BOSTON UNITE!

"You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. ... This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

Above is the passage by Patton Oswalt, a very funny comedian that has shown that he's not just good at words to make you laugh. It was originally posted on Facebook  but since has gone more viral than that, I figured I probably wasn't going to beat it in this post so I'd give the best foot forward here.

To state it, I'm OK (clearly) and was not bodily hurt nor was Catherine. Nobody directly in my life has been hurt in the events of yesterday. To those that have been impacted directly or even indirectly I send you my thoughts and prayers. I will come out and say I myself am rattled, but at the same time I am also inspired by those first responders yesterday. We've heard some great heroing tales and I know there will be many more, deservedly so. Those stories can inspire us to be stronger people and make us better.

I was not born here and only moved here last January, but I am a Bostonian in my heart. Growing up in Maine Boston wasn't all too far away and I still felt it to be a part of me, now I call this my home. Those of you that have had your faith in humanity put into question, please just look all over the media and social networking sites to see the support that Boston is getting. I saw the picture above and it was the first thing that brought a good smile to my face, besides when Catherine walked through the doors here at the club, her work place is above Copley Mall, LITERALLY RIGHT THERE. One of her coworkers wasn't more than throwing distance from one of the blasts and the kid was quite shaken. Made me super happy to see her walking through the doors and I was put a little at ease even before that when I heard she had bumped into one of my teammates on her way here and he took care of her while she walked her, thanks Ben!

Despite all of this senseless, mindless, pointless lunacy, I know it will bring us to be stronger and keep those we hold close, tight to us, in mind and body, and be sure to tell the ones we care about we love them. Stand together everyone, this shit can not stray us, it's tough to get past, but this is a damn tough town and it can be done. I am, hell we are, forever Boston and damn proud of it!

Take care today folks, be safe and if you are with someone you care about right now, tell them so.

Just STOP, Trust Me

Who wants some more snow? Yeah I didn't think there would be too many hands raised for that one. Even if you are someone that enjoys the mountains and spring skiing, let's keep it in the mountains shall we? It's April so time for some warmer weather so I can stop packing gloves and a winter hat in my bag when I get on the train for work.

I'm a little disappointed in Monday night's NCAA Basketball Championships results as well. Anyone that's read this blog for longer than 2 days should know I am a big Michigan fan. As big of a fan I am, my heart sank pretty deep Monday, but life goes on, and apparently so does half of Michigan's starting lineup to the NBA. The great games that were from that weekend did get marred by evidence of some pretty shit coaching at Rutgers. Those of you that have been under a rock, Rutgers basketball got waist deep in shit because of a coach that couldn't contain his tantrums or his language. All leading him to ball hurling and f-bomb dropping his way to a termination, and more dominoes fell. Sometimes coaches just try a little too hard to get through and well, it back fires clearly.

The same can happen when coaching clients and athletes with exercises. Trainers and coaches, especially relatively new ones, can care a bit too much and over coach someone on an exercise. I speak from experience because I am absolutely guilty of doing this. I've learned to just take a breath and concentrate on the main points and move from there. I can give them every little detail or focus on the big picture and get the shittner done.

When coaching someone on one of the core exercises, ie squats, deadlifts, puhsups and so on, don't be a technique freak. People in general can only handle so much information at one time, once they hit that point they are now tuning you out. Big problem lies therein obviously once a client has tuned you out you've lost them and they will take some winning back over, whether it's in an hour or a month you're gonna have to put some work in to get them back to listening to you. Avoid sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher and focus on the main points that you need accomplished, if you still aren't feeling too good about how it's going, take a step back. I know some of you are thinking it's only for their safety, well if they switch off their listening, and they really start to mess up, they can't hear you and will hurt themselves anyway...hopefully that just made sense.

Some people are different and can inhale every bit of information like Fat Bastard inhales chicken, and not have panic attack or not get lost which is great, go nuts. I lean towards the simpler side, and if I know they can handle more then I'll give it to them. One thing I've found helpful is to have a solid base of progressions and regressions, with this tool in the kit I don't stand there and brain fart my way through the session. I said fart hehehe, OK not the point, being able to have an effective backup plan if things start to go wrong when learning new stuff can be the difference between losing a session and keeping things on track. Every so often, just STOP, inhale, relax and focus on the big picture and get to the small details later on.

That's all I got today folks, any questions, comments or suggestions let me know. Have a good weekend all, go out there and get after it!

Double F-K

Writing this post today in hopes that I can inspire someone out there that is or even formally was in the situation I once was in. I got myself out of that hole when it eventually became a determent to my rugby performance and starting and progressing my career.

Double F-K or FFK is former fat kid, yeah no one likes to hear it but I was exactly that, the fat kid. Of course my family and friends always did their best to affirm the "you're not fat you're just a big guy" thought. All moms think their kid is beautiful, whether or not it's true. Cartman probably put it the best, but even still I knew better. The weight went up badly and down to points where it wasn't too bad. Eventually after taking a year off from rugby because of issues where my body, mostly my knees, was just going to give in on itself, I hit my low point. I was a very large guy trying to get into the fitness industry, but no one is going to take that sort of advice from a fat guy with no strength and the mobility of an M1 Abrams.

Along came UMaine's Strength and Conditioning department, probably not too highly heralded as an athletics school, except for hockey and an OK football team every so often. What they gave me was more than a start, they really have given me my career. Otherwise I was not convincing anyone of anything fitness wise. Coach Dan Nichol and the staff got me to make a commitment to myself and to the lifestyle. My weight dropped 50 lbs in a few months and I kept it off, on top of my mobility getting better, yes it was worse than before I entered into the mobility special program. Overall I'm damn glad that I got my act together because this process of getting to be a name in this industry would have more difficult 10 fold had I not.

Moral of this quick blurb today is that you do not have to be the fat kid if you don't want to be. I've been there and it sucks, I also know though that it won't happen over night. Those of you out there that think you are just going to buy a 6 pack of sessions from your trainer, skip a couple sessions, never come in outside of that 1 session a week and then never have to stick to it again, ummm rethink? Unless you are doing lypo (not wise unless you have actually reached that point) you won't see 50, 30 or even 20 lbs come off that fast, in most cases at least.

That's all today folks, more coming this week, go out there today and get after it!

Mobility Mondays

As my roommate put it, it's a national holiday for those that compete in athletics or do a heavy lift on the weekends. This to some is better known as a recovery day, certainly something I am in desperate need of today after about 60 minutes of rugby. Being out of training and matches for 2 week certainly takes an effect on you in a bad way. Suffice to say that my everything has hurt the last couple days. Done whining onto why I do recovery days and why they are important.

-You're body won't hate you: This is pretty much the top reason I do recovery days either in season or when I'm a midst a tough off-season regiment. Going through a recovery day will help get rid of the soreness that you feel all over.

-An off-day and still doing something: Recovery days give your muscles a chance to recover, because remember now kids your muscles don't actually grow and get bigger when you workout, they do it when you're recovering. You are in fact making little tiny micro tears, so it need s chance to recover. At the same time I'm not a giant fan of complete rest with exception of Sunday, if I can help it at least. Some days you just need it, but be honest with yourself.

-You don't want to be overtrained: This over laps a bit with the first 2 I just listed but I really wanted to hit on it. Simply put you're body can not handle being pushed 7 days a week 365 days a year or you will crash and burn and then get hurt. Even if you are Superman you are going to need some non resistance training days and some complete rest days.

Below is what I usually do for a recovery day or similar:

I usually spend plentiful time foam rolling, you should too, EVERYONE should. On days like this I spend about a minute per part per side. Even if it's not super sore give it that full minute and you may well find a tender spot you wouldn't have before.

A1) Bench T-Spine Extension: 3x8
A2) Side Lying Open Book: 3x8/
A3) Quadraped T-Spine Extension/Rotation: 3x6/
B1) Dowel OHS against wall: 2x8
B2) Knee Break Ankle Mob: 2x8/
B3) Couch Stretch: 2x30s/

As you can see really not too complicated, some upper and some lower, hope this helped someone out there today. Have a good day all and get after it today...even if it's just mobility.

Like A Glove!!

Quick one today guys, hit a new deadlift PR. Nowhere near anything as impressive as Cressy or Gentilcore or even my roommate Luis who has hit 5 hundo, but still felt good. Hit it last Friday, but because I didn't have the evidence I was challenged to do it again this week. Challenge accepted and risen to. Probably could have gone higher but time just wasn't on my side. Enjoy guys, that's 445 going up, like a glove.

Have a good day guys, go and get after it!

You Might Be Down But You Are Not Out

Anybody that's been a training professional for longer than a couple weeks has experienced a client going down because of an injury for one reason or another. The best trainers experience a client getting hurt some how and some way even when they are coached to perfection clients get hurt, mostly on their own time. It's not because they suck or their dumb, most of the time it just happens. I've injured myself training and I know what the heck I'm doing, so odds on someone that has a lesser clue is certainly going to have some sort of injury, hopefully minor.

Dealing with athletic injuries and dealing with general population injuries can be quite different for the most part, but there's one thing in common with most injuries on either side, you can train through them. Per example I got a pretty nasty gash on myself last week that left me out of competition for the better part of 10 days (picture below). Granted this is not a limb injury which can make working out 10 times harder, but at the same time I don't stop training, pulling 445 was a fun way to keep that going.

The basic advice I have for those that are hurt out there is simple, if it's a lower body injury, train the upper body as much as you can and do everything you can to avoid the problems that usually stem from being out with a lower body injury. Example is glute activation, there are a kajillion glute activation exercises and I'm sure that you, or your coach/trainer can figure out one that works for you, also any sort of core and mobility exercise you can do safely without pain, DO IT! These things won't keep you completely from having issues once your injury has healed, but they will cut down on the time it takes to get you back into the fold.

Upper body injuries much of the same applies, probably want to work on keeping the mobility in the shoulders and T-Spine as much as you can. Again like the glute activation there are plenty of drills for this that you can do safely, just ask. There will be cross over from injury training for upper and lower body, simply put, if it doesn't hurt and you can do it safely, it'll probably be OK and will be better than nothing.

Have a good day everyone and get after it...even if you are hurt!

Jumping, There's a Right Way and Wrong Way

This past Sunday, with the weather once again messing up our schedule, I had rugby practice on Sunday in beautiful South Boston. I say beautiful with pretty much as sarcasm as I possibly can lay on. We started with a jog out to Castle Island and back, mapped it out on Google from the stadium in Moakley park, not a short one at least not for me, about 5-6 miles. We then proceeded to practice lineouts since the surface was covered in snow, save what we shoveled off to do said lineouts, we couldn't get much else done in the way of team activities. Give the video a quick look over so you can see physically what it is I'm talking about, for those that don't know already.

See the guys that go flying in the air? Well that would be one of my big roles in this set piece from the game. The name of such a position is practical enough, Jumper, but there's a right way and a wrong way. Learning how to be a jumper can absolutely translate to the fitness field.

1. Arms up and jump as high as you can; This is actually something that is encouraged for me with jumps with my clients/athletes, the hands up allow for a solid counter movement to jump with, the jump as high as you can cue should be presumed. You have to say it for the rugby purpose because some guys simply just don't when they are learning and assume the lifters on either side are going to get it done on their own.

2. Go up tight not "fat"; Go up with control and not dead weight, going up without control of yourself and letting yourself go wherever, well if you're in a lineout and if it's not in the middle of a match, most likely results in the lifters will accidentally on purpose drop your ass to teach you. As you fall through the air after this thinking "oh shit" you'll probably realize what you did wrong. I may or may not have been guilty of this in my college playing days (yes I can do both, it's called versatility). You learn quick enough, hopefully, that you don't get dropped on your head over and over. Same applies to doing broad jumps, if you just jump with no control eventually you're just going to end up on your face from catching your shoe or something to the like of.

3. Control yourself in the air; Kind of goes along the same thing, for lineouts you need to keep your spacial awareness at high alert. Turning towards the opponent once you've caught the ball is gonna be bad news so just be aware of where your body is and where it's going. Same applies to our jumps in the weight room, know where your body is in space and where it's going to be in the next moment.

4. Land with ease; Land softly, it doesn't take too long to figure out when you don't catch yourself when you land, it hurts. Landing without catching yourself is tough on your body. I landed to the best of my ability every time I jumped Sunday and my body still hated me yesterday and I had something fairly soft(ish) to land on, concrete and hardwood floors aren't nearly as forgiving. You'll be able to tell when you don't catch yourself when it reverberates (big word I know) up your whole body through every bone.

For more on this subject my friend Mike did a great post on jumping and box jumps. There's a pretty good epic fail box jump for those that need a chuckle.

Hope everyone learned something today, go out there and get after it!