics /Phenome).  Athlete A is born with a glass that is 25% larger than athlete B.  The athlete with the smaller glass fills his to the top and the “gifted “athlete only fills his half way.  The non gifted athlete will prevail on the field.  My point is that we are all born with different DNA which we have no control over.  There is a whole body of research which has identified different athletic genes.   We all know individuals who are just natural at a given sport.   However it is the expression of the gene (epigenetic expression through training) that we have the ability to influence through smart training.  This is one area that we have a great ability to influence. 

The best way to understand this is by thinking about identical twins.  Identical twins have the exact same DNA or genome.  In many cases it is almost impossible to tell them apart.  However, if one of the twins pursued long distance running and the other twin was a power lifter the differences in their physiques would be very pronounced.  Why is this difference so pronounced if their genetics are identical?  The expression of the genes is seen in the phenome of the twins.    If both twins have identical genomes what causes the differences in the body types of the marathoner vs. the power lifter?  The different forms of training have expressed the identical genes differently in the physiques of the twins.   It seems obvious from this example, but how do you influence your own genes?

The word epigenetic means over the gene.  In other words the expression of the gene over the underlying DNA that you are born with is the epigenetic expression of the gene.  The study of epigenetics is one of the leading areas of genetic research today.   What the research is finding is that different stresses on your body (training would be one stress) will mark your genes to behave in a particular way.   Much of the research has revolved around mapping the markers that result in negative expressions of the genes that subsequently express themselves through diseases of the body.  Researchers are trying to determine how to remark your genes to block particular diseases.   The same principle of gene expression is also evidenced on the training side.   In fact the scientific community is finding that a lot of the training adaptation of an athlete is more a result of the epigenetic marker than the training itself. 

Now I come back to the “non- gifted” athlete and how the concept of DNA and Epigenetics plays into training.  By the way, I do not think there are any non-gifted athletes.  These are just athletes who have not found a sport that supports their gifts.   Many youth athletes do not discover their gifts because they never “fail” at a sport. 

Genetics are important for certain types of sports.  Height can be very important in the game of basketball.    However, I believe that epigenetics are the bigger determinant of performance in sport today.  The science is finally catching up and showing that through training an athlete can change the expression of the gene to produce a result that supports performance in a particular sport.  This concept is far reaching to curing disease.  It will also have huge impact on an athlete’s ability to perform through a better understanding of what specific stresses result in a particular gene expression that improves sports performance.  In the past this gene expression has usually happened by default.

A great strength coach has a better understanding of what types of stresses result in different physiological results.  Measuring the athlete’s performance data and understanding what it means coupled with an understanding of the physiology will speed the increases in performance. 

So the moral to the story is that there is hope for individuals who do not believe they have the gifts to perform at the highest level of a particular sport.  Of course there are limitations, but it is amazing what can be done with the proper training strategy.   With proper motivation, desire, and the most effective training an individual can produce the most effective genetic expression to match a particular sport!

Is there a secret way to train to accomplish this gene expression?  What are the strategies and tactics necessary to mark your genes and develop the desired result? 

I will begin to answer in subsequent entries.  In the meantime train smart, have fun, and you will prevail. 

TRUTH IN FITNESS

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR SPORT OR FITNESS GOALS AND THE TRAINING REQUIRED TO GET YOU THERE?

    In the list of building the perfect athlete and attaining fitness goals I focus on strategy and tactics.  Strategy is the longer term road map or plan to get you from where you are now to where you would like to be as an athlete or individual.  This is the difference between training and exercise.  Exercise is random with little time spent on strategy.  Strategy and training includes the establishment of goals, the timing and measurement of the progress when and what type of exercise to perform, regeneration through nutrition and rest. 

What are your strengths and weakness as an athlete? 

Are there any external factors effecting your performance and how are they addressed. Strategy answers the why of a workout on any particular day.  It is the architectural training plan so that the outcome satisfies your goal as an athlete or individual. The tactics are many. 

What particular exercises? 

What is the volume and intensity of a particular movement methodology? 

Does the exercise enhance the ability to perform the particular movements required in the sport?

Does it support the goal for strength, power, and body weight?   

The answer to that question revolves around the idea of Specificity of Training.    At Sirens and Titans Fitness we believe that winning in sports is derived from the development of power (moving your body through space) in a fashion that suits a particular sport.  This is (power x an X Factor) The X factor is the amount of times or level of absolute power required to perform a task.  For example:   Swinging a baseball bat is a much different X factor than throwing a punch for a boxer.  The boxer has to produce a smaller amount of power numerous times in a fight than the hitter of a baseball.  The mechanical requirements and metabolic requirements are much different and the training must be adjusted to accommodate the different requirements of the different sports.

 This accommodation and differences in the training is defined as Specificity of Training.  This accommodation ties directly into the concept of correlation and training that I discussed in a previous post.  The focus of the training should be on exercises that modify the body’s complex neuromuscular systems to overcoming movements that apply directly to the particular sport. 

 This requires the analysis of a particular sports movement pattern.  Looking at baseball again, the training must evaluate the movement patterns of hitting, throwing, and running bases. 

What are the biomechanical adaptations necessary?

What type of movement pattern?

What is the type of muscle contractions necessary? 

What are the metabolic requirements ofbaseball? 

These requirements are just a small list with many more factors to be considered and addressed when training a baseball player. So you get the idea of specificity.  This is not to be confused with simulation.  Many strength and conditioning programs are developed to try to simulate the sport and just add a level of resistance to the movements.  This can be helpful in certain movements, however if done without foresight the training can actually confuse the neuromuscular patterns that have been developed and therefore result in a diminishment of sport performance especially of a very high level athlete.   Simulating the sport with resistance does not take into account all the physics of movement like center of gravity, inertia etc., so be thoughtful and understand the difference between simulation and specificity.

Think about the X factor of your sport and train in a way that addresses the specific needs and requirements of that particular sport.  Your tactics should be adjusted so that it addresses the specific requirements of the movements and metabolic requirements of your sport.

Train smart, have fun, and you will prevail.

TRUTH IN FITNESS!

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

Are you Training like a Lion? What is Overload/Adaptation?

 I am going to spend some time in the next few entries discussing some training principles that are necessary for anyone training today at any level of sport or fitness. I am going to start with the concept of overload /adaptation.

On the surface this principle is simple. An overload is a stress on the body over and above what is normal. If the body is stressed at this level on a regular basis it will adapt to that stress by altering the body to accommodate this new above normal stress level. Once the adaptation accommodates the new stress level there is a new normal level of performance. On the surface this seems like a very simple concept, however without the appropriate training infrastructure to support this concept there is great amount of time that is wasted. At Sirens and Titans we understand that the real product we provide to our clients is time. I know that sounds funny coming from strength and conditioning center. An athlete has a limited amount of training time in a career.

Let’s assume they start their sport at 12 years old and if they rise to the highest level of sport and become a professional they typically retire at 30-35 dependent on the sport. This is a best case basis. Most athletes have a much shorter career, but I just want to demonstrate the impact of poor training on an athletic career. Now let’s assume that an athlete has 12 weeks a year that is off season. This is the time where they can really focus on improving their fitness. By the way, this is usually much less than 12 weeks. That is 276 weeks over 17 years. This is the best case scenario excluding any downtime for any reason. Life has a tendency to get in the way and training time is regularly compromised. The purpose of strength and conditioning coach is to maximize the athletic performance during this time. If an athlete has subpar training for one of the 17 years there is a 4.34% loss of training time. In other words the athlete is 4.34% less fit in the 17th year of their career if all else is equal.

If you lose 2 off seasons the loss is 24 weeks and the loss goes up to over 8%. Of course this is a very general way of looking at the idea of time and is not exact but you get the idea. The impact in the first 8 years of an athlete’s career is even more damaging. In addition early in a career when an athlete is less mature and has just begun to realize their genetic potential the gains can be substantial and also contribute greatly to the mental game of the athlete. As fitness improves confidence grows. How does all of this relate to your overload/adaptation and training as an athlete? First it should be a wakeup call for the necessity of developing an overarching strategy for your training. In the 1960’s the eastern bloc countries would identify athletes with genetic potential and then create strategies that would cover 10 years in length. This was in the form of a structured periodization. I do not think it is necessary to look forward 10 years however the idea of understanding where you want to be and how you are going to get there is of great importance in being successful in sport today. Today most strength coaches are usually good at the tactics of training, but not so good at the strategy. In other words, if you go to the gym and workout with your trainer, you will have a good workout with all types of innovative functional training techniques but most of the time there is no strategy to answer the question as to why you did this workout.

Why are you doing heavy squats today?

Why are you doing deadlifts?

How many reps, rest, why?

How will today’s workout impact tomorrow and how did yesterday’s influence todays and next week?

How did this week’s workout impact 5 weeks from now?

Every workout is a link in chain of a champion. All of this brings me back to overload /adaptation. As stated earlier an overload must be over and above what is normal for the body to make an adaptation. In other words, if you always do deadlifts with 200 lbs. your body will never need to make the changes necessary to lift 400 lbs. This is where the wheels usually fall off in training at the elite level. The funny thing about training is that any change in the normal training routine will typically result in some type of adaptation. That means that any new training routine will show some progress. However, your body usually adapts quickly and then the changes stop once an adaptation is made. This is typically where time slips away in a career. Unless the training program has a structured strategy that is monitored and recorded precious time is lost. All of our coaches at Sirens and Titans are required to share with the client the daily workout strategy and also the longer term strategy which was developed when the client started training at our center. This allows the athlete to have a window into why we are training or resting in a particular fashion, and also forces us to constantly be articulating and reviewing our training strategies.

The strategy is dynamic and personalized and will change with increases in fitness. Weekly reviews of the strategy are made by the whole training staff, to insure relevancy and maximize progress. Some athletes recover at different rates of speed and this must be accounted for in the workouts. In fact as the athlete gets fitter the strategy has to be more precise and the tactics become much more important. Tactics are very important in getting overloads during a workout with an elite athlete. The work/rest ratio becomes very important in generating overloads in an athlete. I call it training like a lion. A lion hunts to survive. They rest all day long allowing their bodies to recover so that when they hunt they are at optimum speed and ability. If the lion was to halfheartedly chase down prey they would become tired and not catch their prey and eventually starve. The lion lays in wait and slowly stalks its prey, then with all of the energy available chases and pounces on the prey to insure the capture.

Athletes can learn something from this. If the athlete is regularly training at sub optimum overloads then no adaptation will take place. They will eventually fall into a no man’s land of training. This training is typified by workouts that are too hard for recovery but not hard enough for an overload. The work rest ratio must be vigilantly monitored to determine if the athlete is generating the optimum overloads. As an athlete gets fitter the rest needs to be greater and the intensity higher in order to obtain an overload. This is why most athletes stay at good and never become great. The overarching strategy and the monitoring of work rest is one of the most important aspects of quality training. This insures proper overloads and subsequent adaptations.

I will talk more about the tactics of training which are of great importance in obtaining overloads during a specific workout.

TRUTH IN FITNESS.

Jacques Devore, CSCS Sirens and Titans Fitness

Value your Time? Are you training all the time and seeing no improvement? You better have a Great strategy for your Fitness.

       In the past, I have  discussed overload and adaptation.  Overload/Adaptation is the idea that incremental overloads on a regular basis which allows the body to adapt to the increases in stress by initiating  physiological change in the body.  As these overloads become more frequent the body adapts and can  perform the specific task at greater and greater levels of output. 

When training a particular athlete or individual how is this idea of overload/adaptation implemented? 

      The training, both tactically and strategically, must be specific to the sport or the clients objective.  This statement is obvious but becomes much more complicated and tricky as the athlete/client becomes fitter.  Clients come to us all the time and say I train all the time and nothing changes. 

        A good example would be in training a 100 meter sprinter.  It makes sense anecdotally that having a really strong grip is not necessarily going to make you a great sprinter.  So spending large amounts of time on one’s grip would not be the best use of training time for a sprinter.  Now a wrestler would look at his grip as an important part of the sport and a weak grip would be something that would need to be addressed.  The correlation of grip to wrestling has a much higher relationship than the correlation of grip to sprinting. 

Why should you care about correlation in Strategy?

         The above example demonstrates the concept of correlation and how it relates to developing the strategy of training.   If one had the time and the inclination, correlation coefficients could be measured on different performance measures to rank the value of training exercises relative to a sport.  This is also important for the individual who just wants better health and body.  If your coach does not understand these relationships then the strategy is random and typically results in little change.   The correlation coefficient is a number between -1 and 1.  If there is no relationship between the predicted values and the actual values the correlation coefficient is 0 or lower (the predicted values are no better than random numbers this would be the example of grip strength to sprinting).  As the strength of the relationship between the predicted values and actual values increases so does the correlation coefficient.  A perfect fit gives a coefficient of 1.0.  Thus the higher the correlation coefficient of an exercise to the specific needs of the sport the greater the value of the exercise.   A negative correlation number would be actions or exercises that actually take away from the performance of a specific sport.  These correlations are really measured by the experience of the coach or through trial and error of an athlete.  

          Strength and conditioning coaches must think through this idea of correlation and determine what aspects of a training strategy have the most impact on the performance of the athlete in a sport.  If this is not being evaluated then precious training time is being wasted on areas that have little impact on the performance of the athlete.   At Sirens and Titans we look for “tipping point” fitness gains.  These tipping points are areas of fitness that with small gains can produce huge changes in the performance of the athlete during the sport.   In most cases the tipping points present themselves after evaluating an athlete for functional fitness and baselining performance.  Many tipping point fitness issues can be identified in this evaluation.  Another area that has this type of fitness leverage is found  in movements where power needs to be maintained for longer durations of time. This is the basis of the book I am currently working on for Rodale Press titled Maximum Overload for Cyclists.  There are a lot of athletes that have great vertical jumps; however they can only execute a handful of jumps at a high output level.  Training the athlete so they can maintain 90-100% of this output for a longer duration creates champions and changes the performance dramatically in competition.  

          In summary, think about the correlation of your training to your performance in sport or your personal fitness goals.   Constantly be evaluating where this concept can help your performance and speed your progress.  In addition, if you want faster results look for areas of weakness that would provide you with that “tipping point” performance progression.  These are both game changers. 

Truth in Fitness

Jacques DeVore, CSCS President Sirens and Titans Fitness Los Angeles.

Lift Heavy, Get Strong

Many athletes and people training confuse strength with power.   In fitness terms strength is your ability to generate a force.  For example, stand against a wall and push as hard as you can.  If there was a force plate measuring the amount of force being applied you could measure your strength.   Force combined with velocity translates into power.  If I take a bullet and try to push it into your leg it may hurt but it will most likely not penetrate your skin.  If I fire the bullet out of a gun and increase the velocity dramatically it becomes deadly.  Adding velocity to strength in a movement allows an athlete to perform at higher and higher levels.  This combined with balance, sport specific skills all come together to make a great athlete.  Of course there are other mental aspects of the game that come into play as well but one of the important ingredients is strength.

So what is the most effective way to increase strength?  HEAVY LIFTS, HEAVY LIFTS, HEAVY LIFTS.  It has become apparent to me that the emphasis on functional training has diminished the focus on the benefit of heavy lifts.   By the way, heavy closed chain exercises are very functional and incorporate multiple muscle groups in combination.  We do not typically perform open chain heavy lifts unless there is a particular requirement.  (NFL combine bench press test)  At Sirens & Titans, we look at the strength zone to be lifts of 8 repetitions or less.  When we feel comfortable that that athlete has excellent form, we like to go to 5 repetitions or less in a heavy lift.  Lifting heavy is important for almost any athlete.  Especially as athletes age and also for athletes that compete in power to weight sports.  It is also of great help to women, although the myth of getting big diminishes women lifting heavier.

Much of the culture of strength in the west is built on a foundation of body builders.   The goal of body building is to add size.  Most of the exercises for size are done at much higher repetitions in order to produce hypertrophy in the muscles.

With this in mind a typical exercise set up for strength would start with a light weight warm up of the exercise.  This is typically 10-12 repetitions.  This is the time to determine if all systems are good to go.  Are there any funny feelings or unusual stresses as a result of the exercise?  In many cases a second “warm up “set is called for and lowers the risk of injury.  If everything feels good we have the athlete jump to an 8 rep set.  The weight should be heavy enough that rep number 8 is difficult to complete.  We then go to a 5 rep set where the weight is increased and the 5th repetition is difficult to complete.   Difficult to complete means what it says.  It should be very hard to complete that last repetition.  When we are early in the maturity of a lifter we will usually stick with a 5 rep set and go no heavier until we feel comfortable with form and fatigue.  We also go back to this 5 rep strength set when we are doing higher volume strength work.  If the athlete has perfect form we will go to a 3 rep set and sometimes a 1-2 rep max lifts. 

These lifts are of great importance.  There is a great neuromuscular response to this type of lifting and strength gains come quickly.  The other nice addition is that these lifts do not take that much time, and can be completed in a relatively short amount of time.

So if you want to get strong, lift heavy with great form.  There is no substitute. 

Truth in Fitness.

Jacques DeVore, CSCS

President Sirens & Titans Fitness