Movement First

Whatever you can do, they can do better...

2011-06-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

We are now into the 3rd week of our Summer Speed, Strength and Power (SSP) Camps and a few things are very apparent.

1. The younger kids are, the quicker they seem to learn. In just two weeks of training, the camp we have been running for NOR has seen some amazing improvements! From running technique to deceleration to landing technique, these kids have improved by amounts I was not expecting! And this keeps them safer during play, as well as improves their running speed, lateral movement and overall fun!

2. The girls are just crushing the boys in each of our 3 camps. The average ratio of boys:girls in our camps are 2:1. Our NOR camp has just 1 girl out of 14 kids in the camp. Yet the girls CONSISTENTLY out-perform the boys in acceleration, agility, foot-speed and quickness. The only thing the boys have over the girls is strength. And even then if we measure strength relative to body weight, the girls are almost even with the boys.

3. We need to do more of these. Almost daily I hear from the parents how much their kids enjoy the program and they ask if we do this during the school year. We absolutely do these during the school year. But it seems that practice and games for 3 different baseball leagues that Junior is signed up for takes precedence over movement skill training. Remember, movement skills are the foundation for sports skills. If an athlete has poor movement skills, then sport skills are going to be more difficult to teach. If a child can control their body with precision, then teaching sport skills becomes infinitely easier. Heck, it'll make the most basic instruction have a major impact and sport coaches will think they are all of a sudden Vince Lombardi.

So we will be starting a second Summer SSP camp for the junior group. The new camp will start on July 12 and run through August 4th. Meeting times are Tues/Thurs from 1-2:30. Ages for this camp are from 8-12. We would love to have more baseball and soccer players showing up. Although this camp is open to athletes of all sports.

If you have any questions about the Speed, Strength and Power Camp or just general questions about speed, agility and quickness, feel free to send us an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com! We hope to see you on July 12th!

Should a 7 year-old be in a strength training program?

2011-05-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

If you asked 50 people this question, I'd be willing to bet dollars-to-donuts you'd get 45 people to say "NO WAY!"

Is strength training bad for kids?

But far too often we get our terminology confused. "Strength Training" is not synonymous with "weight lifting." Another term that is grossly misunderstood is "resistance training." Think about these words and what they mean when we break them down.

Strength training - training the neuromuscular system in order to improve maximum force output or strength

Weight lifting - the act of lifting an external weight in an effort to overload the muscular system, and subsequently causing an adaptive response

Resistance Training - performing a series of movements using an implement to improve muscular force output

Don't be swayed by what most people think. Strength training can use any device, including the person's own body. If I asked a 7-year old to do a pushup is this wrong? If I asked him to do 2 sets of pushups doing as many as he can, would this be wrong?

Somewhere a sister is looking for her pants.

But this is what strength training for a 7-year old is! Teaching them how their body moves, how to control it and how to improve it. Otherwise we end up with kids that are either overweight or kids so weak they can't do a pullup so they start wearing their sister's pants.

So yes, 7-year old children should be in a structured training program if they are not playing sports. You are correct in saying that children of that age should not be lifting for maximum strength.

But training balance, coordination, rhythm and general body awareness and control is not something that needs to wait until he's "ready."

A good place to start training is our Junior Speed, Strength and Power (SSP) Camp. For ages 8-12, this is a 4-week summer training program that meets Tues/Thurs from 1-2:30pm. If you have any questions, feel free to send an email to aaron@pairmarotta.com and we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have!

The best way to train speed...

2011-05-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

Many sports performance coaches, trainers and facilities say they are "research based." But often times their research consists of nothing more than a quick perusing of YouTube to see what the latest gadget is.

But we at Pair & Marotta do read A LOT of research. We understand how specific exercises train the muscular system and what techniques work the best. So today we'll cover a very HOT topic: Methods for Speed Training.

Everybody loves speed. They love to watch players literally move like electricity and yet do it so smoothly. But how do we train it? Should we use parachutes? Bands? Sleds? Hills?

In the most recent edition of the "Strength & Conditioning Journal" Matthew Behrens, MS and Shawn Simonson, EdD reviewed the options for improving sprint speed. Here is my brief summary.

The first point is that there are two parts to improving speed: Stride frequency and stride length. The authors state that assisted sprinting is used to improve stride rate. Stride rate is otherwise known as the speed that the legs are moving. The legs can move fast, but if they aren't taking long enough steps, then they're literally just "spinning their wheels."

Over speed training can be accomplished using various methods. The first is to be towed. To do this you'll need 2 people or a fixed anchor point. Generally an elastic band is hooked to 2 athletes and the person in the back runs at supra-maximal speeds. I generally describe it to athletes as "running faster than you ever have before." Obviously without the demand on the legs to push harder, they just have to keep up with the body being towed.

The second method the researchers discuss is high-speed treadmill sprinting. This has been demonstrated to be effective, but is usually cost-prohibited in addition to restricting training to 1 person at a time.

Downhill training is also effective but only at specific angles. The problem with downhill training is that the slope should be a maximum of 2-3 degrees. Usually finding a slope long enough at this angle becomes a problem.

Behrens and Simonson recommend that the best recommendation is assisted towing. This still allows the athlete an acceleration phase but with a much faster top end. One area of concern with over-speed assisted training is the risk of hamstring strains due to a braking effect. If the leg extends too far out during the pull-through of the running cycle, the hamstring attempts to slow the body down and often this is where we see a multitude of hamstring injuries.

Assisted sprinting is used to develop stride frequency. On the other end of the spectrum is resisted sprinting. Resisted sprinting is used to develop stride strength and length. The only 2 options the authors give for resisted training is resisted towing and uphill sprints.

Resisted Sprinting

The concern regarding resisted sprinting is that if the resistance is too great, sprint mechanics will be altered and as a result the transfer over to normal sprinting will not be as great. As a result, parachutes have been developed as they provide resistance, but not so much that the mechanics are changed. Finding an appropriate hill is also problematic as too steep of an incline will surely change sprinting mechanics.

Although sprint training might seem simple, it is a highly complex topic that takes proper prescription of exercise and drills. Think of training like a prescription medicine. If the dosage is too high, there will be severe side effects and the medicine will be ineffective. If the dosage is too low, the medicine will have minimal effect. In order to train athletes to be their best, you must have the correct prescription.

Fortunately, Pair & Marotta Peak Performance training has the solution: Summer Speed, Strength & Power (SSP) Camp. By attending this 6-week camp, your athletes will get faster, stronger, more powerful, more resistant to injury and have a refined work ethic. We have 2 camps, one for junior athletes age 8-12, and a high school camp for athletes ages 13-18. Camps start June 6. For more information and costs, please contact Aaron@pairmarotta.com or call 661-912-9991 or visit www.pairmarotta.com/fitness.

What can bodybuilders teach high school athletes?

2011-05-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

What NOT to do.

Why? Body builders are professionals. It's their life, their dedication, their occupation often! Body builders often spend hours at the gym. Body building is a sport of it's own. And honestly, most body builders probably aren't the best basketball, soccer, baseball or football players. But they sure are great body builders!

Lunges and split squats are an athletes best friend!

Look at how bodybuilders lift. They usually have 3-4 exercises per body part, using 4-6 sets of 10-20 reps. Imagine how long this takes and the amount of stress on their bodies!

But what does it take to be a high school all-star? Dedication to your sport and efficiency in the weight room. Sports are played using a single joint. Athletes don't do preacher curls, leg extensions, calf raises, tricep kickbacks or crunches during sports. They push, pull, rotate, squat and lunge.

Also, we lift heavy. We keep it short and sweet. 4 sets of 6, 5 sets of 5, not much over 8 reps ever! And we use compound lifts that work 3-4 muscle groups per exercise!

The sad thing is that misguided coaches and parents often teach their young athletes to lift like this. Then when they see the way we lift, I always see the light go on followed by the words, "That makes a lot of sense!"

And these are things we do right now in our FAST Forward program. And they are the movements we'll train in our summer Speed, Strength and Power (SSP) Camp. Interested in learning more about either program?

Contact me at aaron@pairmarotta.com.

High school workouts

2011-04-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

I remember being in high school. It was about 13 years ago that I was in the weight room. And honestly, I hated every second of it.

Why?

Because there was only guys who were heavy lifters. So imagine how self conscious you would be if you were only able to bench press 115 lbs (the bar + 35 lb plates on each side) once while everyone else is warming up with 135.

WASTE OF TIME.

Do you think I wanted to go back?

What would have kept me more enthused and motivated? How about some direction? How about some variation? How about some of the more experienced guys helping the younger guys out?

Then I would wander around looking for some piece of equipment that wasn't occupied and I would do that. Even if it meant doing wrist curls. I know what you're thinking - Wrist curls? What an absolute WASTE OF TIME!

So now that I am the one running the show, designing the programs and overseeing the lifting, what am I doing differently? Everything.

The programs are setup in 4-week cycles. Everybody has a weight lifting record sheet. Absolute weight is not relevant. Instead we prioritize the following:

Technique - it's everything. If you can't lift cleanly, you can't lift.
Body weight - If you can't manage your own body weight, why the heck am I going to ADD more weight?
Compound lifts take priority. Squat variations, bench press, pullups, lunges and rotational power exercises.

BETTER USE OF TIME: Strength, Balance, Flexibility

You see everything is done with a purpose here. We stretch between working sets, we alternate speed and agility exercises with core training to maximize recovery without STANDING AROUND. Our kids are ALWAYS DOING SOMETHING.

There is no wasted time here. We get more done in an hour than some high school programs get done in a week. And it shows. Our younger athletes are getting stronger, their technique is impeccable and they are LEARNING HOW TO LIFT.

They are getting what you and I didn't get: guidance, motivation, encouragement and supervision. And as their parent, they'll like to hear that you struggled with this stuff too. That you wish you had this growing up. Because the kids that are coming in here? They love it.

Want more information on our speed and strength programs? Visit our website at www.pairmarotta.com/fitness or email me at aaron@pairmarotta.com

1 out of every 6 youth athletes will have this injury

2011-04-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

The general population believes that injuries are part of the game. You get them, treat them and HOPEFULLY move onto play again. I think in contact sports, yes, injuries will happen. Bruises, contusions and other collision type injuries will probably happen and there isn't much we can do about it.

But non-contact overuse injuries should NOT happen. Plain and simple. Let me explain why.

A non-contact injury means that the athlete had as much control in preventing the injury as anybody. Aside from stepping in a hole or off the side of first base (even that can be prevented by stepping evenly on the base) the athlete is in complete control. But the athletes feedback mechanism in his body or his muscular system could not handle the stress of running. Can you believe it? Somebody can actually hurt themselves running!!

Today I'll explain one of the most common youth injuries, how it happens and what you can do to prevent it.

Knee pain is one of the most common overuse injuries that afflict young children. Slow developing, overuse knee pain can have a slew of causes. But with just a few quick exercises to add to your day, you can prevent knee pain from slowing you down!

First off lets take a look at the anatomy of the knee.

The upper leg bone (femur) ends in the shape of two big knobs. These are called condyle's with the one to the inside of your leg being medial and the one to the outside being lateral. On top of these sit the patella (knee cap). The knee cap slides up and down the groove as we flex and extend our knee. It helps to think of the knee cap as a train and the femoral groove as the tracks.

Usually the patella runs smoothly up and down the track. However, as is usually the case with overuse injury knee pain, the patella gets pulled to one side or the other.

As you can see in the picture, there are quite a few muscles that affect the knee. If one of these muscles begins to tighten up due to overuse, or if one becomes weak, the patella will be pulled to the side of the stronger muscle. As a result it is very important to keep the muscles that directly affect the patella flexible.

There are also indirect factors that can cause knee pain. The two most common are immobile ankles (tight calves) and immobile hips (tight/weak glutes).

I'll start with tight calves first. Basically the muscles of the calf regulate the ability of the ankle to move. If the ankle cannot move into a dorsiflexion position (foot comes up towards the shin) then during squatting the knees will suffer from an increase in shearing force. Shearing force occurs when one bone (the femur) has energy moving in a sliding force across an adjacent bone (tibia). As a result the knees will suffer a lot of pain as the passive tissues attempt to prevent the shearing force from actually causing movement. Tight calves are a hallmark of knee injuries in youth athletes.

The muscles at the hips on the other hand control the rotation of the femur. If the muscles at the hips get weak they will allow the femur to rotate internally. When this happens, again the patella will not track correctly in the femoral groove. As a result the patella will get irritated as the added friction will begin to wear on the back side of the patella. Also if the glutes are weak, then the quadriceps will begin to over develop and over-recruit. When this happens there becomes an increased risk of Osgood-Schlatter's disease which is a painful swelling of the tibial tubercle.

Soleus Stretch

So what can we do to keep these things from happening?

Beginning with the calves, simple calf stretching daily for a total of 60-90 seconds will help keep the calves flexible. Most important is stretching the lower calf. To do this we lean against a wall as if attempting to push it over. This will stretch the back leg. Then simply bend the back knee slightly while keeping the heel of the back foot on the ground. Hold this for :15-20 seconds and repeat 3 times on each leg.

To stretch the glutes you do a seated glute stretch by sitting in a chair and laying your ankle across the opposite knee, sit up with a tall posture and lean forward from the hip. You should feel a stretch in the hip of the leg that is off the ground.

Split Squats

For strengthening, simple hip bridges, single leg Romanian Dead Lift and split squats work well. Just be sure to push through the heel of the foot that is doing the work.

Next week we will look at common back injuries in youth athletes and how they can be prevented.

Peak Performers

2011-03-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

We have had quite a few great athletes come through Pair & Marotta Peak Performance over the past few years. And one thing that never fails is the outcome of the hard workers. Those that are the most consistent see the greatest results. The ones that are the first ones in, last ones out and always trying to get better will out perform those with raw talent.

But the really interesting thing is that the ones who are the most consistent, are the hard workers! Those who have a great work ethic won't be floating in and out, here for 3 weeks then out for 3 months.

James Barragan pitches against Liberty.

And its tough to tell the talented ones that talent will only take you so far. It almost seems like talent can be a liability because it makes them think that their talent will steadily increase and their performance will improve because of it. But the less talented ones will always be the underdog that we at P&M love. These are the ones who we know that no matter where they go in life, they'll succeed because they won't give up.

Yes, some kids have greater potential because of their genetics, but natural talent has a ceiling - hard work doesn't. Natural talent will take you far, but hard work will take you further.

Another P&M athlete, James Barragan made the paper this past week as he had a stellar pitching performance against Liberty. James pitched a 3-hit complete game shutout the other night and gave Stockdale its first league win of the year.

Great job James!

What's the key to improved QUICKNESS and AGILITY?

2011-03-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

Balance.

No, not stand on a single leg, close your eyes and touch your nose balance. But balance between strength and power training.

What is the difference? Well if I asked you to describe strength training, how would you describe it? Most have the picture to the left in their mind. Lift as much weight as you can, regardless of speed. Actually the heavier you lift, the slower the movement.

Now what is power training? Power the same but has a time component. Power is the amount of weight lifted x distance divided by the time taken to lift it, or (force x distance)/time.

Some people claim that if you lift heavy, you lift slow and as a result you won't get any faster or more powerful. This group tends to stay away from heavy lifting and focuses strictly on plyometrics, agility training and reaction time training. These are all good attributes to have in a sports training program.

But by leaving the heavy lifting out, they are missing a very crucial component to their programs!!

Which component?? STRENGTH!

See strength (or in other terms work) is simply a force x distance. So it is in itself a component of power! If you have no strength, then this will directly influence your ability to move fast. After all, its not simply how fast you can move nothing, but instead its how fast can you move your body weight (most sports aren't played wearing a weighted vest).

If an athlete weighs 180 lbs, well he better be able to move and control not only his own weight, but also the added force from the momentum/inertia created by his 180 lbs moving quickly.

Heavy resistance training is a key component to being able to prevent injuries because most non-contact injuries occur during the eccentric or deceleration part of sports. Strength training improves the ability of muscle to control weight external to a players own body weight.

Look at the video below, as quick as he is, he's also amazingly strong for his size!

Do you think he was able to change direction multiple time by working on speed and agility alone? No. Strength training plays a huge role!!

Then there are some who say that strength is all that matters. This can be countered with the principle of specificity. Specificity states that a person will adapt specifically to the demands placed on the body. So if you teach the muscle to contract with high amounts of force, but it contracts slowly, you'll see a person who is slow, but strong. So you really have to find the balance.

In sports, especially baseball, we need to find the balance between the two.

At Pair & Marotta Peak Performance do just this! During our FAST Forward workouts, we spend the first 45 minutes of our workout on speed and agility training and the final 45 minutes on strength and flexibility training. And we see some amazing results! Want to come take a look?

Send me an email and let me know you'll be coming by! We would love to see you.

1 Surprising muscle building trick for your YOUNG ATHLETE

2011-03-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

There are many things that I have told you about on how to build muscle. First, you've got to eat enough. If you aren't eating enough, nothing else you do will matter. You'll just be a really STRONG skinny kid.

Dead lifts are a MUST for muscle building!

The second thing is you've got to lift heavy. Heavy lifting uses lots of muscle which increases growth hormones and testosterone, both of which are necessary for muscle gain. So skip the body part splits and start doing squats, bench press, deadlifts, cleans, pullups, rows.

And building on the second point, you've got to keep the reps under 8. Anything more and you're wasting energy with reps 1-4, because those first few aren't nearly as difficult as the last 4. So make it work. A great starting point is 5 reps for 5 sets. This keeps you lifting heavy and keeps the total workload low so that you're stimulating type II muscle fibers to grow (which by the way grow the biggest).

Then you've got to sleep and allow your body to recover. This includes drinking plenty of water and sleeping 8-10 hours a day.

But there is another little trick that has been discovered to indirectly increase muscle building: Fat.

A study done by Dorgan, et al. (1996) found that those who had a fat intake of between 20-40% of their total calories had elevated testosterone levels. They also found that higher cholesterol levels were associated with higher testosterone levels. Granted this study had a pretty small sample (10 people) the outcome can still be used, but with caution.

So how do you increase fat intake? Start eating more tree nuts, avocados, and eggs. Heck that could make a pretty good omelet right there! Grate some cheese and throw it over the top and you've got a muscle building breakfast that is high in protein, moderate in fat and low in carbohydrates!

The take away from today's lesson??

Don't be afraid of fat. Instead embrace it. But not the kind on your hips or around your belly. But rather the kind you eat. Because by boosting fat intake, you boost testosterone, and testosterone builds muscle!!

_____________________________________________

Dorgan J. F., Judd J. T, Longcope C.C,, Brown C.C., Schatzkin A.A., Clevidence B.A., Campbell W.S., Nair P.P., Franz C.C., Kahle L.L., Taylor P.R. (1996). Effects of dietary fat and fiber on plasma and urine androgens and estrogens in men: a controlled feeding study. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 64, 850-855.

The Forgotten Part 4: The WORST thing for gaining muscle

2011-03-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

If there is one thing that skinny guys are almost instantaneously afraid of when they start trying to gain weight, its gaining fat.

At the first sign of their skinny guy 6-pack disappearing, they make a mad dash for the treadmill. But this is THE WORST THING they could do.

Go back to the first part of this series and see how many calories you've got to eat in order to gain muscle. What do you think happens when you hit the treadmill after a workout? Or if you spend 2-3 hours a day playing basketball with friends?

Using even more calories is counterproductive to muscle gain.

You have to eat that many MORE calories! 3 hours of basketball can burn up to 2000 calories. So now not only do you have to eat 4500 calories just to gain weight, but now you have to eat an additional 2000 calories because of what you burned playing basketball!

So what should a skinny guy be doing when he's not working out??

Stretch, sleep, eat. That's right. Until you start gaining weight, you need to back off all that extra curricular activity that is chewing up calories you COULD be using to gain muscle.

So unless you enjoy going crazy because you aren't gaining weight despite the dump truck worth of food you're eating, then you need to BACK OFF the extra curricular activity.

But at that point, the question becomes which do you want more: muscle, or the extra activity?

The Forgotten Part 3: Build muscle WHILE YOU SLEEP!

2011-03-04T08:07:00.000-08:00

During your gut busting, avalanche of testosterone causing, muscle building workout, your body is going through a lot. You are breaking down muscle so your body can rebuild it in a stronger form. This is called adaptation.

However, there is something that all young athletes and even coaches think when they are working out. And it's completely backwards. The idea that more is better or that muscle is built DURING the workout is the greatest fallacy in the weightlifting world! Muscle is not built during the workout. Muscle is built while you rest.

So to go to school, practice for sport and then lift weights only to stay up until 11pm is the golden road to frustration. You see after you workout, you need to recover. You need nutrients, minerals and vitamins to fuel and speed up recovery. Because the faster you recover, the sooner you can lift heavy again!!

So here is what needs to happen in order for skinny kids to recovery quickly so they can get back to their muscle building workouts.

Sleep. Preferably at home.

Sleep. A lot. You need to get AT LEAST 8 hours a night, and more is better, if you want to build muscle. Which means if you wake up at 6am, the latest you need to be crawling into bed is 10. Your body can't rebuild if you are still breaking down.

Vegetables. Your body needs more than just protein to rebuild. Vegetables provide a lot of the smaller nutrients that allow your body to recover faster! So every meal should have at LEAST 1 handful of vegetables AND 1 handful of fruit.

Fat. Your body needs fat. Certain fats, such as those found in fish, seeds and nuts help prevent and minimize inflammation of muscle, which occurs after a hard workout. However, these fats should not be eaten immediately after the workout. Instead its best to have them right before bed so your body can put them to use. So eating fish oil capsules, up to 6 per day, as well as having almonds, walnuts and cashews over the course of the day will speed up recovery as well.

Muscle is 70% water. More water = more muscle.

Water. Muscle is about 70% water. Plus water is necessary to flush waste products out of your system so repair can happen quicker. In addition, water is necessary for certain vitamins to be absorbed. These are called water soluble vitamins. So drinking up to a gallon of water over the course of a day, is certainly NECESSARY if you're looking to add muscle.

Recovery is often the MOST OVERLOOKED aspect of building muscle. But look around at the meatheads who are walking around with slabs of muscle. They're usually carrying a jug or bottle of water of some kind.

Stay tuned tomorrow as we wrap up "The Forgotten" series on building muscle for skinny athletes!!

The Forgotten Part 2: Turning your twiggy legs into tree trunks...

2011-03-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I discussed the need to eat with the intention of gaining weight. Basically what that boiled down to is that if your kids aren't gaining muscle, but they want to, they need to eat more. Now granted eating enough is THE most important aspect of gaining muscle.

Lets get Anabolic!!

But all of that food won't do much if you're spending hours on end in the weight room. The reason for this is that after about 45 minutes of some heavy lifting, your body will begin to run out of carbohydrates for energy and instead will begin to break down muscle for energy. This is called catabolism. The buildup of muscle tissue is called anabolism.

So how long should you workout then? Well to prevent this muscle breakdown, workout should be kept to right around 45 minutes. Much longer and you run the risk of catabolism. Now a lot of you are thinking, "Dude, i'm just getting warmed up after 45 minutes!!"

Well start warming up quicker. Say in about 5 minutes. Do some body weight calisthenics such as pushups, body weight squats or lunges and about 20 arm circles in each direction.

No need for calf raises here!

And you don't need 4 different exercises for each body part. Instead stick with the biggest "Bang-4-your-Buck" exercises like squats, bench press, chin-ups, standing military press and deadlifts. Basically make sure your hands have to hold onto something or pick up weight on each lift. So skip the calf raises, the leg extension, the 3 different types of curls and the wrist curls.

The next point is to keep the weight heavy. None of this 3 sets of 10 reps junk. Keep it short and HEAVY! 4 sets of 6 or 5 sets of 5 is sufficient. Do 4 exercises, 4 sets of 4 reps with 1-2 minutes between sets should get the testosterone flowing and the growth hormone pumping!!

But why not those typical body builder schemes of 3 sets of 10-12 doing 3 different exercises for your arms? Well as I discussed above, was that workout will take WAY TOO LONG. In addition, it won't stimulate the proper muscle fibers!

See there are 3 types of fibers. Type 1 are slow twitch, and don't grow much. Type 2a are the middle fibers, and they grow some. But the type 2b are the ones that are begging to grow. And its only through heavy lifting that we'll hit those fibers without burning up the calories. So again, heavy weights, old fashioned tough guy weight lifting and only a handful of repetitions are your best bet.

Here are the exercises you should be doing to gain muscle:

Squats
Deadlift
Bench press
Chinups
Push press
Hang cleans
Lunges
Dips

These are the only exercises skinny guys need until they start actually gaining weight.

Now, stay tuned because next week, I'll tell you what you should be doing on the days between your lifting days to keep your physique from being confused with a 12-year old girl.

The Forgotten

2011-03-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

In the age of childhood obesity their is a group of boys that are invisible. Invisible to football coaches, invisible to the eye of girls, invisible, not because they are gone. But because they are SKINNY and UNDERWEIGHT!

I’m not going to drag this out because it doesn’t need to be too incredibly complicated or over analyzed. But I’m just going to list the things you NEED to do if you want to gain muscle as a skinny kid. Because face it, nobody cares that you've got a 6-pack if you get blown around like a leaf in a light breeze.

Look at what overweight people are doing and do it. Except add in some weight lifting to it.
Speaking of weight lifting, don’t spend all day in the gym. 45 minutes…TOPS!!
Because you’re on a time crunch in the gym, you’d better be doing exercises that use most or all of your muscles. More muscle usage = more testosterone and growth hormone
If you play a high activity sport such as basketball, soccer or swimming, gaining weight will be even TOUGHER. So if you aren’t practicing or lifting weight, you need to be eating.
SLEEP... a lot.

Today I will just discuss the first point and I will address the others in future blog posts.

Step 1: try to become overweight.

Granted we don’t want you to be obese and slothful, but we do want you to gain weight. And there is no better person to look at for gaining weight, than somebody who has…gained a lot of weight. What is it they do? Well, they eat a lot. They eat frequently. And they eat a lot of carbohydrates; which is what you need. But you also need to make sure you’re building muscle instead of adding fat to your belly.

And the thing with most skinny kids is when they think they are eating a lot of food, they usually AREN'T eating enough. Put it this way, if you aren’t gaining weight, you need to eat more.

Here is what a skinny guy’s day should look like if he works out in the morning

Wake up (0 hours) – eat 1 measured cup of oatmeal (300 calories), 2 cups of milk (244 calories) Total = 544 cal

Workout – have a protein shake (130 calories)

After workout ( + 1.5 hours after wakeup) – 2 pancakes (350 calories), 1 cup cottage cheese (204 calories), ½ cup orange juice (56 calories) Total= 600

Snack ( + 2.5 hours) – 1 bagel (270 calories), 3 tbsp peanut butter (300 calories) Total = 570

Lunch ( + 4.5 hours) – 1 can tuna (150 cal), 2 tbsp mayonnaise (200 cal), ¼” slice of cheese from block (200 cal), 2 slices of bread (140 cal), a salad the size of a boat (60 cal), balsamic dressing (enough, but less than you think)(150 cal) Total = 900 cal

Is this what you see in the mirror??

Snack ( + 7.5 hours) – 2 cups yogurt (200 calories), ¼ cup peanuts (300 cal), ½ cup granola (180 cal) Total = 680 cal

Dinner (+ 10.5 hours) – Meat the size of your hand (300 cal), [broccoli + raisins] the size of your hand (150 cal), glass of milk (200 cal) Total = 650 cal

Before bed meal ( + 12.5 hrs) – 2 Scrambled eggs or protein powder (150 cal) + spoonful of peanut butter (200 cal), apple (75 cal) Total = 425 cal

Total calories = 4500 calories*

For most kids this is going to seem insurmountable. But it can be done. And with a quality lifting program, it can add a significant amount of muscle to ANY kids frame.

No plyometrics until you squat THIS much...

2011-02-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

The world of exercise science and program design is constantly changing. Not because the ideals, principles and philosophies are wrong, but because we really are beginning to learn so much about the body and how it responds to exercise.

One of the hotter topics is that of plyometrics. Most people "know" what plyometrics is. They may have the textbook definition of "a rapid eccentric muscle action followed by an immediate concentric muscle action resulting in increased power," but they have an image in their head of what plyometrics is. And it usually looks something like the picture to the right.

But there are different levels of plyometrics and the truth is most people begin a plyometric training program at far too high of an intensity. But there really isn't a set standard that a person must meet prior to beginning a plyometric program.

There used to be a "generally accepted" formula for plyometrics and it was that you had to be able to back squat twice your body weight. However this immediately labeled plyometrics as a VERY exclusive type of training program. After all, how many people can actually back squat twice their body weight? If I were to do that I would have to be able to squat 410 lbs!!

So where did this formula come from? Well it was grounded in science but wasn't necessarily thought about completely. You see when a person is coming down from the peak of a jump their are accelerating at 9.8 meters per second squared. So until the person hits the ground, they are accelerating, or picking up speed, until they land. And for most people the range of their jump has them hitting the ground at a fairly high rate of speed. So much that research has shown the amount of force a person lands with is equivalent to roughly twice their body weight. This we know is true.

However, it must be considered that A) on a squat jump landing the person usually does not land in a full squat position, and B) not all plyometrics involve such extreme landings. The video below gives some plyometric exercises that we use on a regular basis.

So then what are we to do? Do we simply focus on kids getting better at their back squat so they can FINALLY do plyometrics with them? That is obviously not going to happen. Instead what we at Pair & Marotta Physical Therapy do is have them work through a progression. Obviously not every plyometric involves a depth jump from a great range of motion.

In addition, the thing to consider is that in sport, most plyometric type of contractions involve vertical jumps. Most require movement in multiple planes of motion.So instead we can and occasionally do have our athletes perform box drop jumps. But most often we use lower level, more laterally stressful plyometric exercises.

As a coach, you too must decide the cost to benefit factor and determine what type of plyometric exercises are going to be best for your athletes. Have a system. Or better yet, give us a call to help design and implement a plyometric training program with your athletes or team!

The Core 4

2011-01-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

When people ask me about my top core exercise I always have this little debate in my head. As I have stated in previous posts, there really needs to be a progression of exercises. So what I am going to do is give the top exercise in each of the 4 progressions: (1) postural control, (2) stabilization, (3) strength, 4 (power/reactive).

Pelvic Tilting

1. The first exercise that should be done is simply Pelvic Tilts. The reason for this is that many people, in particular youth athletes have are not able to change the position of their hips on command. This is a fundamental skill that ALL athletes should possess. If an athlete is unable to do this, generally every other functional exercise is going to suffer.

To do a pelvic tilt exercise, have the athlete lie on their back with their knees bent. Have them place one hand under their back and simply alternate between lifting their back off their hand and putting pressure down on their hand. Hold each position for 2-5 seconds.

Full Side Plank

2. The second stage of core training is stabilization/endurance. Athletes need to be able to maintain a stable spine for a prolonged period of time. The side plank does just this. It activates obliques, transverse abdominus, multifidus, low back extensors and the rectus abdominus. Its a grand slam of a core exercise.

To do the side plank support yourself on one arm with your feet stacked and hold that posture for between 20-45 seconds

Hand Walkout

3. The best strength exercise is the Hand Walkout. Why? Well it trains the body in the sagittal plan, so it uses the rectus abdominus "six pack" muscle. But it also engages the obliques and transverse abdominus. The hand walkout is an "anti-extension" exercise that uses the postural control and strength of the prior to phases.

To do the hand walkout, simply start from a push-up position and take small steps forward with your hands, keeping your feet where they are. Walkout until you feel tension in your abdominals and then walk your hands back in.

4. The best plyometric/reactive exercise is Medicine Ball Shakers. This exercise requires the spinal stabilization muscles and the hip rotators to contract and relax rapidly. The ability to turn a muscle on and off quickly is crucial for sports performance and everyday living. And because most motion takes place in the rotational/transverse plane, this exercise is our champion.

Simply hold a medicine ball in front of you and quickly shake it side to side. Don't attempt to use a "full range of motion" because most people will end up over torquing the muscles of the lower back. Instead focus on short rotations that allow the ball to travel a maximum of 12" before you bring the ball back the other way. Perform 10 repetitions as fast as possible - shoot for under 6 seconds.

And there you have it. Our Core Top 4!.

How much core training is REALLY necessary?

2011-01-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

Postural endurance is foundational at Pair & Marotta.

Many coaches will ask, how much core training do I really need? Often times its completely dependent upon the moaning and groaning of their team. But at that point, you're letting the team run the practice. And that's just your first worry.

In addition to that, consistency will lack and so will results. But if you have a plan that is scheduled and gradually progresses the exercises, then you can guarantee that your team is all meeting a minimum level of performance. So once the plan is established all you have to do is keep raising the bar!

So how much is really necessary?

Well Dr. Stuart McGill talks about this in his book, "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance," he states that the core muscles that stabilize the back are type-I, slow twitch muscles that are meant to make small, adjustments to keep the spine steady instead of making large range of motion adjustments. So core stabilizing muscles should be trained for muscular endurance. And as the coaches who attend our "On-Field Core Training" workshop last weekend saw, there are many ways that we can do this. But think about how the abdominals are used during throwing and swinging a bat. They act like any other muscle does, requiring a strong, fast contraction to allow the larger muscles of the hips and shoulders to pull from. Basically they have to act like an anchor. So those muscles need to be trained to react quickly to a stimulus.

Think about how the core must contract at the moment that the baseball hits a bat? The core must contract and stiffen the spine to prevent any absorbing of force. If this is done correctly, the batter will be able to transfer up to 90% of his power back into the ball to create a hard hit.

So in prescribing exercises for this type of contraction, you can prescribe it just like you would any other plyometric exercise, intensity of the exercises will play a large role. For our capability of using only body weight, a partner or a bat, 2-3 sets of 8-20 repetitions per exercise is optimal. A good method would be to operate in phases.

Cable lifting is near the top of the core training pyramid.

For example phase 1 would be 2 sets of 8. Phase 2 would be 2 sets of 12-15. Phase 3 would be 2 sets of 15-20. Phase 4 would be to add another set and decreasing repetitions. So 3 sets of 10-15 would be optimal and then finally phase 5 would be to have 3 sets of 15-20. But as a coach you CANNOT let form and technique deteriorate. Remember, you play how you practice. This goes with core training too!

3 things to save your player's shoulders...

2011-01-12T14:32:00.000-08:00

Shoulder injuries are the most common injuries in baseball and softball players. A study in 1999 surveyed 500 youth pitchers and found that over half of them sustained some time of shoulder or elbow pain during the course of the season. The study found that the more pitches thrown correlated with an increase in elbow and shoulder pain.

On first thought it would seem that we simply need to strengthen the shoulders and elbows of these pitchers. But lets look at things a little deeper and connect the chain and see where it ends up:

Muscles that comprise the Rotator Cuff

The Glenohumeral (shoulder ball and socket) joint has muscles (rotator cuff) that attach it to the scapula

Scapula is a "floating bone" which is anchored to the rib cage by the anterior serratus

The scapula to the spine by the rhomboids and the levator scapulae.

The spine is stabilized by the core muscles

If any muscle along that chain is weak, the unit will only function as well as the weakest muscle can tolerate. In other words, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Fortunately, there are many core exercises that can be used to strengthen all of the muscles together as a unit, thereby increasing the ability of the ENTIRE chain.

So here are 3 exercises that you can do to train the kinetic chain of an overhead thrower.

1. Side planks - Side planks train the muscles of the Glenohumeral joint, scapulothoracic joint as well as the lumbar stabilizers in the frontal (lateral) plane. This is one of the best exercises for improving core stability and is a necessity for ANY overhead throwing athlete.

2. Supine opposites/ Deadbug - the deadbug trains the muscles of each side of the body to operate independently. This trains the body to prevent rotation and stabilize the core - a REAL strength and control exercise

Med Ball Shakers

3. Med ball shakers - Using a medicine ball, take an athletic stance and quickly shake the ball back and forth for 6-10 seconds. You'll know if you are doing it correctly because your abdominals will be on fire. If you're arms are burning then there is a good chance that you are having issues using your abs to initiate motion and instead are using your arms.

These arejust three of the exercises that we have used in our the baseball players we train for speed, agility and quickness here at Pair & Marotta Peak Performance!

To learn more about core training for Baseball and Softball using just your body weight and a bat, get registered for our "On-Field Core Training for Baseball/Softball" workshop on Saturday January 22 from 10am-noon. You'll leave with a TON of valuable tools that you can use on field with your team!!

Email aaron@pairmarotta.com for more information!

3 Things you NEED to know about core training...

2011-01-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

Often times we read things and get so excited about them that we forget where we are reading them. We forget that Men's Health needs to ultimately sell magazines to stay in business. So they are going to print things that people like.

I used to subscribe to Men's Health. But then I started noticing a lot of similar articles popping up and also a lot of filler and fluff.

In each issue they do have a few well put together articles. Many having to do with grooming, sex and then of course getting ripped in 15 minutes a day. In fact I remember one issue had what was called the "Ripped in the Shower." It consisted of stretching your chest, some body weight squats, calf stretching and some isometrics for the biceps and triceps.

One of the guys that Men's Health looks to for information on back fitness is Dr. Stuart McGill. We at Pair & Marotta Physical Therapy also look to him (and a few others) when we want to see what the newest research in back health is saying.

Dr. McGill has a book out titled "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance." I've been using the information provided in it with clients and patients for a little over a year now and the results are amazing!

So here are 3 things that we've gotten from "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance":

You have to control the spine before you can hope to unleash its ability. Too many coaches are busy doing exercises that create motion at the lower spine instead of teaching athletes how to control the spine. Without control, power is useless!
The spine is not meant to bend and twist. Yes it can bend and twist. But look at its anatomy and you see that the joints of the spine are not like any other joint in the body. They are not a ball and socket, not a hinge, not a saddle, and not condylar. If anything it is a gliding joint. However the muscles connecting each joint are very intricate and stiff. The spine is there as a center stabilizing column for the rest of the body to move around, rather than itself moving in all directions.
Shoulder and knee injuries are highly correlated with poor spine health and stability. We see a lot of baseball pitchers who have shoulder injuries and basketball players who have knee injuries and time and time again the same trend is seen: poor postural control and stabilization. As I stated in the point above the spine is meant to be stable. If the spine is not stable then the arms and legs have nothing to anchor too. If there is nothing to anchor too its like hitching your horse to a log lying on the ground: sure its attached, but there is not security/stability.

Lucky for the baseball and softball coaches here in Bakersfield, Pair & Marotta Peak Performance is hosting a 2-hour workshop titled "On-Field Core Training for Baseball/Softball" where we will discuss how to implement a core training program into your practices. The workshop will demonstrate field tests to use, core training sequencing and ultimately power training for the core using just a baseball bat and a partner.

This is a free workshop that will take place on Saturday January 22nd from 10am-noon at our Peak Performance facility at 5337 Truxtun Ave.

For more information or to register contact Aaron@pairmarotta.com

The 3-hour window for MUSCLE gain...

2010-12-30T09:35:00.000-08:00

Willis is talkin' bout eating... A LOT!

Hormones are what dictate what our body does. Hormones regulate our body temperature, our metabolism, our balding patterns, and our sleep/wake cycles. Hormones do everything in our body. They are basically the central control system. Whenever we do something, hormones are released.

From a fitness standpoint, this has HUGE implications! When we workout and lift heavy, our body releases growth hormone (GH), testosterone, insulin-like growth factors (IGF's), cortisol and catecholamines. These are all necessary for increasing muscle mass, especially in high school aged athletes. These hormones serve to prime the muscle for growth and repair to allow the muscle to perform beyond what it was previously capable of.

But in order for the body to build muscle, there has to be material to build it with. Also because this is a prime time to build we really want to cram the muscle cells with plenty of fuel.

The "gate keeper" that regulates fuel delivery to the cells is insulin. Without insulin, there won't be much fuel deliver to the muscles. So after each workout, all athletes need to eat food that A)stimulates insulin release and B) gives us material to build with.

The foods that satisfy requirement A are simple carbohydrates. Now normally I recommend that athletes stay away from simple carbohydrates outside of a post-workout period. But since we are talking post-workout, i'll allow some simple carbs. Foods that are simple carbs are breads, cereals, bagels, fruit juices, jelly.

So the carbs give us an insulin release and some fuel to get into the muscle. But we also need protein. The best protein post workout is whey (pronounced WAY) protein. Whey is a fast digesting protein that also has a substantial insulin release with it. But if whey protein just isn't practical, then milk is a good back up plan.

But here is where things get really important for muscle building. During exercise, muscle breakdown occurs. The longer you wait after exercise to get some carbs/protein into the body, the more breakdown occurs. Also, the longer you wait the lower the level of muscle building, or anabolic, hormones decreases. The body needs to be fed when these hormones are at high tide!

So there is 3-hour window that carbs/protein must be eaten. After this 3 hour window, the levels of anabolic hormones have decreased to a point that eating a large meal of simple carbs will be stored as fat rather than used to rebuild muscle.

Good post-workout meals are:

1 cup of non-fat yogurt + 1 cup of granola
1 cup of chocolate milk
banana/strawberry/ yogurt smoothie
1 cup of cereal + 1 cup of milk
peanut butter + jelly sandwich
peanut butter + banana sandwich

These are just a few meals that would help to build muscle post-workout.

In summary, workout with high effort, eat well following workouts and outside of that 3 hour window stick to protein and fruit/veggie combinations. This way your athletes will build muscle without burning fat .

First thing in the off-season...

2010-11-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

Poor nutrition will minimize off-season gains

High school and junior league football seasons are either over or coming to a close. So now its time to start thinking about what to do in the off-season. Most people immediately think weight lifting. But there is something else that if not taken care of, will quickly reduce off-season performance:The first thing that needs to be done is to evaluate what your kids are eating.

Sure everybody wants to talk about sports training and weight lifting to get ready for the next sports season. But in honesty now is the time to look at the nutrition habits of your athletes, and even your family.

Here are some simple rules to follow when putting together a weekly menu for you and your young athletes.

4 days of lunch done.

Make sure your kids eat a breakfast of grains and protein. A quick and easy breakfast for them is to have some Wheaties, Cheerios or All-Bran with a sliced up banana or some berries tossed in for some sweetness.
Have them take their lunch to school. One thing you can do to spice up their lunches is to grill 4-5 pieces of chicken on Sunday afternoon and then they have a great source of muscle building, fat burning protein to take to school. Chicken is so universal you can do make a laundry list of great lunches using grilled chicken.
Have a bowl of fruit sitting out around the house and challenge your family to eat it all before the week is up. Fruit is not meant to last weeks on end. So you should be shopping for fruit on a weekly basis.
Have mixed nuts in a small bag that your kids can take to school and munch on. Kids should be eating every 3-4 hours. If they have a healthy snack on hand they are much more likely to eat a healthy snack rather than the junk that's floating around their school.
Buy your kids an BPA free water bottle to take to school. Water is essential for the body to function. And most kids aren't getting NEAR enough. Again, if they have a resource on hand, they are much more likely to use it.

These tips will help ensure your young athletes stay well nourished during the day and are also fueled up when game time arrives.

Check the link to the right for the "Athlete Nutrition BluePrint" from physical therapist and strength coach Jeff Cavaliere. He's put together an awesome program that will put your athletes on the path to success.

The forest and the trees...how to treat an overuse injury

2010-11-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

Many athletes who play a single sport will begin to develop an injury. I use the term "WILL" because it is almost a certainty that if an athlete performs the same motions over and over, certain "links in the chain" will begin to breakdown due to being used too much.

Delivery car? You mean delivery "trike."

Think of a delivery car that drives in stop-go traffic every day for 8-10 hours per day, for the life of it. Now compare that to a car that is used to drive to work, sits in the parking lot and then is driven home at the end of the day. In addition this car is used on longer trips up and down the interstate highway on an every other month basis.

Young athletes who play the same sport year round are basically driven like that delivery car. Eventually the hardware is going to break down from being overused.

Usually at that point parents become very concerned with their child's injury and are scavenging the internet looking for solutions.

Here's a quick tip: look at the injury. Its called an "overuse" injury for a reason. Assuming that no structural damage has been done, the primary way to let an overuse injury heal is to stop doing whatever they were doing.

Lets say we've got a baseball pitcher experiencing shoulder pain. The young athlete will most likely want to know how he can rehab but still pitch. Or sometimes the parent wants a second look at their child's mechanics because "they have to be doing SOMETHING wrong, right?"

The truth is even major league pitchers get 4-5 days between starts. Yet many young kids will have a busy summer tournament schedule and pitch every other day.

How many pitches am I at coach?

Some will counter that with, "well they aren't throwing as hard or as many pitches as major league pitchers!" I will respond with the obvious statement that these are not 25 year-old men who are pitching every other day, nor do they have the bone density, muscular density or muscular endurance to tolerate that throwing schedule. In addition to that, many coaches and parents don't even know how many pitches their kids throw in a game. Do they count warm-up pitches before each inning? These things need to be considered.

The first response by ANY parent, coach or doctor to an overuse injury is to stop doing what you were doing. Don't get so overwhelmed by the injury, its possible treatments and the "threat" it poses to a 10- year old's "college potential" and let your kids heal. Stop looking for the forest past the trees. It's right in front of you.

Let your child play multiple sports throughout the year. This will prevent many overuse injuries on its own. A child who is playing baseball in the spring, football in the fall and basketball in the winter will RARELY have any overuse injuries.

I hate seeing kids not being able to play the game they love. But us as parents need to know that overuse injuries are almost certain if we don't give our kids a significant time off during the year to heal, recover and develop other motor skills Your kids will thank you as will their long term health and enjoyment of a sport..

How to WRECK your swing in the on-deck circle...

2010-11-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

Every player wants to have every swing be their best. Every batter should be standing in the on-deck circle preparing for the next at-bat to be their best.

But many hitters in both softball and baseball are wrecking their swing in the on-deck circle. How?

Two ways. The first is by taking half-hearted swings. From a motor learning standpoint, any movement has what is called a General Motor Program, or GMP. That GMP has what are called parameters that are constantly refined to execute the skill. Think of parameters like lane markers on a highway. They tell you where to drive.

But if you change the parameters, such as changing the weight of a bat, or the center of mass of the bat, then you will change how the program is executed. When a player simply goes through a half-hearted swing in the on-deck circle, they are training their muscles to move at that speed. So when they get up to bat, their first swings are going to be slower because they have just changed the speed at which the GMP is executed.

As a result of using a batting donut, a player gets up to bat and now their swing mechanics are altered and the first couple of swings are not as efficient as they could be. In addition, adding a batting donut distributes that extra weight unevenly through the bat.

The concept behind using a heavier bat is called "post-potentiation activiation." In layman's terms it says that you'll use more fibers faster after performing a few repetitions when weighted. However, as I just stated above, using a donut adds too much weight and as a result changes the mechanics of the swing.

So how can you use the on-deck circle to its maximal potential? Here are 3 suggestions.

Use the on-deck circle to actually warm up. You can do some light stretches to loosen up and then 5-8 quick "squat jacks" to prep your body for quick lightning fast muscle recruitment. Also work on hip rotations to groove the movement pattern of that "perfect swing."

Get rid of the batting donuts and simply have multiple bats with a range of 4-5 oz. Using a bat that is slightly heavier (2-3 oz) will give you the post-potentiation effect without altering the motor program.
Swing the bat as hard as you can with each swing. Each time you take a swing, you are refining the motor program of the swing - you either improve your swing, or degrade your swing. Make every swing the "perfect" swing.

The magic bullet for speed and agility is....

2010-10-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article by one of my favorite strength coaches, Mike Boyle. I have a handful of his instructional DVD's as well as his most recent book "Advances in Functional Training."

In his article he stated that so many people are looking for the "magic bullet" to speed and agility. Some people think it's the speed ladder. I mean, it isn't called a speed ladder for nothing right?

While the speed ladder does improve coordination and rhythm, it isn't the magic bullet.

Still other coaches thought that the key to speed and agility was the resistance parachute. So these became all the rage. And for good reason. They provide resistance, but not so much resistance that it changes an athletes running mechanics. But alas, the speed chute was used, but players did not become more agile.

So what is the "magic bullet"? The magic bullet is a quality training program that addresses:

Ankle, hip and thoracic spine mobility
Knee, low back and shoulder stability
teaches basic movement patterns such as a lunge, squat, push, pull, and hip rotation
Corrects muscle tightness and poor posture
Teaches the body to move quickly with minimal self-imposed resistance

Basically training athletes is like working on a car - adding a new engine won't give the car top performance if the suspension is horrible. Likewise a new suspension won't do as much as if the tires were improved. And last but not least, if the driver is not competent, then the car won't drive well no matter what you do.

Developing a quality athlete requires development of all skills, not JUST those used in a specific sport. Think about the last post I wrote about the multi-sport athlete. The multi-sport athlete is a rare specimen these days. Yet, they are often the most coveted athletes by scouts, coaches, colleges and pro teams.

The magic bullet is activity. Let your kids play and play a lot. Oh yeah, and let them play with minimal interference from coaches, parents and a ton of rules. Let them make their own rules and settle their own conflicts on the field. They need it to grow not only physically, but also emotionally and psychologically.

The magic bullet is really a toolbox filled with tools that is used to tune the car. When you add tools to the box, you become much more valuable and usable.

In addition, when a player has a toolbox full of tools, they can attack any problem and be successful. Isn't that what you want for your kids?

Don't hijack your player

2010-10-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

Remember growing up and being the athlete who played a sport in the fall, another in the winter and another in the spring?

What happened to that athlete?

When did an athlete become a baseball player? And why do we encourage athletes as young as 8 to be single sport all-star's?

The other day I was talking with an athlete who usually plays baseball, but wanted to play football and is now prepping for soccer. He said he really enjoys playing all of those sports but because there are so many factors involved, he was going to stick with one sport.

What are some of these factors?

Coaching pressure
Peer pressure
Parental pressure
Niavity

Face it, coaches can be a bit demanding. Others still are very demanding and have the potential to place an unusual amount of pressure on players. They sometimes say silly things like, "If you don't play for our team this fall, you won't be able to play on our team in the spring." I've heard it from some of our athletes.

Now sometimes things like this are said because coaches don't want to lose the player. But sometimes the coach says this to manipulate the player into staying. Essentially saying, the only way the player's position is secure is if you don't leave. So what is a 14-year old to do?

They stay. They give up the fun the used to have playing multiple sports because they have just been "caged in" by the coach.

Other ways that players are manipulated is by peer pressure. They want to stay on the club team because their friends are all on the club team. If this is the case, then it should be the coaches responsibility to give the team some time off - a minimum of two months spread out through the year (weekends don't count!).

Parents sometimes add to the pressure by constantly talking about scholarships and college and the "pride they feel" that their child is playing on an "elite" team. Sometimes the kids don't even have to be near. But if a mom tells her friend that her 11 year-old son is planning on playing baseball in college and that comes back around to the child, there is pressure now that the child does not want to disappoint the parent.

If you are one of these parents, make sure you let your child know that your pride in them and love for them is not based on how well they do in sports or whether or not they go to college on a scholarship. You may think your kid knows that you love them regardless of sport. But I've never seen a kid struggle with a sport because their parents say "I love you" too much. And don't just say it after a game. That's bad timing. Tell them you love them in their worst moments and in their best. Tell them always.

Kids need security. A secure child will develop an internal love for the sport if they are secure in their standing with their parents. Emotional need have to be met. Otherwise a child will play a sport simply as a means to get some attention from the parent.

Coaches should do the same. Make sure your players know that you care about them, their future and their well being. They will be much more likely to respect you and play hard for you. One way to show them you care about their well being is to mandate some time away from the sport.

A club coach came to me one afternoon and told me he mandated that his team take 1-month off after a heavy summer tournament season. He said the players actually didn't want the break. But he made it a requirement. A month later he said his team came back hitting better than ever.

Why?

They were able to decompress and unload all the pressure that had been building on them over the summer. When his team resumes practice, you can bet his team will come back hitting better than ever.

Give them time off. Time time away and time to do something different. They will return with the vigor you saw when they first started.

Get big or die tryin'....

2010-10-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

This is the weight room motto that so many high school coaches live by. They think if their players aren't getting huge, then obviously the kids are failing, not putting in enough effort and will never end up as quality athletes.

But what is this telling the kids who enjoy working out, who enjoy seeing themselves get stronger (but maybe not bigger) and who really like playing sports but happen to be a "late bloomer"? It is at this point where I think many high school coaches who supervise a weight lifting program, tend to lose their focus.

The first goal of any strength and conditioning program should be keeping their players safe and in full function. Yet so many lose focus on the fact that squatting is not JUST about lifting as much weight as possible, but is instead about TEACHING a solid movement pattern, and then slowly and progressively loading it to stimulate muscle growth.

Far too often coaches are saying, I don't care how you do it, just squat it! I have a freshmen baseball player who is working out in the mornings with his coaches and I can't believe the exercises that I am hearing they do and also the loads/weight they are using.

At such a young age, players need to develop quality movement skills instead of focusing on "getting huge." Yet coaches everywhere are concerned with their players not being big enough. Hypertrophy (increase in muscle size) is difficult to come by for even grown men. So to put that much emphasis and pressure on younger athletes is something that should not be done.

Body builders usually have poor flexibility, chronic injuries of the shoulders and knees and are not very well equipped for sports other than posing on stage.

Encourage young athletes to get stronger, but don't be surprised if they don't get a whole lot bigger. Strength comes from the muscle(s) functioning better as a unit. Hypertrophy may be a side effect, but it should not be the outright goal. Training for muscle size has its own sport: body building.

6 Steps to a Better Athlete - Part 2: Agility

2010-09-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

What is agility? If you had to explain it to a parent, could you? Sure most coaches have heard of an agility ladder, but what is it exactly that you are attempting to teach with an agility ladder?

Agility is simply the ability to accelerate for a given distance, decelerate, change direction and re-accelerate.

Teaching agility doesn't require any fancy tools or devices, just a sound understanding of what it is and what physiological principle it relies on. Once that is understood, the practical application of that principle is a piece of cake.

Agility relies on the same principle as plyometric exercise does: the stretch shortening cycle (SSC). The SSC is a series of actions that occur within a muscle. When a quick stretch is placed on a muscle it will contract quicker than if the muscle were held in a stretch and then shortened.

This is not to say that you train agility in the same way that you train for jump height, just that the principle is the same. Basically, the muscle can contract quicker when it is quickly stretched and then released with a muscle contraction.

Here is a way i explain it to our young athletes. I got this from Mark Verstegen and it is a terrific way to explain it to kids and parents alike.

Place your hand flat on your chest with your palm against your chest. Now lift your middle finger down and slam it against your chest as hard and as fast as you can. Pretty quick. But now what I want you to do is take the thumb from your other hand and lift the middle finger of the hand that is on your chest to a quick stretch and then move your thumb. That middle finger comes down a lot quicker.

The thing is, you didn't have to think about it. Instead the mechanics of the muscle caused it to contract quicker. So in a practical sense, you have to teach the muscle to move faster.

However, there is one thing that must be considered when training for agility: deceleration. Being able to hit full speed and then decelerate is a very complex skill, one that most kids do incorrectly in a sport setting.

Now most deceleration takes place by loading only a single leg as that leg is planted and then pushed off of in another direction. One exercise you can do to improve deceleration and strength is a single leg hop to squat.

Have your players balance on a single leg then jump up. As they come back down have them sink into a single leg squat and tough their shoe laces. This should really open your eyes as to which kids are going to be the most agile.

Athletes basically have to slow themselves down like a car going from 60-0 mph. This means not only controlling their own body weight, but also controlling the inertia created by their body weight.

Another exercise that you can use is a lateral bound to squat. This is a similar exercise but focuses more on lateral deceleration. I hope your catching the major concept of agility here.

To perform the lateral bound, have the athlete balance on a single leg and then jump laterally to the other leg, where upon landing they will squat and touch their shoe lace. Now remember that a squat must come from the hips. If the athlete simply bends at the waist, then this is not going to be very effective and will actually encourage a bad, BAD habit.

Continue to enforce control upon landing, making sure that the foot is perpendicular to the direction of travel. This will make sure the glutes are used in both deceleration and reacceleration.

Stay tuned for the next post as we talk about rhythm and how to incorporate it into your practices for improved movement, speed and agility!

Is a pitcher REALLY an athlete?

2010-09-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have a difficult time justifying the use of the word "athlete" when it comes to pitchers. There logic states that if a guy can be 40 lbs overweight and be a "professional" is it really an "athletic" position? Or is it simply an athletic skill?

In other words, what does it really take to be a pitcher?

If we watch pitchers, most of the time they simply chuck and duck. But then consider what they need to be able to do after they duck: they may have to field the ball, sprint to first, sprint to back-up home or even dive to get out of the way of a ball.

That's quite a lot!

So we've identified what a pitcher has to be able to do in addition to throwing. And there are many great pitching coaches who can teach a player how to pitch. But do coaches ever work on actually playing the position?

That is something that may require a bit more skill. When you have to react that quick, that infrequently, there may be some additional training that is necessary. First off, simply reaction time is start. But don't go trying to hit line drives right at your athletes for the sake of reaction time training. There are safer ways to go about it

The second part of this should be footwork and foot speed. Improving a pitchers foot speed is paramount in allowing them to react quickly to the ball as well as find the bag when covering first or field a ball that comes to them.

These are very underrated qualities in a pitcher. Many people tend to forget that as soon as the ball leaves his hand, he is a position player. As such, his training should reflect that. Foot speed can be developed by using low boxes, agility drills, ladder drills, partner mirror drills and rapid response-to-sprint drills.

At Pair & Marotta Peak Performance this is what we do. We train players to be athletes, not just pitchers. We currently have our Off-Season Baseball/Softball Training Camp that meets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday's from 3:30-5pm. If you've got the desire to improve your foot speed, reaction time and agility, then we've got the program that will do it.

For more information, contact me at aaron@pairmarotta.com or call 661-912-9991.

6 steps to a better athlete: Part 1 - how do they learn?

2010-09-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

There are multiple parts to agility: rhythm, coordination, balance, flexibility, body awareness, reaction time. All of these can be trained to improve ANY athletes performance. But how?

For the next 2-weeks I am going to take you through the importance of each of these components so that you can take these concepts and use them in your practices.

But to start we need to learn how an athlete learns a skill.

First off, there are different types of learning styles. Some people are visual learners that learn by watching, others learn by listening or reading. And still others learn by doing. However, most people and especially kids, are a good combination of the 3.

My experience has shown me that as kids get older they tolerate, appreciate, and pay more attention to audible teaching. However, younger kids (under12) tend to be more visual and kinesthetic learners (do-ers).

For younger athletes they are at such a prime age that their brain is ripe for basically writing codes for how to perform a movement. So expecting perfection within the first few attempts is not realistic. They know what it should look like (visual learning) and they then try to mimic that movement.

However, since there is no prior motor program for this movement skill, it's bound to look a little sloppy. But give them time. This is the one thing I see so many coaches focus on: immediate success. With the pressure to be perfect you can almost assuredly push a youth athlete away from a sport. Let them learn from movement.

When they appear to be struggling, help them move through the motion. Put their body in the correct position. As I stated in the previous post, you have to groove a quality movement before you can expect perfection. With that being said, learning is not immediate. Heck , it may take 2-4 weeks or longer before a movement is learned.

But stay away from simply rehearsing the one skill. Research shows that kids learn better in short bursts of information rather than one massive "info-bomb." Spend 5-10 minutes on a skill, then move to another. Then come back to it. You'll keep attention much better and as a result improve retention of the skill.

Groovin' the movement

2010-09-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

This is a quick post about learning. Many, many parents of athletes, particularly baseball and softball, choose to use weighted balls and bats in order to "make their kids stronger."

On the surface, this makes sense. But if you look a little deeper into what there body is learning to do, you'll see that often that the intricate motion of throwing is changed when a heavier ball is used.

Nobody follows through like that at the plate!

Watch a player swing a bat with a donut on it, does that swing look like the swing they are going to take when they walk to the plate? From watching youth baseball, I would hope that player doesn't take his "on-deck weighted" swing with him to the plate!

The same principle needs to be used when teaching movement to younger athletes. They are at such a prime learning age, it makes no sense to refine mechanics and then all of a sudden switch to a heavier or lighter weight that might disrupt that pattern.

What we do in our sports training is similar in concept. For kids up to age 12-13, we do minimal weight lifting. instead we focus on developing body control and awareness through body weight exercises. Then we simply try to groove the correct movements into a motor skill that can be executed without thought, essentially making the movement a "sure thing."

In summary, if you've got a younger athlete who appears to be excelling in a given sport or movement, don't confuse them by throwing another variable at them. Instead, groove that quality pattern, keep refining it over and over. Then when they get to 14-15 years old, then we can start adding some external resistance.

I don't teach athletes how to jump...

2010-08-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

It never fails that people want to know how much their athletes vertical leap will improve IF they enroll our training programs. If they don't like the answer they get they usually brush me off and head off looking for somebody that will give them the answer they are looking for.

So in reality many parents are simply asking a question of my ability. But a parent or coaches concerns about my ability should not lie in whether I can improve their vertical jump, but whether I can keep them injury proof. Here is why.

I WON'T TEACH YOUR ATHLETE TO JUMP, UNTIL THEY KNOW HOW TO LAND.

If a skydiver can't land, should he really be jumping out of a plane?

The majority of non-contact knee and ankle injuries come from improper foot placement during deceleration/landing or from inadequate joint stabilization during landing. Either way, the problem is during the landing.

I have been researching hamstring strains in sprinters and even in those cases, the hamstring is never injured on the pull through, but rather is injured immediately after the heel strike following the flight phase.

Soccer Player Cutting

So if you want to keep your players safe, teach them how to land. Teach them how to decelerate and teach them that having a high vertical leap, possessing a fast shuttle run and having a lightning quick T-test is only a result of proper deceleration training - the same type of quality training that we focus on in our "Bullet Proof Your Knees" Soccer Camp.

We are starting tomorrow and still have a handful of spaces available. The camp meets on Tues/Thurs from 4-5pm for 6 weeks. For only a $120 investment, your athlete will come away more agile, quicker, and most importantly, with a much lower risk of non-contact injury!

For more information send me an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com.

What your squat says about your injury potential

2010-08-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

A squat is the most simple of movements. But at the same time it is the most complex. And because it is the most complex, how you squat tells a lot about how your body is working.

http://www.elon.edu/images/e-web/athletics/strengthconditioning/sc9.jpg

Each joint has to control force from a handful of different muscles pulling on it in different directions. A simple way to envision this is a telephone pole being held up by stabilizing lines to keep it straight up. If one of those lines were to be released, what would happen to the pole? It would lean into the direction that still has the lines attached.

The same thing goes on in the joints of the body. However, because the knee is the joint of two long bones (femur, tibia) it is particularly important that this joint has muscles pulling with equal force in each direction. The squat tells us all we need to know about how a player controls the motion at the knee and the hips.

However, for many youth soccer players, equivalent strength isn't the case. Often times the quadriceps are the strongest muscle acting on the knee while the hamstrings and gluteal muscles of the hip have the greatest input into controlling the lateral motion and rotation at the knee.

ACL tears are most common in female soccer

The knee is meant to flex and extend forward and backward. However, there is very little room for movement from side to side or for the tibia to rotate under the femur. The gluteal muscles and hamstrings help control these motions. However, so many soccer players are not strong enough in the gluteal or hamstring muscles to prevent excessive movement in these planes of motion.

This is how the dreaded ACL sprain/tear occurs. A combination of the femur shifting forward on the tibia, the tibia rotating outward under the femur and the knee caving inward towards the other knee. It's what I call the Perfect Storm. The reason this is the perfect storm is that it is the most vulnerable position for a player to be in. At that point, the player has the least amount of muscle recruitment and control over what happens next. And inevitably, knee injuries will occur.

So how can you prevent this? Well the first step is to TRAIN your players on what the position of vulnerability looks like. After that you need to develop strength in the muscles that prevent these three motions from occurring. The final step is to train them how to change direction and decelerate effectively to keep themselves out of this position. Click on the picture to the right to read about how a promising soccer player's season and possibly career was cut short due to this nasty, but PREVENTABLE injury.

Knowing the types of exercises and skill sets to train to prevent ACL injuries are what we do here at Pair & Marotta Peak Performance. "Bullet Proof Your Knees" is a 6-week soccer pre-season program that focuses on developing hamstring and gluteal strength properly align the knee in a high speed movement. The "Bullet Proof Your Knees" camp starts Tuesday, August 30th and will run every Tuesday and Thursday from 4-5pm. For more information, email aaron@pairmarotta.com or visit www.pairmarotta.com/fitness.

Are we even doing this correctly?

2010-08-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

How many youth coaches are training their players to be slower?

How many want their kids to move like a sloth and then get absolutely juked out of their shoes as the opposing player runs right by them?

How many infielders want to have the range of a step and a fall?

Certainly there are not any coaches who want their players to be SLOW. But many are unintentionally making their players slower!

You see the nervous system is a very plastic thing. Plastic is a fancy word. it's true. When something is plastic, it changes to take on the characteristics of its mold and then holds onto those traits.

So when the human neuromuscular system is considered plastic, it will take on the traits of whatever stress is placed on it. Most of us want our players to be fast. In order to do this we need to make sure that their movements are fast each and every time. Otherwise the neuromuscular system will begin to operate in the speed range of whatever speed is most often used.

Right now many of you are envisioning telling your players to constantly move fast. You're envisioning them moving faster than lightning and envisioning them doing it for the entire 90 minutes of your practice.

But there is a problem.

The human body cannot move as fast as possible for very long. And by very long I mean any longer than about :10. After that fatigue begins to set in. How do we combat that? By giving more than enough rest. So many coaches are of the mindset that kids are not making progress unless they are about ready to fall over from exhaustion.

If you want them to be great at running slowly for 90 minutes straight, then sure. keep them going. But you aren't going to get very good work out of them. Think about it. The team is running for "conditioning." They aren't moving very fast and they are doing hundreds, if not thousands of repetitions at less than maximal contraction speed.

What exactly is this TRAINING them to do? Because that is what is being done. Just like we train horses how to run, jump and canter, we train kids bodies to move at a certain speed. Whether we intend to or not, it happens. So with every step, they are getting slower and slower.

To make athletes faster, you MUST present a stimulus that requires them to move as fast as possible (while still in control). Then give them plenty of rest so they can come back and give you another rep with 110%.

This is something that we have developed over the past 5 years through research and through practical experience. We practice this in our FAST Forward and Movement First Programs. Don't believe me? Come try either class out for a week on me.

We start next week, August 30! Do not wait to sign up, we will only be taking 8 athletes for each of these groups. For more information, visit our website www.pairmarotta.com/fitness.

Send me an email at Aaron@pairmarotta.com and we will be sure to get you setup for a free week of workouts!

Do you have rhythm?

2010-08-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

Many coaches, parents and players tend to go straight to the fancy plyometric training when they think sports training. But as we discussed in the last blog, that is a crucial mistake that can lead to injury at worst, poor performance at best. But if you really want to get faster, you must simply coordinate the body and muscles to move faster and more efficiently while minimizing wasted movement.

The best way to go about this is to develop rhythm. Rhythm is one of the foundations of agility.

Skipping is a quality power/rhythm exercise

One of the best way to teach rhythm is by doing a very basic motion, that surprisingly many kids and adults struggle with:

Skipping.

Skipping requires rhythm, coordination, power, timing, balance and strength. It's no wonder that quick skips are favorite of youth agility coaches everywhere.

How can you plug this great exercise into your warm-up? It's pretty simple. Towards the end of your warm-up have your group skip 20-30 yards. But remember that skipping has to have a purpose. And remember there are many different ways to skip, each emphasizing movement patterns that are very useful in sport.

Start with short quick skips with the athletes pushing hard through the ankles only.

Next have them do form skips, focusing on driving the knee up.

Next have them skip for height and distance. This one is a true power exercise. This is a good warm-up for a day emphasizing linear power development. But other ways to skip are backwards, sideways, sideways with a cross over, straight leg skips, single side high knee skips. Then if you've got a hill you can have them skip uphill. DO NOT SKIP DOWNHILL. The force placed on joints is simply too much and there isn't much technique or strength benefit from it.

Implement this drill with your athletes and you'll be amazed at how much it improves their speed, power as well as power!

PS/ Don't forget that our FAST Forward and Movement First programs are starting on August 30!! To sign up and improve the speed, agility, core strength and rhythm of your team or athlete, send me an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com. You can also visit www.pairmarotta.com/fitness for more information on our programs.

Progression: Getting the most from your athletes

2010-08-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

Most athletes are go-getters. They'll do anything you ask them to do. And often times will do things you don't ask them to. When training them for fitness and performance though, a good coach will be careful not to do too much, too fast, too soon.

And this is where most athletes have a hard time keeping things at the right level. Far too often players want to literally jump right into whatever it is they are doing. They want to start with plyometrics and ladder drills and skip right over everything that lays the foundation for those fun exercises.

So here is a basic progression that you can use with your teams, your kids and your athletes.

Squat/Jump Progression

Weeks 1-2 : perform basic body weight squats 3 sets of 20 reps (3 x 20) and hold each squat at the bottom for :03 seconds. Do this during each practice or 3 times per week.
Weeks 3-4: perform a jump and hold the athletic position for :03 seconds upon landing. Perform 3 x5 - 3 days per week.
Weeks 5-6: perform squat jumps and upon landing have the athlete take a small bounce before performing the next repetition. There will be no holding or pausing on the landing. Perform 3 x 8, 2 times per week.
Weeks 7-8: perform repetitive squat jumps with no holding on the landing going right into the next jump 3 x 5 twice per week. Also have the athlete perform single leg squats with a toe touch, 2 x 12 each leg. Perform each of these exercises 2 times per week.

Remember, you have to have a plan in order to get the most out of your athletes as well as to prevent injuries. An excellent resource for this is David Sadler's DVD Plyometrics Training. It's a terrific resource that shows you how to progress plyometrics for your young athletes.

We at Peak Performance take our athletes through a similar plyometric progression over a period of 12-16 weeks. This is how plyometrics should be taught.

We want your young athletes to benefit from our years of experience and education. To sign up for our FAST Forward Program for high school age athletes or our Movement First Program for younger athletes, email me at aaron@pairmarotta.com.

A picture is worth a thousand words

2010-08-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

Whenever we have new athletes come into our facilities, we do an assessment. This may not be an incredibly formal assessment, but nonetheless, we do one.

One of the most beneficial assessments is to watch a person perform a basic movement pattern such as a squat, a pull up or a pushup. The reason these are so beneficial is because they are so difficult to do correctly if joints, muscles or body systems are out of order.

Lets take a look at a pushup. Most people think a pushup is an upper body exercise. But if you take a broader look, you see that a pushup requires an enormous amount of core strength and stability. Watch someone do a pushup. Does their lower back sag, hanging down close to the ground? Do they shrug their shoulders on the way down during a pushup, thus preventing their chest muscles from actually contributing much to the exercise?

What does a pull up say about an athlete?

These two things can tell you SO MUCH about your young athlete!! It tells us first off where we need to start with their exercise program, and second off it tells us if they are going to be more prone to injury! Now, who WOULDN'T want to know if their child was at an increased RISK OF INJURY??!

But many youth sports trainers simply run kids through drills without considering how the child moves as a unit!

In summary, your child's movement tells us so much about their ability level that it truly is worth a thousand words. Do you want to make sure your child gets every advantage they can when it comes to sports? Do you want to make sure they don't suffer ANY injuries during their competitive years?

Then get them enrolled in our FAST Forward or Movement First training programs here at Peak Performance! We have programs starting on August 30th for both age groups at different times! I've seen it happen too many times, where parents put their kids into so many sports but don't give any thought to their fitness. Fitness is the foundation of sports!

I don't know why I love you, but I do...

2010-07-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I let the cat out of the bag and told you that although exercise is great for increasing strength, flexibility, cardiovascular health, ability to focus, energy production and heart health, it isn't your best bet for fat loss. What is? Lets say it together:

CHANGE MY EATING HABITS.

Great. Now that we are all on the same page lets look at what your priorities should be for fat loss

Nutrition
Interval training
Strength training
Traditional cardiovascular training

However, the something that should be included in the nutrition component is psychological training. Many people have psychological issues surrounding food and eating. Often they are emotional eaters who eat to feel better, or eat when they are anxious or perhaps even eat when they are bored. This doesn't even begin to mention how culturally we are conditioned to celebrate anything and everything by EATING.

I miss the days when people would have a dance party, or a slumber party or some other get together that didn't revolve around food. But now we celebrate Columbus Day by eating (okay, so maybe that's a bit far fetched, but not too far!) But I digress.

Take this next week to evaluate your eating habits. JOURNAL YOUR FOOD INTAKE THIS WEEK! See what times of day you eat, what types of foods you eat during the day and if there is any dramatic event that is associated with poorer choices in food.

Just make yourself a spreadsheet with the following labels across the top: "Time, Food, Quantity, Event?"

Then every time you eat something, put the time, the food, the quantity and list if there was any type of event or occurrence that may have led to the eating. If there was no event, then simply put which meal during the day it was for. If it was breakfast, type/write "breakfast". If it was snack, type/write "snack" in that column.

If you know why you are eating, you can get a better idea of how to control it and be the type of person who eats to live rather than lives to eat.

Have a great week off. The "Recovery Week Challenge" will be up Tuesday morning when I return from my motorcycle racing weekend!

Why am I doing this?

2010-07-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

I've said it many times before. And I am going to keep saying it no matter how much parents don't want to hear it:

Developing movement skills, and thus athletic ability, is like developing any other skill - It takes time and there is a process. Just like there is a process to learning the rules of language.

So here at Peak Performance, we emphasize teaching skills through drills. Far too many sport coaches, whether they be volunteer or "professionals" are busy simply running kids through drills without teaching them the one thing that matters, WHY AM I DOING THIS DRILL?

You really have to make a conscious effort to teach kids how to move. So if you simply ask them to do a ladder drill. Yeah they will probably be able to do it, but if you can't teach them how it carries over to their sport, then you're simply making a "ladder" athlete (a kid who's great at ladder drills). And last time I checked, there wasn't a trophy or scholarships given out for being good at ladder drills.

At Peak Performance, we emphasize the big WHY. We want our athletes to know why they are doing a drill and what skill it is they are developing.

We want you as parents to know as well. So if there is ever a point that your young athlete comes to you and says, "we did such and such drill today...but I don't know why," PLEASE send me an email. I want you and your athletes to know what it is your kids are doing and why it is your kids are doing it.

Our Movement First Program will be starting on August 30th. This is for athletes ages 8-12 and the time is from 6-6:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sign them up today!! The cost is $48. And trust me, this will be one of the best things you could do to develop their movement skills and thus, athletic ability!

Youth Sports Development

2010-06-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

When people think of youth sports development, they often think of sports skill development such as improving their golf swing, curveball or jump serve.

But if you want to actually develop a young athlete, improving their movement is a MUST.

How can anybody possible think that a 14 year old who has minimal hip mobility, a tight upper back and a weak core can possibly hit a curveball by "working" on his swing? Take a step back and see what the is the basis of the swing?

Movement.

Teach kids to move more efficiently, with fewer biomechanical restrictions and you'll clean up the swing in a hurry without even working on the swing!

Our Summer Speed, Strength & Power Camp just passed the half-way point. Within the 2 different groups, there are 2 different groups split on ability level/age. Each group gets a slightly different workout. The youngest group is focused on exploring movement, learning what their bodies are capable of. The oldest group is refining movement and learning HOW to workout on their own. The other two groups are essentially one step ahead of the younger group.

This is the spectrum that needs to be followed. This is DEVELOPMENT. The younger athletes we are working with will one day be at the level of the older kids. But there is no way in heck that the 8 year-old's in our groups will be doing the same workouts as the 18 year old. The 8 year old is different than the 12 year-old, who is different than the 15 year-old who is different than the 18 year-old.

Train smart, train hard, train MOVEMENT FIRST.

Another success story of a Peak Performance athlete...

2010-06-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the year I get quite a few updates about the players that we have trained. This year has been exceptionally well as we have had 4 of our seniors accept offers to play their respective sport in college.

However, today's update is about a high school softball player who will be playing for the Central Cal Intensity club softball team this summer. Cheyenne Rodriguez has been coming to us for a year and a half now. I first met Cheyenne at a New Year's Baseball/Softball Camp that we co-hosted at the end of 2008.

She signed up for our In-Season Baseball/Softball Program in January of 2009. She continued into the fall of 2009 and trained all the up to the start of softball season. Cheyenne has been one of the hardest working PLAYERS in our program! She has become one of the more explosive hitters on her team, consistently hitting the ball hard in every time she is up to bat.

We have worked to develop the connection between the amazing rotational power of Cheyenne's hips and the limitless potential of a strong core, to develop an amazing swing. This has been a work in progress. It wasn't a weekend camp, it wasn't hitting balls in practice over and over. It was teaching Cheyenne how to develop power and transfer through her core to her arms using medicine ball rotational hip throws, cable chops and single leg pushup's. Then those movement skills were carried into her sport skills.

So how well is she doing?

Cheyenne LAUNCHED a massive HOME RUN this weekend in an NSA tournament up in Madera, which saw CCI take the 18u championship!

Cheyenne and the rest of the CCI 18u team will be training at Pair & Marotta Peak Performance this summer to continue to develop every part of their athleticism. Most of the team was able to make it in for the past 3 months of our In-Season Baseball/Softball training program and we saw an amazing change in their leg strength, core strength and foot speed. But it must be learned over period of time.

Our Speed, Strength & Power (SSP) Camp can do just that for your players this summer. Speed and power training is a must in the competitive sports of today. Great players will only get by on talent for so long. But a combination of talent and movement skill training at our SSP camp will ensure a better athlete that has fewer injuries and better outcomes in competition.

This years SSP Camp starts NEXT MONDAY, June 7th. It's not too late to register! Sign up today and make sure you are one of the 20 athletes that invests 48 hours this summer training to be a Peak Performer!

Endurance Training: Do we really even need it?

2010-05-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

Many people are unclear on the benefits of endurance training. And that can be partly attributed to the fact that most people automatically think 10k run or running a marathon. That's just the notion that endurance training brings up.

But in the past few years to many coaches have gotten away from anything associated with endurance because the thought is that it isn't "fast-twitch" enough for sports. But endurance training takes on many forms.

There is cardiovascular endurance, which is what most people think of. This is the ability to produce a high rate of energy through aerobic metabolism for a prolonged period of time.

The next is muscular endurance. This is where the concept of endurance gets tricky because most kids DO actually need endurance. Actually we all do. Endurance of postural muscles to maintain spinal stability can greatly reduce back injuries and chronic pain. Also, low weight, high rep muscular endurance training is often necessary for teaching proper movement patterns such as squats, pushups, lunges, etc.

The third is psychological endurance which is essentially what we call mental toughness. But this cannot be pounded into kids. It needs to be cultivated and trained just like other parts of performance.

Cardiovascular endurance is the one type of endurance that although great for the heart, lungs and circulatory system, can have negative muscular effects if done incorrectly. Running is the basic cardiovascular endurance exercise. But it certainly isn't the only.

Instead we can do a body weight circuit of pushups, squats, bear crawls, lateral lunges, sprint and repeat, for a period of 5-6 minutes. This would train muscular endurance as well as cardiovascular endurance without overtraining the way jogging does.

It is this type of training for youth athletes that we do at our Summer Speed, Strength & Power Camp. This performance camp has a junior group and a high school group. Both groups get endurance training but only in the appropriate methods, and durations to improve performance. In addition, a stronger core with more muscular endurance WILL improve sprinting, agility and quickness.

Sign your young athletes up by filling out this form and dropping it off at Pair & Marotta Physical Therapy at 5337 Truxtun Ext before next Friday! Let your youth athletes open next sport season with a refined set of athletic skills that will truly set them apart from the competition!

Conditioning: What exactly is it?

2010-05-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Conditioning is often thought of as simply post-training misery, often in the form of running and running...and running.

But when I give you this new definition of conditioning, it may very well change the way you coach or train.

Conditioning is simply the body's direct response to stimulus. The body will respond by adapting to the stimulus presented.So if you run and run and run with minimal rest or at a given speed, you or your athletes will get very good at running and running and running at that speed.

This might not be bad for endurance athletes. But think about the effects on athletes that need to sprint or sports that have specific work:rest intervals. What will this do to them?

If you're a baseball or softball player and your coach has you running laps around the diamond for 12-15 minutes, this is going to actually DECONDITION you. Yes, that is right. This will take you out of condition for your sport.

Baseball and softball requires bursts of sprinting followed by often long rest periods. So a better alternative would be to have athletes run a single, or a double followed by up to 8 times the duration of getting to the base.

So for example, if it took a player 8 seconds to run a double, their rest period should be upwards of 1:00. This may seem too long to some of you coaches. You're might calling me a liar, or some other adjective.

But slow down and think about it. If we want our players to get good at running fast, then we need to make sure they run their fastest. Will a player be able to run faster if they know they are going to have to run a 1/4 mile or if they only are running 60 yards?

You don't have to run once and then done, but have them run their double, rest for 1:00 and then repeat up to 10 times. This really won't be that tough because having 10 players running from home to 2nd will allow that first runner to rest almost a minute before the last runner pulls up. Then send them from 2nd to home. Repeat 5 times and you've got 10 sprints in 10 minutes.

So just think about the effects your training will have on the "conditioning" of your athletes. They will get better at whatever it is they do. If you want them to be weak, keep them from lifting. Want them to be slow? Make them run long periods of time with minimal rest.

Want them to be fast, agile and powerful? Send them to our Summer Speed, Strength & Power Camp. This camp will make ANYBODY faster, agile like a cat and lead them in the right direction for optimal sports performance. Don't wait, spots are filling up quickly!

Athletic Development: The Right Way

2010-05-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

What is meant by the word "Development"? What is it to "develop" something? We can develop idea's, we can develop products, we can develop human resources.

But whatever the context it is used in, the word "develop" has one component of it that is always true: Development takes TIME. If you have ever heard the phrase "research & development" it is a long, arduous task that can take decades in some cases.

Athletic development is no different. It doesn't occur overnight. Although some parents, coaches and players want development to occur at the blink of an eye.

At Pair & Marotta Peak Performance, there have been quite a few young athletes come through. Many come for a summer and then go on their way, upset that their vertical didn't improve by at least 12" or that their bench press didn't improve by 80 lbs.

However, there have been a handful of kids (and parents) that have seen the light and understood the concept of athletic development. They have understood that it takes time, that lasting progress is a slower process.

I had the pleasure of watching one of these young athletes this last Friday. His name is Matt Packer. Matt first came in during our Summer Speed, Strength & Power Camp 2007. Matt was smaller than other guys his age, and in fact smaller than some guys 2 or 3 years younger than him. But Matt and his dad Dave realized that long term success wasn't going to hinge on whether Matt was hitting home runs during his sophomore year in high school, or having a vertical jump of 36" by the end of summer.

Instead they took that long term approach. Since June of 2007 Matt has been coming in faithfully 3 times per week during the baseball off-season and usually once or twice per week during the season. He was seeing a hitting coach once a week and just keeping his sights set on the long term goal of just getting better.

This year Matt has started each game at 2nd base. He's been hitting the ball hard on a line as well as the occasional double off the wall. His work has paid off with a very consistent season. Then it was Friday against Centennial that Matt's YEARS of hard work were got the ovation he deserves.

Matt hit an opposite field 3-run home-run in the 2nd inning of Stockdale's 16-4 win at Centennial. Matt had a stellar day going 2 for 3 with four RBI's and a walk.He's one of the rare kids who always shows up with ready to work. And it's paid off. Matt will be playing baseball in college.

So to the parents and coaches of young athletes, remember that you are developing athletes. You are not training professionals. Take the Development route and long-term success is guaranteed.

But short cut the development process and all bets are off.

Congratulations to Matt on his first high school home run and a spectacular outing against a top team and top pitcher!

To enroll in our Summer Peak Performance Camp, send me an email and get your Athletic Development started!

More nutrition information

2010-05-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

I know most of you parents are very busy.

But if you get some free time this weekend, try to watch this video by Jeff Cavaliere. He is a well known, and well respected strength coach and physical therapist in the sports fitness world.

He is very nutrition oriented (As am I!!) and he knows a lot about how to fuel a young athletes movement and performance. And I can honestly tell you that if you think sports nutrition is something that isn't that important you can expect a short career.

Your body is constantly cycling through building (anabolic) and breakdown (catabolic) stages. When your body rebuilds, it has to have something to rebuild with!

You can rebuild with quality materials (vegetables, fruit, lean meats, etc.) or you can rebuild with poor quality materials (fast food, junk food, soda, etc). The choice is yours.

So here is the video from Jeff Cavaliere. Again, it is quite long so if you need to, watch it in 5-minute clips.

Also, remember that Pair & Marotta Peak Performance will be hosting their Summer Speed, Strength and Power Camps. If you are interested, email me at Aaron@pairmarotta.com. You can bet that everybody in the group learns not only how to improve performance, but also how to change their eating habits to become a better athlete!!

The "bully" Parent

2010-04-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

This is upsetting. I just got word from a player that her friends dad was making her play. She was in pain, and he would not let her come out.

I've tried sending emails and talking to parents. But many parents won't listen.

they think I'm trying to tell you how to parent.

They think I'm calling you out on your ability to parent.

They think I'm just some guy who doesn't know how to "groom" a young athlete to be a professional athlete.

Guess what? I am on their side, I am for them, I care about their kids and I care about their health.That is why I am going to be blunt. And I realize this may run some of them off from having their kids train with me. But this is where the rubber meets the road.

When your kids say they are hurt, LISTEN TO THEM!!

Don't call them a wimp. Don't call them lazy and sure as heck DON'T LEAVE THEM IN THE GAME!

Why would a parent possibly want their kids to play through pain? I wish someone would explain it to me. Because the reasons i've heard are nothing but parents enforcing their lost hopes and dreams onto their kids.

"It builds mental toughness," "It promotes a good work ethic" "They need to get ready for college," "They're just faking it to get out of playing."

Mental toughness can be developed in other ways than playing through an injury, a good work ethic can be developed by completing homework and school projects, and they don't need to get ready for college until they are a sophomore or junior in high school, and even then if they were, an injury is a serious thing.

If it turns out they are faking it, then do you really think they've got the drive to play in college? Maybe they SHOULDN'T play in college if they don't want to play in high school?!

Here's my point. Parents care for their kids when it comes to their feelings, when it comes to them being sick, they care for them when it comes to their mental health. But for some reason, they insist on implementing their own goals for them regardless of the roadblocks.

Listen to these young athlete. If they say they are hurt, pull them out and don't let them play for 2 weeks!! But they say a "scout" is there?? At that point I ask, which is more important, your kids health or impressing a "scout"?

Your kids are smart enough to know when they are hurt. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Don't make them play through pain and don't work them so hard that they suffer a career ending injury!

We all want our kids to be the best. but at some point parents have to stop being fans, and start being parents who are looking out for the well being of their kids.

If you really want them to get better at their sport, register them for our Peak Performance Summer Camp. Starting June 7th, the Peak Performance Camp will have 3 different groups meeting.

Junior Peak Performance 1-2:30pm M,T,Th,F
High School Women's peak Performance: 3-5pm M,T,Th,F
High School Men's Peak Performance: 3-5pm M,T,Th,F

For more information shoot me an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com

The "Bully" Coach

2010-04-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

The other day I was speaking with a parent whose son runs track. She was telling me about his ankle injury and how he had gone to see the doctor, who said it was just a sprain and that he should just take it easy. This doctor visit was back in January. Doc said he didn't see anything, however swelling was obvious along with some discoloration. A true sign of a ligament sprain.

So this kid finishes soccer season, ankle still causing pain, and starts running track. He's pretty fast so the coach puts him on a relay team. This poor kid wants to run, likes to run, but has an ENORMOUS amount of pain in his ankle following any prolonged running.

The parent calls and says that they finally got the doctor to prescribe physical therapy with us. The parent calls to schedule the initial evaluation and I tell them that the best time is going to be in the early afternoon, between 3-5pm. What does this parent say?

My son is afraid to miss practice because his coach said if he can't practice then he might as well not show up for the meet this weekend. So what happens?

This young athlete has to make a choice between his own health or submitting to the will of his coach. This parent tells me that every time this young athlete runs, his ankle is absolutely killing him after practice, to the point to where he can't walk.

Three things that should be blatantly obvious here:

This kid is hurt. Why the heck is he STILL participating?? Not only should he not practice, despite his coach's threats, but he shouldn't run the coming weekend!!!! Common sense would tell you this kid should not be running if he is hurt!!
Why has this parent taken so long to finally "force" their child into rehabilitating this injury? They are the parent, not the kid!! They should not be caving to the wishes of the coach either! Take care of your kid.
This coach has done an excellent job of demonstrating that his own desire to win is more important than the health of his athletes. Great job man, way to keep your priorities straight. Any parent who has their child playing for a coach like this should immediately pull their child off that team. That is no way to treat a 7th grade athlete.

Contrary to popular belief, playing through an injury is not manly, masculine or heroic. It's foolish. This isn't war where if you lose you die. This is youth sports, where if you lose you still get a sno-cone.

Coaches, DON'T BE THAT COACH. Don't be the coach who places winning above the well-being of your athletes.

Parents: DON'T BE THAT PARENT. Don't be the parent who caves to the demands of overbearing coaches.

Do you want your child to play well? Make sure they are healthy. Don't let them try to play through an injury. If something is obviously wrong with the way they throw, run, jump or swing, get them out of the game and get them to a physical therapist or athletic trainer to evaluate the injury.

The ultimate way to decrease the chances of an injury is to prepare your child for the sport. Enroll them in our Summer Peak Performance Camp. The camp is 4 days per week, and is 6 weeks long. Enroll before the end of May and get a free T-shirt as well as a free Peak Preparation warm up manual. Give them every chance to succeed.

Because the best athlete is a healthy athlete.

Preventing Injuries...through common observation

2010-04-05T15:35:00.001-07:00

There are many strategies for preventing injuries. Many training facilities will offer a "pre-hab" or specific injury prevention program. These programs are - hopefully - research based on the specific contributing factors of common injuries in the specific sport. These injury prevention programs are very good at getting parents and athletes very excited about the program.

But here is the kicker - Any good program, will be an "injury prevention" program. That is what a good training program is supposed to do!! What is the alternative? An injury causation program??The first goal of any and every program should be to prevent injury. If a training program results in you jumping 3" higher, but it changes your mechanics to a more injury prone movement pattern, then are those 3" really worth it??

So here are the basics of "designing" an "injury prevention" program.

Look at the sport being played and look at the fundamental movements. Remove any implement, such as a ball, bat or stick, and just look at how the body moves and then simply emphasize balance and train these movements for strength, balance and stability.
Look at factors related to injury in that sport. If injuries in the sport often occur during a "plant and cut" maneuver, then slow the motion down and train that motion for strength. For planting and cutting, a perfect exercise would be single leg squats, single leg lateral hopping, and lateral shuffle then sprint.
Assess the athlete. Some athletes are more prone to injury than others. This can be a result of biomechanical differences, previous injuries or simply poor technique. But understand that not every athlete will have the same needs. Actually, most athletes will not have the same needs. Instead each athlete will probably have a different priority during strength training.
Warm-up properly. Failure to adequately warm-up is a very common cause of injury. Why? The warm-up prepares the body and its systems for what is about to occur. Warm-up is the time to perform these "pre-hab" drills, which are really simply calisthenics such as pushups, squats, hopping, shuffling, etc. You can get a great warm-up program by sending me an email with Warm-Up Manual in the subject line. --> aaron@pairmarotta.com

Overall, injury prevention is simply good coaching, good training, and good preparation!!

Pair & Marotta Peak Performance will be having their Summer Speed, Strength and Power (SSP) Camp starting on June 7th!! Sign up before May 31st and get the Warm-Up Manual and a Peak Performance T-Shirt!!

Your kids are eating themselves to death

2010-03-23T09:26:00.001-07:00

Last night I got the privilege to watch a TV show featuring a famous British chef. His name is Jamie Oliver.

The show is called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and it was amazing. I was hooked!! The premise is that Jamie is trying to change the way that American's, more specifically American kids, eat. So he started in the town of Huntington, West Virginia.

Why there?

Huntington has the highest mortality rate, the highest rate of obesity and the highest childhood obesity rates. So last night I watched the first episode and it was amazing.

It was AMAZING how RESISTANT people are to changing the way they eat.
It was AMAZING that kids in the elementary school were eating pizza for breakfast, chicken nuggets for lunch and the chicken nuggets again for dinner!!
It was AMAZING how the school cooks did not want to change the way they made things.
It was AMAZING how the USDA food nutritional standards were met by day old frozen pizza, but not by brown rice!!!
It was AMAZING how the family whose house he invaded were eating golden fried food every night for dinner.

So what I want you guys to do either tonight or tomorrow night is to watch this first episode of Jame Oliver's Food Revolution on your computer, preferably with your kids. (Click on the link to go to the video.)

Yes, that's right...I want you to WATCH TV!!! You need to see what the government thinks is healthy food!! I'm not trying to bad mouth the government, but when you watch this video, you too will instantly think, "WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!!"

Have a Hugely HEALTHY day!!

Easy Nutrition Facts from the Trainer to the Pro's

2010-03-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, it's been a while since i've posted.

There has been a lot going on. As many of you know we at Pair & Marotta Peak Performance have been training many of the CSUB teams and some have had, or are in the middle of the best season's ever!!

Women's Basketball earned their first Division I post-season invite, and as the #7 seed out of 8 teams, almost knocked off the #2 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in overtime...
Men's swim finished 3rd in their conference championships and earned a top 10 National Ranking of mid-major schools (9th)...
CSUB Baseball got off to a hot start sweeping Air Force in a 4 game series...
All teams had good years considering they are in only their 3rd year of D-1 play. Next year all teams will be post-season eligible

However, most of you and your teams don't play college baseball or any other college sport. But one thing we have tried to instill in the athletes at CSUB is the concept of quality nutrition = quality performance.

Quality nutrition allows the body to recover faster, perform at a higher intensity longer as well as reduce the likelihood of injury, dehydration and other effects of poor nutrition.

Many of you have emailed me with questions about nutrition in the past. I have suggested a few different options, such as Dr. Chris Mohr's "Fuel Like a Champion" DVD and have also sent out my own recommendations for optimal nutrition.

However, there is a new resource I would like to introduce you to. His name is Jeff Cavaliere. Jeff was a strength and conditioning specialist for the New York Mets 2 years ago and now runs a very successful youth performance facility.

He has also recently gotten BIG into youth nutrition. Why? Because he knows how important it is. Just take a look at his free report, "14 Surprising Facts About Sports Nutrition." It's loaded with great tips on how to prepare your child for the demands of school AND sports. He knows what it's like to eat "hot lunch" in the cafeteria, and he knows what happens when you ditch your usual lunch of soda and frito boats for good, high quality REAL food!

So again, check out his free report and then dig into what he has to say. I promise it will help your young athlete more than you would ever believe!!

Warm Up to run faster!!

2010-01-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

The pre-event warm-up is often the most overlooked aspect of training for improved performance. Take a look at what a "warm-up" is to most coaches and it looks a lot like effortless stretching from players while they joke around and laugh.

But realize that warm-up is not just A time to get faster, it is THE time to get faster on field. And their are many exercises and skill development techniques that can be used as part of a warm-up to make you or your athletes FASTER.

The truth is that great returns can be made on small time investments as long as the effort of exercise is VERY high

Now to avoid the longest blog post yet, I have put together a FREE manual for you titled:

Peak Preparation: A guide to movement preparation

This spring it will be available for purchase. But I want to give it to you for free! All you have to do is send me an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com titled warm-up and I will send you back a copy of the manual in PDF format.

All you have to do is print it off, put it in a binder and BANG...it's ready to take to the field and get put to use THAT DAY. This free manual offer is up Sunday January 25th.

Pair & Marotta Peak Performance is dedicated to improving the fitness of baseball and softball players all over Bakersfield! That is why we are GIVING this away. I'm not trying to make money off of this (yet).

You have only yours and your player's health at risk here. How much is that worth? Hopefully it's worth the time it takes to send me an email and read a 25 page training manual!!

Again, send email aaron@pairmarotta.com and I will email it back to you THAT day!!

Rotating your diet

2010-01-13T07:38:00.000-08:00

When it comes to nutrition for weight loss, it is often easy to overlook the fact that your energy needs will vary from day to day. Otherwise, some day's you might take in too much energy, and other days you may not take in enough. Some days you might take in the correct TYPES of energy and other days you may be eating the wrong foods! So the key is to plan your eating around your planned exercise.

After calculating an estimate of your resting metabolic rate (daily caloric requirement), use 80% of that total as your caloric goal for your non-exercise days. On your the days you are scheduled to exercise take in 100% of that number. Remember, your resting metabolic rate is your estimated number of calories required if you were to only sit all day long. If you are exercising and reducing caloric intake below that number you run the risk of your body breaking down muscle to use as energy.
The type of energy you take in should vary from day to day based on scheduled exercise. Because grains are primarily carbohydrates they provide a lot of usable energy. But if you are having a heavy grain day on a non-exercise day, where do you think all that energy goes? That's right. Your body stores it as fat. On the days when you are going to exercise, do not hesitate to include grains in your breakfast, lunch and/or dinner.
Protein intake should increase the evening of and the day after exercise because the resistance training you did earlier that day, broke down muscle and it needs to be repaired ASAP.

Below is an example of a schedule you could follow with each type of food as the primary food for the day.

Day 1 - Resistance Training - Grains, Fruits/Veggies, Meat (Beef/Chicken), Dairy
Day 2 - Cardiovascular training - Fruits/Veggies, Meat (fish), Dairy, Grains
Day 3 - Rest - Fruits/Veggies, Meat (Pork), Dairy, Grains
Day 4 - Resistance Training - Grains, Fruits/Veggies, Meat (Beef/Chicken), Dairy
Day 5 - Cardiovascular Training - Fruits/Veggies, Meat, Dairy, Grains
Day 6 - Recovery - Meat (Eggs), Veggies/Fruits, Dairy, Grains
Day 7 - Rest - Fruits/Veggies, Dairy, Meat, Grains

This doesn't have to be exactly how you schedule your meals. But hopefully you can see how the kinds of macronutrients (fat, protein, carbohydrates) coordinate with your activity level. All of the food groups are necessary and the wider the array of foods you eat, the better your body will respond to the training methods you use.

SAVE YOUR SEASON!!

2010-01-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

Sports these days are the most intense they've ever been. That is until next year roll's around.

However, there are ways to prevent fatigue, acute injuries and overuse injuries over the course of the season. Research on strength training in youth athletes improves strength, balance, coordination: all of which combine to improve sports performance.

As muscles fatigue and breakdown over the course of a season, the potential for disastrous injuries such as ACL tears, meniscus tears, ankle sprains and ROTATOR CUFF strains. An in season strength program serves to strengthen the muscles and nervous systems, that are stressed during the course of a season.

Exercises such as a Single Leg Squat, Plank to Pushup and Dumbbell chest press, strengthen muscles that act on key joints (knee, core, shoulders, respectively) and help protect those joints from the injuries stated above.

Aside from preventing physiological fatigue, strength training also has the potential to reduce psychological burnout by incorporating a new stimulus into the "everyday" routine of playing baseball or softball.

So perhaps the question is not why SHOULD you enroll your child in our In-Season Baseball/Softball strength program, but rather why WOULD you not?

Cereal that helps fight the flu??

2009-11-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

Is it true??

Can Cocoa-Puffs really help fight off the flu? I don't know about it but apparently Kellogg's is gambling that you're going to buy - pun intended - that box of lies.

There are a few key reasons as to why I am not buying this and what you can do to TRULY improve the immune system of your kids!!

First lets cover the reasons why you should not believe the label for a reason.

1. TO BE HEALTHY YOU HAVE TO START WITH A HEALTHY FOUNDATION. Does it even make sense that a sugary, chocolaty cereal will HELP your kids fight off disease? Everything else we are told is that sugar, highly processed foods are bad for us. So what is so different about puffed white rice (which is void of just about any nutritional value on its own) is going to help us? The answer: Nothing is different. Except...

2. FAKE VITAMINS AND MINERALS DO NOT MAKE FOR HEALTHY CEREAL. Kellogg's added some lab made vitamins that research has proven is not absorbed nearly as well as natural vitamins and minerals. An example of this is comparing the durability of real natural wood furniture vs. plywood furniture. Plywood is less expensive, but also breaks down much quicker than say, Oak furniture, and is not nearly as strong. Which would you rather have? One may cost more, but the quality is what you are paying for. Except now your decision does not just effect how long your furniture lasts. Rather your decisions effect the health of your child.

3. HIGH SUGAR INTAKE HAS BEEN SHOWN TO INCREASE RISK OF THE FLU. You are doing your child no favors by adding more sugar to their diet. A lie mixed with a little bit of truth is still a lie. An unhealthy food mixed with a few extra "goodies" does not make for a healthy food. Put it this way, do you really think whole wheat donuts are healthy?

Want to know how to truly improve the immune system of your child? Check out the "Fuel Like a Champion" DVD. Let Dr. Chris Mohr show you how to fuel your young athlete to build strong muscles, bones and immune systems the RIGHT WAY!!

Good or bad??

2009-10-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

I watched a video today and I want you to watch it. This will take about 4:00 and I want you to consider what you have just seen.

Now considering how it appears this kid got this strong...

Was he lifting external resistance?

Well other than the curls no. He wasn't.

Is this going to destroy his bones??

Probably not. Why you ask? The way that this muscular system was stressed is in a systemic fashion. He is not doing isolation exercises but rather he is controlling and managing his own body weight. This puts the right kind of stress on bones, ligaments and joints.

Another interesting fact is that the 6-pack you see on this child was not developed by doing hundreds of situps but rather was developed as a result of his body needing stability during the inverted pushups, pullups, gymnastics and other calisthenics.

Reading the comments on this video when it was posted on Yahoo!, there were hundreds of people who were upset claiming this poor kid was ruining his body and developing a "complex."

Perhaps more american kids should "ruin" their bodies like this and develop a "complex" of fitness. Perhaps then we'll stop that runaway train that is childhood obesity. If what you saw in this video disturbs you, then it is definitely a great idea to keep your child away from the following:

Monkey bars at school
Jungle Gyms at the park
Tree's he/she can climb
Hills they can run up
Things they can jump off such as benches and steps
Fun group activities such as partner wheel barrow's, crab walks, bear crawls and other weight bearing fun stuff

So this child has a relatively large amount of muscle and a relatively small amount of body fat on him. That is no reason to say my 5 year old should not be active.

Now my disclaimer. If indeed the parents are pushing this boy to do more and to engage in weightlifting at such a young age, then perhaps there is cause for concern. But from what I see. This boy is perfectly healthy and a model for engaging in physical activity instead of parking it in front of his playstation.

Clean Slate

2009-07-27T10:02:00.000-07:00

I wanted to talk all about injuries and how we attempt to control and prevent them with proper training. Many times trainers, including myself, like to advertise that their program is geared toward injury prevention. Many times you will see camps that are strictly for preventing a certain type of injury, say ACL tears.

If I don't put that claim in my flier, does it mean that I do not attempt to prevent injuries in your athletes? OF COURSE NOT!! That would incredibly irresponsible of me to do so.

Instead, what I want and need you to realize is that any good program should prevent injury. This occurs through making sure each athlete has solid movement and good muscle recruitment and coordination. If a player does not have a very clean squat, why the heck am I going to ignore it and say we'll go ahead and squat anyways? If a trainer did that to my child, I would have his head on a plate!!

Instead, realize that many young athletes will not use much more than body weight when they are first working with us. Many don't start working with weights even after a few years!

Why?

Let me give you an artistic example. If I were a painter and I paint a house that is covered in mud, do you think that paint is going to stick? Probably not. The first time I washed the house most of the paint would come off because the house I was painting was not clean.

And this is what happens with athletes and coaches who get too caught up in doing the "fun" stuff of plyometrics and speed work. If the athlete does not have clean movements, any thing a coach tries to teach is just going to be forgotten the first time they go out to play.

You have to un-teach the bad habits so that you're working with a clean slate. Only then will you see the all-star inside shine through the mud.

Sponges and Pruning

2009-07-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

How many parents want their young athlete to better than any other player in his or her age group?

Probably a lot of you. When your young athlete outperforms the competition, it is definitely something to be proud about.

However, if you child isn't the all-star on the 11U team, don't worry. THEY'RE 11!!

Don't try to turn your young player into a college athlete right now, because they don't have to be. At Pair & Marotta's Peak Performance Camp we had a pretty wide variety of athletes coming in. Most played baseball, some played soccer and a few played football.

Many played the same sport year round and other played multiple sports throughout the year. And the one thing that myself and Brian both noticed -

The kids who played more than one sport were by a sizeable difference, the better athletes.

Why is this though? Parents dump a lot of money into club teams and making sure that their child is playing the same sport year round. I mean if they want to get better, shouldn't they play more and more?? Not necessarily.

At a young age kids are like sponges, both mentally and physically. This is the time when we should be flooding them with different stimuli to make sure that we are building connections between the movement of their limbs and their brains.

What also happens at this time is a phenomenon called "pruning". You can look at pruning as the "use it or lose it" stage. If a child does not build bridges from their locomotion nerves to their brain, the body will "prune" the connection site because it is not needed based on minimal usage.

After this very sensitive time, if the nerves are not used and the skill is not regarded as important enough to maintain, then it is often very difficult to retrain the skill.

All in all, it is very important to present a wide variety of stimuli to young athletes and to start with very general movements before specific movements. This will ensure that as athletes grow they maintain movements that are needed as the foundation for more sport specific movements that will be refined as they get older.

Be sure to expose your young athlete to a wide variety of movements, sports and games as it will not be detrimental (contrary to popular belief) but only serve to make them better ATHLETES as they mature.

Close your eyes, you're not going to want to see this...

2009-04-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

With the start of baseball season, we are bound to see the rate of injuries go up. Yes, things happen and accidents occur. But many of these accidents do not have to happen. Many of them can be avoided if we only trained the muscles and reactive systems required to prevent many of them. It almost seems too easy.

Lets start from the ground up: the ankles.

Baseball along with many other sports is played on two feet. It also involves running. For the most part, the players are running on a flat surface. But it never fails you will see an athlete round the bases and sprain an ankle. Why does this occur? I mean he's done it thousands of times before, right?

We have no problem standing flat on our feet. But when we get a little sideways and we are standing on the outside of our feet, our ankle wants to keep on rolling. That is inertia - an object will maintain its path of travel until acted upon by an outside force.

If we can get the nervous system to recognize that our ankle is about to roll and quickly react and fix it, then we can prevent it from rolling. Some of you may have had this happen; you're running and the ankle starts to roll but you catch it and although it scared you, thinking you're about to sprain your ankle, but you caught it and it was nothing more than a scare.

To train this reactive ability, we need to train in what we call a proprioceptively enriched environment. Or simply a stability/balance challenged environment. At Pair & Marotta, we do this by having you stand on a single leg, or closing your eyes or placing you on an unstable surface such as an air disc, half a foam roll, or a airex pad.

This trains the muscles of your ankle to quickly recognize a potentially dangerous situation and react as opposed to having to think about it. The most convenient and beneficial time to work on balance and stability is during warm-ups. Balance on a single leg and reach in different directions, skip in different directions, shuffle and then change direction, run in different directions. These are all good things that will help prevent injury!!

You will see many of these types of exercises in "Peak Preparation: A On-Field Guide to Performance."

Are you doing more than just "something"?

2009-04-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you guys, I am a big fan of music. But then again, who isn't?

One of my favorite bands is the White Stripes. I know it might be a bit trendy but they are great musicians. What does this have to do with sports performance? What does this have to do with getting stronger, faster, quicker and more powerful?

The White Stripes have a song called Blue Orchid. And in that song, Jack White sings something so profound that it took me till now to get it. What did he sing?

"Something's better than nothing...Something's better than nothing is giving up!"

As an athlete, no... as a person, you should never catch yourself saying, "Well, something is better than nothing."

Something's better than nothing is not giving your all. And not giving your all, is giving up my friend.

So whether you are in school, or you're practicing, or your doing chores around the house or your mowing the lawn, or you are at Pair & Marotta getting your sports training done, give it everything you have. Make it the best you've ever done. Make it something to be proud of, something that when people see it, they are amazed at the effort that went into it.

Sports is all about giving everything you've got. The ones who win, who are champions, who outlast and play their opponents...they out "give" their opponents. Because they have more to give. That is what Pair & Marotta Sports Performance training is all about. We give everything we've got, to give you more. We want you to be so well conditioned, so well athletically trained, so focused on the task at hand, that you give everything and not a drop less.

When you give your all, it says something about you as a person. It says something about your parents, it says something about your friends. Actions speak louder than words. So don't give anything less than 100% and never let anybody hear you say, "something is better than nothing."

Because that my friend, is giving up.
____________________________________________________________________

Below is the workout of the week for your week off. Take it, work on it and give everything you've got.

Circuit type workout (follow each exercise immediately with the next, minimal rest)

Push-ups x 5
Rocket Jumps x 5 (tuck in when on ground, explode arms and legs into a star at highest point of jump)
Mountain climbers x 10
Hip Bridges x 10
Reverse Snow Angels x 10 (lie on belly, keeping arms and legs off the ground and make a snow angel)
Lateral shuffle 10 times each side

Do as many circuits as you can in 15 minutes. Coaches, this is a terrific workout to end a practice with. This is just a sample of what you can expect in "Peak Preparation: An On-Field Training Manual." You'll get that this summer.

Arm Care is Career Care

2009-03-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

For a baseball or softball pithcer, their arm is often their career. Any quality sports training program bakersfield should consist of an arm care program. If an athlete does not know how to take care of their arm, then their career won't stand a chance.

But what does arm care really consist of? Arm care consists of many things. Not the least is proper preventative care and proper recovery.

Many baseball and softball players go wrong with arm care. They often abuse their arms without ever knowing it. But I have a very knowledgeable person who is very excited to help you with any problem you might have. Click here to visit their website.

So lets talk proper warm-up. Personally, I am sold on Jeager Bands. These things are awesome and can be taken anywhere. No matter what position you play, you gotta have these bands. Pitchers throw every couple of days. Position players throw every day. So don't think they are only for pitchers. They will strengthen your arm to create a cannon and keep you fresh and able to play day after day. The entire Jeager Sports program (long toss, arm circles, bands) is terrific. Their program is highly recommended.

The second thing is knowing when you've thrown enough. And that can be a bit more tricky. Follow this link to get some guidelines on throwing volume. Odds are most coaches are throwing their kids way to much and not giving them enough rest. Coaches, if you don't know how many pitches your athletes are throwing, you are doing them a disservice. Don't be that coach.

The last but possibly most important is proper recovery. Recovery is what we do to our body to help get fresh blood, oxygen and nutrients to the area that follows the stress of pitching at a very high velocity. We should take this very important. The first thing to do is ice it. Almost as soon as you come off the mound. The second thing is to exercise it the day after. Perform very low resistance exercises such as arm circles, fly's, and arm pendulum exercises to help loosen up the tight muscles of the shoulder.

These three things will take some extra effort, but rest assured, they will keep you throwing for years to come. Being consistent is the key. If you want to throw consistently, you need to

Prehab your shoulder for what you are about to ask of it.
Count your pitches. Have a coach keep your pitch count so you can track performance
Take care of yourself after the game. Ice, compression, and elevation. The next day, start your exercises.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at aaron@pairmarotta.com

Sports training Bakersfield, Baseball training, Pair Marotta Physical Therapy

Coordinating Coordination

2009-02-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

Just about every day players or coaches ask me what they can do to get faster or help their players get faster. The top item I tell them is to work on coordination and stretching. I could talk about both here, but you don't have all day and I don't want to overwhelm parents, players or coaches with a bunch of technical jargon.

So onto the coordination explanation.

Most if not all kids these days are already specializing in sports. I don't want to talk about whether or not I think that is good, I'm just going to explain how it can hinder performance.

When kids begin to specialize at a young age, they start to go through repetitive motions over and over. Many times this goes on for years. And because they specialize, they are not exposed to other stimuli that could be beneficial. Baseball is a prime example of that.

There is not a lot of running in baseball compared to soccer or football. This unfortunately does not bode well for the young player when he really needs to start running during a game. His body has essentially developed the movement patterns that he trains the most (Pitching and hitting) and everything else just kind of gets left to the wayside.

Running requires coordination: you have to know how far should I extend my knees, how far forward should I lean, how big of an arm swing do I need, should I bend my knees more, should I land on my heel or on the ball of my feet, etc, etc.

There are many instances of coordination being needed but when a child specializes they tend to not get exposed to these tasks that demand coordination. So at our In-Season Baseball Training, we are laying a base and developing coordination each and every day by doing this sequence of a warm-up:

We start with the agility ladder. Most of these exercises are designed to get the kids to move their feet and place them in a specific position, while also learning to transfer body weight from one foot to the other.
We then progress to active stretching that requires strength to get through the stretch, but also has a very high balance demand to it.
Next comes our skipping, bounding and more dynamic warm-up. These require, rhythm and timing, coordination between muscles and muscle groups as well as a spatial awareness that most youth athletes are not exposed to.
We then go into postural exercises and skill development such as the mini-hurdles or rapid response exercises to teach asymmetrical movements while maintaining proper posture.

The one thing about this program is it is highly asymmetrical, meaning that when one side is moving the other side is either not moving, or it is stabilizing or moving at a different rate, in a different direction or through a different range of motion. This is what kids MUST develop in order for them to become better athletes. They need to focus on movement first in different directions, with different tempo's, different ranges and different rhythms.

If you notice that there is just something off with the movement of you or your athlete, that things just look a little off, odds are it has to do with coordination. And if you really want it to improve, do it more frequently than just at Pair & Marotta. Do the skipping in the back yard, add rapid response exercises to your pre-game warm up, and start working on running and moving in different directions than just those used in baseball. I enjoy baseball. But what I enjoy even more is watching young players become better athletes, not just better ball players.

This is what we do at Pair & Marotta Sports Performance. We teach athletes how to move their body. They are starting to see how amazing their body really is and once they realize that, their potential is unlimited in not only sports, but also in life.

Computers and...Baseball?

2009-02-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

We've now started our In-Season Base ba ll Training Program and one thing is for sure. There are a lot of things that need improvement. And here is one thing I have noticed from working with kids in a learning environment:

They do not think before they move.

When learning a new movement pattern or exercise, especially in a sports training environment, it is very important that a baseball player think about what is about to happen before trying to go through the movement pattern.

So many athletes just try to make the exercise look like the person who demonstrated it. But when players go based off of what it looks like as opposed to how an exercise FEELS, they tend to get it wrong. It's like trying to run a computer program without the necessary software.

The brain is the software. It controls the entire program. It stores the motor programs and cues for going through an exercise. The muscles are the hardware. Now most computers have appropriate hardware to run most programs. However, it is the software you have to buy and upload.

If the software isn't there, then no matter how hard you try to create a program or mimic a program, it's not going to operate correctly. You must have the software for the program to run right.

By going through a Baseball Training Program, like ours at Pair & Marotta Sports Performance in Bakersfield, we are installing the software necessary to make the computer (body) and programs (swing/pitch) run faster and more efficiently.

So before we try to learn an exercise or movement pattern, we need to think about what is going to happen, take the time and effort to feel the exercise in the muscles and make sure that you are feeling what you should be feeling.

It's like I have said for so long, an exercise can look right but feel completely wrong. However, it is virtually impossible for a movement pattern to feel right and look wrong. This can be applied to a baseball swing.

So many people are paying for their kids to get hitting lessons. And many coaches are concerned with only the visual aspect of the swing. Only those who understand movement science will ask how the swing feels and which muscles the batter feels it in. If you're not doing focusing on the causes of Movement First, then you're simply putting a band-aid over a larger problem.

Here is the take away for the day: Before paying to give your child the perfect baseball swing, pitch, or lead off, make sure they can go through the basic movements. Make sure they can squat, lunge, rotate and reach before trying to change the swing. Or else you might just be putting a band-aid over something that has deeper causes.

The In-Season Dilemma

2009-01-22T08:28:00.000-08:00

The baseball season is already here!!

Local high schools are getting ready to start practicing and many youth leagues are already on the diamond!! They practice and play, play and practice. They practice hitting, bunting, fielding, throwing, leading off, pickoff moves and learn the coaches signs from third base.

But lets take a step back. What is it that allows kids to play baseball? More generally, what is it that baseball requires to be good at? Movement. And that is what we at Pair & Marotta Sport Performance specialize in: Teaching Movement.

Movement is what allows baseball and softball players to swing a bat regarless of whether they hit the ball. But rarely do kids focus on just movement. They would rather make contact with an ugly swing than strikeout with a powerful swing. Don't believe me? Watch a youth athlete in the on-deck circle and then watch them at the plate. When there is no ball coming at them, their swing is simply a flop of the bat. Watch them when they step out of the box between pitches. These are the times to be focusing on a good swing.

So how does Pair & Marotta Sports Performance fix that? How do we work on the quality of the swing without the stress of them worrying about hitting a ball, but rather focusing on a good quality swing? We teach hip rotation and extension to drive the swing. We teach athletes how to put a stretch in the muscle, then to unleash it by getting a good solid contraction out of the muscle. We start in a squat to load the hips, then explode out and release the elastic energy we just created.

This is just one example of the types of exercises each athlete will be performing while at Pair & Marotta Sport Performance.

Many people think when the season begins, the strength program must stop. This could not be further from the truth. Strength training during the season actually improves the sport skills that are being taught while at practice. Watch as the athleticism of a player who trains during the season improves, while that of others is stagnant or declining.

Pair & Marotta Sports Performance In-Season Program starts February 2nd. If you're in Bakersfield and would like to be a part of it, email me at aaron@pairmarotta.com or call 661-912-9991. We are capping each group at 10 players, so don't wait too long!!

Are you better than the pro's?

2009-01-21T07:54:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a trip to Washington, DC. I did not go to see the inauguration but rather to attend the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society (PBATS) conference. At the end of our conference, we got to visit the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium. It was pretty awesome. We had lunch at the restaurant behind home plate and got a small tour of the Nationals locker room, athletic training room and strength training facility.

Here is my assessment: Although about half the size of Pair & Marotta Sport Performance here in Bakersfield, they had a lot of equipment in their strength room. Most of the stuff I have seen before but is still a little rare in training facilities. The aquatic facility is pretty awesome: two jacuzzi's, an underwater treadmill and a sauna. These guys definitely get to the special treatment!!

Here was the most interesting thing: a handful of the National's players are getting by on mere talent. Word has it a few of them cannot hold a :15 sec plank. FIFTEEN SECONDS!! And most of the guys do not spend much time training at the facility. What does that mean? Well they have finished in the cellar of the NL East the past few years.

Imagine if they spent more time in strength training. They would probably find their way towards the top of the standings!! The baseball season is long enough for pro's. The college and HS season's are shorter. What this means is that you have to stay in shape for the season and you cannot let practice be your conditioning.

Most people are under the pretense that you start the season at your best and the champions are decided by those teams that don't break down physically. But what if you could get stronger during the season?? You can. It doesn't take much.

By combining strength training exercises, such as a DB Squat and Overhead Press, and placing them in a type of circuit, you can prevent injury and actually get STRONGER as the season goes on!! Pair & Marotta Sports Performance is doing just that for you. Our In-Season Training Program is geared to getting you in, working your butt off and then getting out in about 45 minutes.

Want to be part of it?? Send us an email. aaron@pairmarotta.com or call 661-912-9991. If you want this season to be your best, you'll be here.

New Year's Camp replay

2009-01-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I hope everybody had a safe and happy New Year!! I know I did when Pair & Marotta Sports Performance joined with Player's Edge Hitting Instruction for their New Years Baseball Mini-Camp.

The kids enjoyed every second of it. They got hitting, fielding and pitching instruction from guys who have either been to the top or are on their way up the ladder. They enjoyed each day, especially the days that Gabe Kapler and Maury Wills were there.

Here is a great video of Maury Wills talking about learning new things and having an open mind about baseball.

Remember, our In-Season Training Program starts on February 2nd. If you'd like more information about our In-Season Baseball Sports Training program, email me at aaron@pairmarotta.com

When are they supposed to improve?

2008-12-22T14:51:00.000-08:00

So many players of all sports spend the entire year playing their sport. This is most obvious in baseball, soccer, tennis and basketball. My question to players, coaches and parents is this; When exactly are they supposed to get stronger?

Lets take baseball as a prime example. Almost half of all youth baseball players are on a travel team and the rest are on multiple clubs through out the entire year. As parents and coaches we place a lot of stress on them to constantly get better. But sometimes the stress to get better is placed upon players to the point of injury. Functional strength and power training will help prevent injury.

The video below is of Tiger's pitcher Justin Verlander doing a medicine ball throw, an exercise that we do as part of our power development cycle here at Pair & Marotta Sports Performance.

It is this type of training when done in-season that helps to keep athletes performing injury free all season long. Not to mention hitting home runs, throwing strikes and lighting up the basepaths.

To get involved with the programs at Pair & Marotta Sports Performance, give me a call at 661-912-9991 or email me aaron@pairmarotta.com

Empty - Reset - Clean

2008-12-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

What a great weekend!! The Jaeger "Thrive on Throwing" Clinic was great!! We had an awesome turnout (45 baseball and softball players) and once we got going, it just seemed like everybody was excited to get going with the bands and start throwing!!

One thing I heard over and over from parents and coaches was that the initial talk from Alan Jaeger was worth its weight in gold. What he had to say about staying "in the present" and staying focused was indeed something that every youth player needs to hear. Not just because it will help him or her on the field, but because it will help you in life.

There is no way you can give quality effort if you are not focused on what you are doing. When you are in the batting cages you cannot be focusing on the big truck that just drove by, or the horrible a la carte pizza you had for lunch. You need to be in the present and focusing on seeing the ball.

The same goes when you strength train for baseball. You must stay focused. When you are going through the warm up, here at Pair & Marotta Sports Performance or pre-game on the field, you must focus. There is a purpose to the warm up and if you are not focusing on what your body is telling you, you will be missing out on a HUGE part of the training session. By focusing on form and technique of movement, you will teach your body to go where you want it to rather than you being dragged around by gravity and the other physics of baseball.

My final point today just repeat's what Alan talked about at Saturday's clinic: choose 3 key words to help you reset your focus. My words are

Empty
Reset
Clean

Those are the words I use to get re-focused. Whether I'm in the batting cages just having fun, or if I am lifting and trying to get stronger and build muscle. These are my words. Yours may be different. But they need to work for you.

I'll have pictures of the Jaeger Clinic up next week as I am heading out to Phoenix for the rest of the week. One quick note: Don't forget about the Player's Edge New Year's Mini-Camp. Some big names are going to be there and it's going to be a great 3 days of learning.

MisConceptions about strength training and baseball

2008-11-19T14:32:00.000-08:00

Alright guys and girls,

You've heard so many things from your coaches; "pitchers shouldn't do upper body exercises", "you need lots of sit-ups for a faster swing", and the all-might "lifting weights makes you slow."

The truth is, many baseball coaches know so much about the sport and strategy of baseball, but know so little about movement for the sport. When addressing a swing, many coaches will say "your not turning your hips," when they are very correct. But what if the player has tight hip flexor's and literally cannot open his/her hips?

So I am going to address these things. for you briefly, but hopefully I will clear up these misconceptions.

1.Should pitchers do upper body exercises? Yes. Why should pitcher's not do pull ups and push ups and vertical pushes? These are all exercises that strengthen the shoulder, that create stability in the shoulder and over the long term can help prevent the muscular imbalances that occur with pitching 80-120 pitches per game.

2.Will sit-ups give me a faster swing or help me throw harder? No. To develop a faster swing or throw harder, you must develop the muscles that are responsible for creating a swing/pitch by strength training, and then training those muscles with a very quick tempo. When training for speed, tempo is almost more important than how much weight you use.

Note, the strength coach pictured here with Pettite, is no longer with the team. Who is? Click here.

3. Will lifting weights make me slow? This kind of builds on the question above and the short answer is no. Quite the opposite. Muscles cause contractions, if you have more muscle, more muscle will pull through a movement, creating a faster movement. Do you want to be faster? Then you need to get involved in a strength and conditioning program like our FAST Forward at Pair & Marotta.
We have a few opportunities for you coming up. The Jaeger Sports Baseball/Softball Throwing Clinic on December 13 and on January 1-3 we team up with Player's Edge Baseball Training for our New Year's Pre-Season Baseball Camp, where you'll learn about hitting, pitching, baserunning, speed development and core strength and stability. You'll also be doing exercises like this one Josh Beckett does (left).

Up and Coming Events...You're Going to Wanna Be Here

2008-11-05T14:13:00.000-08:00

Hey all you baseball players...Pair & Marotta is teaming up with a couple of great Southern Cal baseball clubs to bring you some awesome events during the month of December!!

First...on Saturday December 13, Pair & Marotta, Bakersfield Baseball Academy and Jaeger Sports will be putting on a day clinic directed specifically at strengthening your shoulder, reducing injury and making you a better pitcher, catcher and overall baseball player. If you've never heard of Jaeger Sports, I suggest you look into them.

They have worked with hundreds of pro and college players including Dan Haren of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Barry Zito of the SF Giants and Joel Zumaya of the Detroit Tigers. If Jaeger Sports can help these guys, they can certainly help you!!

The second event we have coming up is when Pair & Marotta team with Players Edge Hitting. We will be hosting a 3-day baseball/softball intensive program directed at giving you the techniques to get faster on the base paths, get more power out of your swing, make cleaner contact and drastically increase your range in the field.

This camp will be held on January 1-3 and run from 9-1pm on each day. To sign up for either of these events, email aaron@pairmarotta.com or call 661-912-9991.

Space is very limited so be sure to sign up early and bring your friends!! You don't want them missing out on both of these exciting programs!!

What are you waiting for?

2008-10-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

Watching the World Series has been just a blast, seeing as how the Phillies are up 3 games to 1. But one of the most interesting things has been the defense on both sides. In game 3 we saw a game to remember: a 45 year old pitcher Jamie Moyer made one heck of a play when diving to try and get Carl Crawford out and BJ Upton stole his way from first all the way to home!!

The speed at which these guys play the game is amazing. But to prepare for this type of play, players from both teams have been training in-season, post-season and they really hit it hard in the off-season. There is so much design that must go into a training program to make sure you are the best. And then after that, the best of the best.

So I ask, are you training to be the best? Or are you taking a "whatever" approach to baseball training? Right now at Pair & Marotta Sport Performance we are just finishing up our cycle where we have been training to add muscle. Our next phase is strength/speed focus. We are going to be doing a lot of speed training. Here is a quick sample of the type of stuff we have been doing.

If you aren't training like this, then you should be. It's fun, it's effective, and we guarantee you'll be faster. What are you waiting for? Stop by and sign up today!!

www.pairmarotta.com

Picking Up the Pieces and Looking to 2009

2008-10-22T13:50:00.001-07:00

With the World Series starting tonight, the two best teams in Major League Baseball will square off over the next week. What will be left is one team riding a float down main street of their respective city, and the other picking up the pieces of a season that couldn't be finished.

And just like you need to be doing, they are soon going to start preparing for the 2009 season. They will start getting stronger, faster, quicker and more powerful. Because they want to last through the 2009 post-season.

A strength and conditioning program isn't just for the elite. It is for those who desire to be elite. It is for those who want nothing less than the most out of their body, and it is for those who don't consider the season a success unless they win their last game.

Pair & Marot ta Sports Performance has the program you and your team needs. Our facility is specifically designed and set up to accommodate teams of over 25 athletes. If you want there to be no question in who the best team on the field is, you will find your self in here.

In order to be the best, you've got to train with purpose and with intensity. Or as we like to say, you need to Train Like You M ean It.

Like an Old T-Shirt

2008-09-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

Baseball is a long season. And like an old T-shirt you can get tired and worn. Playing more than 20 games a month is not an easy task when an athlete is involved in a strength and conditioning program. Imagine the ball player who isn't on a strength and conditioning program!!

How many pitchers this year have visited the disabled list? How many batters? How many ball players are out for the season? How many ball players have had their career's effectively ended due to injury this year? We may never know. There are a lot of injuries in baseball. Why do you think they have so many minor league teams? Because they have to constantly have a quality back-up for even the back-ups. Check out what Dustin Pedroia has to say about strength and conditioning.

But what if you were determined to not let the injury bug bite you? That would be a good thing right? Good, we are on the same page. Now where do you start? You start by getting involved in a quality strength and conditioning program at Pair and Marotta Sport Performance and Fitness.

www.pairmarotta.com

And not a strength program designed by just anybody. You need a program by somebody who has experience writing programs for baseball. Somebody who knows how the body works as a unit. Don't just trust anybody. Don't trust Joe Schmo simply because he "played at the level, and knows what it takes." Trust somebody who knows movement, can teach movement and can communicate effectively with their athletes.

Just because somebody played a sport does not make them a good coach. There are plenty of ball players who are horrible coaches. And many of the best coaches never played the sport professionally or even at the collegiate level. But they understand the movement of the game and how to get the best out of their players.

Don't wait until college to get into a strength and conditioning program. Because odds are, everyone else on the team was on a structured program in high school.

www.pairmarotta.com

We have a program with your name on it that will keep you healthy and playing at your best year round. Don't wait, we have already started our fall program.

Is there a Limit??

2008-08-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

If you've watched Usain Bolt run, you know the guy is fast. At the Olympics in Beijing, he smashed records for the 100m and 200m dash. This video is of him setting his first World Record at 9.72.

Bolt is not just fast, he is a marvel and a contradiction to physics and what we thought were human biomechanics. He is 6'5". Normally that is considered too tall because longer limbs move slower. They have longer reach but require a little longer to get through a cycle.

Sure there are some fast guys who are tall, but at the olympics, at such a high level of performance all but 1 do not compare. What this demonstrates is that even when everybody says it can't be done, that you're just not cut out for it... you need to keep pushing. You might not break world records, but you'll never know if you walk away. Push and push harder. Work and work harder, it will be rewarded.

Here is a link regarding the statistics of human speed limits. The article states that based on muscle types and limb lengths Bolt is an unusual specimin. But the article also states people will run faster!! Can you believe that!!!

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/bolt-is-freaky.html?npu=1&mbid=yhp

Work and work harder, push and push harder. The only thing that will come of it is you going further than you thought possible. Where is your Limit?

Always Thinking About Eating

2008-08-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

As I was growing up, I ate a lot. Generally my brothers and I were asking about when our next meal was, even if we had just finished one. Dinner was always our favorite because it gave us something to look forward to for most of the day. Being that we were kids, we didn’t really get much say in what we ate for dinner, as our job was unpaid (going to school rarely is a paid occupation) and we got what was put in front of us.

However, at this point in our lives, we are on the other end of that equation. We are all adults and we are the ones making decisions about the food we eat. We make these decisions not only for ourselves, but often for our families as well. I was thinking about this the other day and realized how easy it is in our society to eat without thinking. Generally our meal/food choices are often based on convenience instead of content. What I am suggesting here isn’t a radical shift in philosophy, only a shift in how we approach food and eating.

Food cannot be something we do out of habit. That is what has gotten our society in the overweight mess it is in. We need to consider our meals far ahead of when we eat them. Planning meals must become something we put more emphasis on and more effort into. By planning out our meals for the week we know and are able to make healthier decisions that will aid us in shaping our bodies and constructing a healthy machine!!

Let’s say a week is way too far in advance for you to plan your meals. Start with planning out your meals for the day. Before you leave the house in the morning, you need to know what you will eat for snacks, lunch, and dinner. By preparing your day and thinking about what you will eat, it is easier to make healthier choices.

For example, if you are on your way home and already know that you and your family are having chicken and wild rice tonight, there will be no reason to stop off for the $5.99 pizza for your family. Obviously chicken and wild rice is much healthier than pizza. So, plan out your meals for the day. Take your trail mix, fruit, yogurt, string cheese, or snacks with you to work so you are not tempted to make a trip to the candy machine when you need that afternoon energy kick!! Have your bottle of water next to you so when you are thirsty, that call from the soda machine can be ignored.

By planning and preparing we are better able to make smarter choices about what we eat and drink. I always thought it was corny, but as I go through life this old adage makes more and more sense:

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

Changing Directions

2008-07-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

A lot of times as an athlete we get too focused on numbers and test's and times and forget about how we actually perform. Performance on the field is often measured in quantity, but change in performance can also be measured in quality. How well does a person move, or how much better does this kid move than 3 months ago?

Changing direction is one of those things that is qualitative. It is very hard to time change of direction alone. But if you're looking for it, the change can stand out like a sunflower in the outfield.

Changing direction is all about angles. The most glaring culprit of poor performance is the inability to change directions efficiently without wasting movement. Whether it is during linear transition or lateral change in direction, many athletes are "too tall" when changing direction and have a lot of wasted movement. Athletes will lack stability through the truck and hips and lose a lot of energy transfer due to what we call upper body sway. This occurs when the lower body plants and attempts to push back the other way, but the upper body continue's moving opposite to where the lower body is now attempting to go. When you see this it looks like the lower body is dragging the upper body back the other way with it.

Upper body sway results in a lot (relatively speaking) of wasted time as the upper body must now get pulled back and dragged the other way. This is one very good reason why situps and crunches are a waste of time. They do not train the core muscles to be stable during change of direction. Planks, side planks and lateral stability exercise's are going to be the agent of change.

Changing directions will also involve maintaining a low ground position. This allows the proper angle to be taken so that force is transfered down through the leg and into the ground horizontally rather than vertically. What happens when we push our legs quickly into the ground directly below us? We jump straight into the air.

To change direction, we must produce force that transfer's down and horizontally so that we may move in the opposite direction of our force production. We are pushing ourselves away from the ground. Change the way we teach lateral change of direction and we will change the speed of our athletes.

Pool Time

2008-07-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Our summer Speed, Strength & Power (SSP) Camp just wrapped up its fourth week. All the kids are moving more efficiently. Which translates to faster foot speed and less fatigue. Some are learning faster than others but the interesting thing is how much faster the younger kids are learning than the older kids.

This is probably because we have unlearn all the bad habits the older kids have while with younger kids, there are not many bad habits to fix. So things are going good. But today they got great.

All 4 groups met out at the pool at CSUB. Most thought we would be swimming all day long. So they were kind of excited, but mostly they were just looking forward to getting out of the bakersfield heat.

What they got was more than they bargained for.

The beauty of perfoming speed and power drills in the water is that it slows everything down and makes it much safer to do plyometric exercises and speed exercises. The water produces the resistive forces against the jumps and movement, but also produces the force that slows the athlete down.

Some may say, well doesn't moving slow produce slower players. Well yes and no. If athletes are chronically using heavy resistance that does not allow for use of the entire muscle contraction and speed spectrum then you will start to see a decrease in movement speed and power. But when providing resistance such as water the athletes intend to contract quickly and the water simply slows them down. They are not moving at "slow" speeds. Simply slower than out of water.

Give it a shot. I'm going to have 40 high school athletes that will have an entirely new view of aquatic exercise.

Do Quick Improvements Last?

2008-06-24T11:06:00.001-07:00

This is one of those double edged questions. If we say that athletic improvement doesn't last well then what's the point of working with kids in 6 week camps? If we say improvement does last, then why not work with them for 6 weeks and send them on their way?

The truth is it depends on the learning environment. This is where many coaches go wrong. They don't make for a very conducive learning environment. There are different types of learning styles. Some kids are audible learners, some are tactile learners, some are visual learners. Most are a good mix of the 3.

Movements can look right and feel wrong, but it is almost impossible for them to feel right and look wrong. It just doesn't happen. If muscles are activating and recruiting properly in the right sequence and timing, then the movement will look smooth and effortless.

Learning takes place over a period of time. But the principles of why we move in certain skills/patterns can be learned quickly. The key is simply implementing the principles into the movement skills. Learning movement skills should be an everyday thing. When we learn math we progress from simple things such as 2+2=4 to more complex ideas such as 12x6=72. But when we are learning multiplication, we don't forget that 2+2=4. It is our foundation.

The same route must be taken when developing athletic skill and movement. Progress but don't forget the basics. When movement is first, sports skill will come much easier.

Eating Like a Champion

2008-06-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

Feuling a high caliber athlete isn't easy. Most high level athletes work with a nutritionist to ensure they are getting proper caloric intake and the right ratio of macronutrients.

Certain foods are much better for you than others. Fruits, vegetables, milk, lean meats, fish, nuts and water are all important in building and re-building your body. This is true for everybody. But it is especially important for athletes because athletes break down their bodies faster than non-athletes and need to rebuild it faster as well. Just as important is what you rebuild your body with. A perfect example of this can be seen in the tale of the “3 Little Pigs”.

You see each home of the pigs was built with something. The first house was weak and didn’t stand up against the rigors of the wolf. This is what happens when you work hard (like you do during our camps) and then try to rebuild your body with candy, sweets, cookies and you leave out vegetables and fruits. Your body is going to breakdown easily and not be very strong when it needs to be.

The second house was built a little bit stronger but not by much. His house was still pretty easily taken down by the wolf. This is like drinking sugary, caffeinated drinks like Starbucks and eating greasy hamburgers and hotdogs with a few veggies on the side. Your body will still not be able to stand up to the work you put it through. You will be tired, sluggish and you won’t play too well.

Now the third pig, he had one heck of a strong house. It was made of brick and strong cement. Nothing could take it down and it was always ready for the next challenge. This is what your body feels like when you eat lots of vegetables, fruits, lean meats like chicken (no chicken strips!!), fish, low fat dairy like yogurt and chocolate milk.

These are just a few, but here are good food choices:

Breakfast
Wheaties w/ milk
Whole Wheat Toast and Peanut Butter
Yogurt and granola
Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Oatmeal
Scrambled Eggs w/Salsa

Lunch
Turkey sandwich
Chicken salad
Buffalo Burger
Turkey Burger
Turkey Hotdog
Apple-Banana-PB Smoothie

Dinner
Chicken
Fish
Goat cheese Salad
Spaghetti
Chili
Soup

Snacks
Raisins
Strawberries
Pineapple
Granola
Sunflower Seeds
Yogurt

The key to making good choices is keeping added sugar out and eating foods that are minimally processed. Don’t eat food that is deep fried with batter, drenched in butter, and here is the kicker…

Ice cream only once per week and No FAST FOOD!

Breakfast: What you need to know

2008-05-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

What is the point of breakfast? I’m not even hungry when I wake up!! I have been going without breakfast for years. I get sick if I eat breakfast. These are just a few of the excuses I hear for not eating breakfast. But there really is no good reason not to eat breakfast. Perhaps it is our idea of what breakfast is. First let’s talk about what breakfast is not.

Breakfast is not a calorie bomb, biscuits and gravy with a stack of pancakes, home-style potatoes, bagel and cream cheese, smorgasbord. Breakfast is not a sweet-n-low, half and half coffee on the way out the door. Breakfast is not that venti frap with cream on top on the way to work. There is this misconception that breakfast needs to be either a Saturday morning feast or a pick-me-up-because-I’m-drained on the way to work. Breakfast does not have to be long and drawn out and it cannot be something you pick up on the way to work.

Breakfast is a way to break your body out of that 7-8 hour starvation you have been in. Breakfast is when you give your body enough fuel to replenish what it lost over the evening and enough fuel to get you to the next feeding (3-4 hours later) with out feeling incredibly famished. Whether we are hungry or not, we need to eat breakfast within the first 30 minutes of waking up. The reason most people claim they are not hungry in the morning is because their metabolism has slowed so much that they have gotten accustomed to not eating. The metabolism is the engine of the body. If it is slow, than you will feel lethargic, slow, unmotivated and worst of all, your body will actually hold on to body fat because your body will enter “energy saver” mode. Who wants that? When we eat, our metabolism actually speeds up because it has to breakdown the food it just took in. This is known as the thermic effect of food! Eating more will help me lose weight?? Interesting concept.

Most people when they start eating breakfast as a habit will notice that their appetite will increase, and they will be hungry again soon. This is the thermic effect of food and trust that your metabolism will now rise and your body will use more energy because it has more available. The human body is a marvelous thing.

What is a “Good” Breakfast?

A good breakfast will have a little fat, a little protein and a little more carbohydrates. Here are a few examples of quality breakfast first thing in the morning, within 30 minutes of waking up:
• 1 slice of sprouted grain, flourless toast, natural peanut butter and an apple = 345 kcal
• 1 slice of sprouted grain, flourless toast, vegetable oil butter, and a small container of low fat yogurt = 330 kcal
• 1 cup of Trader Joe’s Organic Soy and Granola cereal, 1 cup of 1% organic milk and 1 medium banana = 473 kcal (for women, cutting the cereal and milk in half will give you a total of 284 kcal)
• 1 hard boiled egg, toast and 1 table spoon of butter, a medium apple = 333 kcal

These examples are all a great start to the day. Each example has carbohydrates, protein and a little bit of fat. It is beyond the scope of this article but remember your body needs some fat. To eliminate all fat would actually be a bad thing.

The calorie content of the breakfast was done by www.calorie-count.com. Feel free to register yourself and start logging your food intake. It will truly help you to see how much food you really do take in. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at aaron@pairmarotta.com

Changing the Way You Look with Food

2008-05-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Quite possibly the easiest way to change the way you look is to alter your diet. Tired of that lean, muscular look? Start eating twice as much (1250 calories) at each feeding and eat less often (1-2 times per day). This will slow your metabolism to a snail's pace and create a caloric surplus that nobody can over come. You're sure to pile on the pounds!!

Tired of that scrawny, wiry look? Start eating more lean meats and vegetables at each meal and eating more often (4-5 times/day) and do some heavy lifting (4-6 reps of 4 sets) and watch the muscle start coming on.

Tired of the bloated, jiggly, no-muscle-but-plenty-of-the-other-stuff look? Start eating smaller meals, 250-400 calories, every 3-4 hours and watch the jiggle wiggle off and the lean body you've always wanted will come shining through.

What, when and how often we eat has a tremendous effect on our metabolism. By eating more often your body will begin to use up the excess energy (fat) it has because it will try to use up what you give it. By giving it only how much it needs, which varies depending on your goals, your body will not have much less to store it.

By eating frequently your metabolism will increase, meaning you are using more stored fat during your day. You really can't go wrong. It is simply committing to planning your meals into your day.

Changing the way we look is actually quite simple. It is just how much effort do you want to put in to changing the way your body looks, feels and moves?

Here are a couple of sites you may want to check out to help you with this endeavour:

www.mohrresults.com
www.fityummymummy.com
www.turbulencetraining.com

The Magic Pill

2008-05-22T16:03:00.001-07:00

One of the most difficult things to understand about the human body is how to feed it. We say we want to change but as soon as somebody offers up dessert, that will goes out the window. Then we cry and complain that we aren't loosing weight, or we aren't toned like we want to be.

So we shoot for a magic pill. But there is one magic pill. It starts with a "Self" ends in an "discipline"

To lose weight, become a great athlete and get more done, we need to eat. And we need to eat right. Here it is, plain and simple.

Prepare to eat 4-6 small meals per day. By small I mean 400-500 calories for men, and 300-400 for women. 1 PB&J sandwich (which I just ate) had 385 calories. But its sprouted grain bread, natural peanut butter and organic jelly.

It doesn't take much, just some planning. When we fail to plan our meals, we get so hungry we could eat our thumb if it had some ranch on it!! You have to eat and eat modest sized meals. Doing this gets your metabolism up so your body will use some of that fat hanging off our waists. Think about it, if you wanted a bigger fire, would you give it a small amount of wood or a nice steady supply?

That is the way our body works. Give it a shot. Plan your meals for 3 days to get 5 meals a day in. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack & dinner. You'll feel great and your metabolism will roar.

Want some help? Check this out. I highly recommend it.

http://www.mohrresults.com/store-grocery-dvd.shtml

(May need to cut and paste into browser)

The Basics

2008-05-13T08:41:00.001-07:00

Baseball season has arrived. Actually it arrived about 2 months ago. But now it is in full swing and... here is our hero.

Unfortunately the video is gone, but here is a link to an article about Mr. Utley.

www.athletesperformance.com/#articles

Search articles and it should be the first one up. If not, the title is "America's Fittest Men list Includes Utley"

Chase Utley is the 2nd baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies. He will probably be in the All-Star game this year. He plays excellent defense and can hit for power, for average and for sacrifice. He can run the bases with the best of them and get to just about any ball hit within 30 feet of him.

How can he do all this?

He knows how to move. And not move like he's dancing. I mean he knows how to move his body efficiently, quickly and effectively. He focuses as much on being strong, flexible, balanced and powerful as he does on hitting a slider. He knows how to lunge, how to squat, how to push, pull and rotate. He is stable yet mobile. He knows these things will help him hit that slider into the second deck.

His performance training is the same program we use at our facility with our baseball players and youth athletes during our Summer Speed, Strength, & Power Camp.

See where knowing the basics can get you?

The First Step

2008-05-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

We hear it everywhere. From doctors to trainers to talk shows. But an ABC News poll indicates that only 53% of people ages 18-34 eat breakfast on a regular basis. That number steadily goes up through the age groups with 83% of people over the age of 65 eating breakfast regularly. But why is it so important? Why do we have such a hard time eating breakfast? What if I am just not hungry in the morning?

The importance of breakfast can be summed up rather quickly; if you don’t put gas in the tank, it won’t run. Now granted, our entire body can be used as fuel. But I would rather eat food than have muscles, bones and other organs used as a fuel source. The general tradition of dinner is that it is eaten in the evening from 5 – 8:30. Assuming we wake up around 5 am (which may be too early for most), that is still 8.5 – 12 hours without eating.

And that is during the time when our body is supposed to be repairing itself and recharging itself. The food we eat in the evening is used primarily for those purposes. However, if dinner carries us through until 5 a.m., and we don’t eat again until noon, what exactly is our body using as fuel for those 7 morning hours? Other tissues that are lower on the hierarchy of importance.

At this point, a few things happen. 1) Your metabolism will slow down in order to conserve energy. Your body may use a higher percentage of fat, but at this point your body isn’t using much energy total. So the trade off is a wash. 2) Much of the muscle tissue you have worked so hard to get is not being maintained, and is thus being lost. You lose muscle if you don’t provide energy to maintain it!!

Consider the following research:

A 2003 study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that those who had a breakfast of cereal, breads or fruit had significantly lower BMI’s than those who didn’t eat or had meat/eggs for breakfast.

A 2005 study in the journal Obesity Research found that over 8 and 13 year periods, men who ate breakfast cereals were 22% and 12% less likely to gain weight. Men who ate at least one serving per day of cereal saw the highest likelihood of keeping their BMI under 25.

A 2008 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition stated that people with lower body fat had higher percentages of fat oxidation (higher fat use as fuel) over a 12 hour period following breakfast.

Eating breakfast gives your body fuel to run on. It is best to eat a small meal containing complex carbohydrates and protein 20-30 minutes before exercise, and then eat something similar soon after strenuous exercise. An example would be whole grain toast with natural peanut butter and a small glass of low fat milk prior to exercise and yogurt with raw fruit shortly after exercise to prevent muscle breakdown. This will ensure that your body gets the energy and nutrients that it needs without sacrificing your reduced calorie goals for fat loss.

If you want a step by step how to for losing weight, breakfast is that first step you must take. A lot of times we aren't hungry. This is only because we have conditioned ourselves to start the day without breakfast. But if we start eating breakfast, our metabolism will increase, our energy levels will go up and yes, you can lose weight by eating a bit more food through out the day.

Changing the way you look is simple, but it is not easy.

A new baby and being more efficient with time.

2008-05-08T15:11:00.001-07:00

My wife Tiffany gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last tuesday, the 29th of April. She is just the most wonderful little girl. On top of that, she is one heck of a sleeper. Now I know that she has only been in our lives for 10 days, but she doesn't cry much at all.

When she is hungry she simply puts her hands to her mouth. When she needs to be changed she will start spreading her arms and legs out. When she is tired, she simply falls asleep. Anywhere.
I have to admit, I was quite afraid of what might happen after she was born. I thought I would maybe sleep around 4 hours a night. Well it turns out, I've been getting 6-7 hours a night. Granted it is broken into 75 minute segments, but it sure makes me value the time I have to sleep. But it also has made me value the time I have with her.

Since she has been home, there is a period in the night when she is simply awake. She doesn't cry, she's just awake. She looks around, admiring the contrasting dark and light colors. And she just looks. After about 45 minutes, she goes back to sleep. Instead of whining that I have to get up with my daughter, I look at it as, "I GET to spend time with my daughter!!" She is just getting aquainted with me. But this is the most wonderful time.

I have been off of work for roughly 2 weeks and I have had to make my time count. I don't have all day to sit around and be lazy and I don't have time to spend an hour and a half working out. What I do is mini-circuits. I take 3 exercises of non-competing movement patterns and do each for :30 or 15 repetitions. After each set I rest for :30 then do it again.

This is the same workout our Hi-5 FitCamp does during the 1 week break. Its not easy, but I would rather spend 25 minutes busting hump than spend an hour and a half doing body part workouts that don't do much to use fat and build muscle.

High intensity functionally integrated variable exercise (HI-FIVE).

Why do we eat when we aren't hungry?

2008-04-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

On Monday we started a new 4-week period of Hi-5 FitCamp at Pair & Marotta. We have quite a few newbies and I'm pretty excited about the change that is going to occur over the next 4 weeks. The biggest hurdle for this new group will be the same as it was for the returners: eating habits.

That is the one place where the hopes and dreams of every person trying to lose weight go to die. That is the one thing people have the hardest time changing because it involves more discipline than getting up at 5:15 to workout. We use food for more than it should be.

Food should be simply fuel for our bodies to run. But most people trying to lose weight have found food to be so much more. Food has become our best friend when we are lonely, our personal confidant when we are sad and our group of friends when we are celebrating. Why do these events cause us to eat?

A psychological and/or hormonal event occurs with each of the named emotions. When we are sad the food we eat causes a hormone release which can cheer us up (think ice cream). When we are angry, food has a calming effect. When we are happy, food can make us happier.

The way to change this is to change our pschology. Find other ways to cheer you up, calm you down or increase the joy. Use other activities or hobbies.

Might it be possible to watch a movie and not eat candy or popcorn? Can you really go out to celebrate without breaking the calorie bank? Hint: Salads at restaurants are calorie pits. Stick with grilled chicken and veggies. Do this and enjoy a small desert for a great week of healthy eating habits.

We must find ways to change the way we look at food. If we don't all of our hard work is for not. Its like digging a hole only to have somebody coming right behind you and filling it back in.

Long Time and Biggest Loser

2008-04-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

I have been out for quite a while. Somehow the blog got pushed to the back of my mind. Although it probably shouldn't have. But watching the finale of the Biggest Loser, I realized how much of an impact I can have on the lives of my friends and family. Many of them are always asking me questions not only about sports, fitness, nutrition, rehabilitation, and physical therapy. But they also ask me questions about things which are way over my head.

My policy when it comes to that is simply find the answer, or direct them to somebody who has the answer. There are a few people in the sports training, fitness, youth training and rehabilitation profession who have my utmost respect. These professionals have knowledge from their time in college (most have a Master's in Exercise Science) but also from a lot of time spent with clients and patients. Some of these folks are Mike Boyle, Gray Cook, Brian Grasso, Mark Verstegen and Vern Gambetta.

But probably the one guy who I really look up to, and even base the Hi-5 FitCamp off of is Craig Ballantyne. He developed a fitness program that is based on sound research and gets amazing results. Check out his site

http://www.turbulencetraining.com/cbae/?a=53ICCIxv&p=1

Designed for everybody from beginner to advanced, he came up with the idea after doing research for his Master's degree. I myself have looked up the studies he cites, and have also found other research supporting the same idea of intense work with minimal rest to develop muscle and use more fat while you are resting.

Jillian Micheals of the Biggest Loser is a raving fan of his. She has only good things to say about Craig and his program.

http://www.turbulencetraining.com/cbae/?a=53ICCIxv&p=1

I have tried his program (check earlier blogs) and I have to say, they are a butt kicker. Give it a try with one catch; While you are doing the workout, wear a heart rate monitor. Watch it soar, and then check your heart rate throughout the day. It will still be elevated, meaning you are still recovering from the workout you did earlier in the morning. I will talk more about the benefits of a heart rate monitor later. For now, check out Craigs site. You will be amazed.

Aaron

Fresh Faces

2007-10-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

This past round of our exercise classes (The Morning HI-5 and Evening Circuit) we have a handful of new faces. Its quite exciting because for the longest time it was the same people coming in. Not that I don't like the people that have been faithful and consistent to either class, but new faces are those of new students. These new people are very excited to learn about how their body operates both on a daily basis but also on a much larger scale. They are learning about the acute effects of exercise but also the effects of chronic exercise.

They are learning how their body moves, what muscle groups are involved and how their daily lives are effected by the function of these muscle groups. It is a wonderful thing for them to learn how to perform movement patterns that allow them to lose fat and increase muscle. They are getting stronger and are much less likely to get injured or having nagging pain that can be so debilitating.

They are learning about steady state exercise compared to non-steady state exercise and the effects and benefits of both. Most of all, they are learning how to maintain and live an active lifestyle. They are learning that having muscular strength makes daily chores and tasks much easier. That is all we are trying to accomplish.

They are learning what foods to eat and which to avoid. They are learning how to eat and why it is so important to eat so frequently. I love watching people learn. When they get it, when they have changed their eating, exercise and sleep habits. Now we get to watch them change.

To all the people that are in these classes, you've been really putting out a lot of effort lately. Keep it up. One day you will look back and be amazed at the progress you have made. For anybody not in our classes, feel free to call and sign up. Their relatively inexpensive, times that are accomadating, have a very encouraging setting and are led by a person who has education, certification and experience (that would be me).