Eye Movement is connected to motion...
Looking up helps extension (with eyes not head)
Looking down helps flexion
Look up during bicep curls and down during bicep culrs, let me know if you noticed a difference... I can't wait to try out this eye movement thing. I tend to be skeptical about things that i have seen no scientific evidence of but this is free and easy to test.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
RFESS
So in the strength and Conditioning world these days the current big firestorm is the question of how useful are squats? Some have made the argument that squats are a lower back exercise and not a leg exercise. Most people can come out of deep squats but it is the back that fails them when they start leaning forward. The big alternative is Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat. (RFESS) These are exactly as they sound you bring one foot back and keep one foot forward (split part) you put your back foot on a bench of elevation (Rear foot elevated part) and then squat. The crux of the argument is this:
If I can max lift 450lbs doing a regular squat, that means each leg is generating app 225 lbs of force. Well if it is true that the back is the weak point then maybe you have the leg strength to lift 500 lbs but your back will not allow you to. With a single leg squat (i.e. the RFESS) Now if you put 250 lbs on the bar your legs are getting their 500 lb work out but the back is only dealing with 250. Long Story short: This makes squats a quad/hamstring exercise again rather than a back workout.
Everyone is weighting in with their opinion and they all know a whole lot more than me but it is easy to see the logic in this. That being said I think squatting is a fundamental movement (everytime you sit down you squat, you don't just drop into your seat.) I am definitely going to experiment with the RFESS but I will keep the squats in our training too.
If I can max lift 450lbs doing a regular squat, that means each leg is generating app 225 lbs of force. Well if it is true that the back is the weak point then maybe you have the leg strength to lift 500 lbs but your back will not allow you to. With a single leg squat (i.e. the RFESS) Now if you put 250 lbs on the bar your legs are getting their 500 lb work out but the back is only dealing with 250. Long Story short: This makes squats a quad/hamstring exercise again rather than a back workout.
Everyone is weighting in with their opinion and they all know a whole lot more than me but it is easy to see the logic in this. That being said I think squatting is a fundamental movement (everytime you sit down you squat, you don't just drop into your seat.) I am definitely going to experiment with the RFESS but I will keep the squats in our training too.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Knee Injuries
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/172417.php
I know i keep posting links from this same website but everyday I find something good that they put out. CHeck the date of this article it was put out today. I just want to say that a year ago I would have said this is BS because I have seen research that has shown that high impact activities actually increase bone mineral density and prevent degenerative diseases like osteoporosis. There is no way to know if the people did unhealthy high impact activities. Landing without bending legs, jumping from too high up. (I know i jumped off my roof a bunch and off fences and out of swings growing up) It never effected me...here is the part though were I explain why I phrased it "A year ago I would have called this BS" ...
The last year my right (jumping) knee has been killing me whenever I LJ, I can sprint on it, run on it, but that first LJ and it hurts, and it usually lasts 2-3 weeks. The last few months i have toned down my training and avoided jumping hopefully giving it time to heal (Im optimistic that it is an injury and not a degenerative condition) this article caught my eye today becasue this is not helping my optimism.
Hopefully all those roof jumps aren't coasting me now... I am not even 30 yet.
I know i keep posting links from this same website but everyday I find something good that they put out. CHeck the date of this article it was put out today. I just want to say that a year ago I would have said this is BS because I have seen research that has shown that high impact activities actually increase bone mineral density and prevent degenerative diseases like osteoporosis. There is no way to know if the people did unhealthy high impact activities. Landing without bending legs, jumping from too high up. (I know i jumped off my roof a bunch and off fences and out of swings growing up) It never effected me...here is the part though were I explain why I phrased it "A year ago I would have called this BS" ...
The last year my right (jumping) knee has been killing me whenever I LJ, I can sprint on it, run on it, but that first LJ and it hurts, and it usually lasts 2-3 weeks. The last few months i have toned down my training and avoided jumping hopefully giving it time to heal (Im optimistic that it is an injury and not a degenerative condition) this article caught my eye today becasue this is not helping my optimism.
Hopefully all those roof jumps aren't coasting me now... I am not even 30 yet.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Just a quick thought
A lot of the time when I see athletes do interval or repeat work, they usually don't run their best until their second or third rep, almost never on their first rep. If this is the case, it is time to revisit your warm up, just getting a sweat going or doing a slow jog may not be the right move. I know everyone is scared of fatiguing the body before the event but maybe a warmup with some higher intensity is needed.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Great Philosophy
Positive Coaching by Jim Thompson
Just a great book. I read it a couple years ago and one of the things that always stuck for me was his 3 point philosophy.
1) Have Fun
2) Work Hard
3) Be a good sport
The genius of this is the fact that it is easy to have fun when you don't work hard. You can play games, joke around avoiding doing that unfun but necessary work. I think alot of coaches see fun and hard work as a trade off, you can do one or the other. I am not one of those people who is going to say it is fun to work hard. What I will say is I think it is possible to do both with the environment you set. I explain what we need to do, why it is important, then I lean on the personalities of the track team the people who love joking around. I encourage this to happen in between reps.
Similarly, when you don't care about the results it is easy to be a good sport. You don't mind calling a penalty against yourself, you help up your opponants, wish them good luck. When you work hard and invest alot into a competition it is hard to be a good sport.
I love the simplicity of this philosophy (could summarize in 8 words (have fun, work hard, be a good sport) as well interesting dynamic between each of these on each other. All three are easy to do but the challenge is to do them at the same time.
Just a great book. I read it a couple years ago and one of the things that always stuck for me was his 3 point philosophy.
1) Have Fun
2) Work Hard
3) Be a good sport
The genius of this is the fact that it is easy to have fun when you don't work hard. You can play games, joke around avoiding doing that unfun but necessary work. I think alot of coaches see fun and hard work as a trade off, you can do one or the other. I am not one of those people who is going to say it is fun to work hard. What I will say is I think it is possible to do both with the environment you set. I explain what we need to do, why it is important, then I lean on the personalities of the track team the people who love joking around. I encourage this to happen in between reps.
Similarly, when you don't care about the results it is easy to be a good sport. You don't mind calling a penalty against yourself, you help up your opponants, wish them good luck. When you work hard and invest alot into a competition it is hard to be a good sport.
I love the simplicity of this philosophy (could summarize in 8 words (have fun, work hard, be a good sport) as well interesting dynamic between each of these on each other. All three are easy to do but the challenge is to do them at the same time.
Friday, November 27, 2009
How do I sign up?
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/172374.php
Psychology research using rock band to see how people achieve flow states and wouldn't you know it. They recommend that optimal performance occurs when something is not to easy but not too hard.
What is flow?
What does the research show on achieving Flow?
I love when researchers use video games. Anyways I don't think they found anything too ground breaking here people like to be challenged only when they feel they have been given the necessary skills to meet the challenge. Next time you write a killer workout that worked great for you think about whether the athletes have been given the skills to meet the challenge. Ask athletes "What do you think?" get their feedback. It will help them feel invested in the process rather than just following orders.
Psychology research using rock band to see how people achieve flow states and wouldn't you know it. They recommend that optimal performance occurs when something is not to easy but not too hard.
"That has broad implications for teaching. It means that if we want students to enjoy or get a lot of satisfaction out of classes, we need to assign them challenging tasks but make sure that they have the skills necessary to meet the challenges of those tasks"
What is flow?
Flow is a state of mind that occurs when people become totally immersed in what they are doing and lose all sense of time. It's an intrinsically motivating state, which means that people are engaged in the task for the pure enjoyment of performing the task and not for some extrinsic reward.
What does the research show on achieving Flow?
Research has shown that the types of work that lead people to achieve flow have some common traits, including being goal directed, providing feedback and giving a sense of meaning to the worker. Moreover, flow occurs only when the person feels in control of the process.
I love when researchers use video games. Anyways I don't think they found anything too ground breaking here people like to be challenged only when they feel they have been given the necessary skills to meet the challenge. Next time you write a killer workout that worked great for you think about whether the athletes have been given the skills to meet the challenge. Ask athletes "What do you think?" get their feedback. It will help them feel invested in the process rather than just following orders.
Connecting the Dots
Found a cool little article today, saying that a physically interrupted sound is heard as continuing through background noise; thus when we try to listen to conversation in a noisy room, the brain fills in the gaps between interrupted sound fragments to create what we perceive as a continuous soundthat our brain fills in the gaps with sounds.We will hear sound when there is not actually any sound present. This reminded me of an old optical illusion:
Same thing here you see a white triangle when in fact there is no triangle at all our Brains just naturally like to fill in the gaps.
This constructive ability of the brain is pretty awesome, it can take an incomplete picture or sound and make it complete. I think alot of people don't realize how well the brain does this not only in vision and hearing but also in thought. Have you ever been describing something to someone and thought it was perfectly clear but the person had no idea what you were talking about or vice versa? It is important not to skip over important points because it is so ingrained that your brain 'fills in the gaps', the problem being that the person you are talking to doesn't have that luxury. Just something to pay attention to. You can't unlearn something so you can become better at explaining it
Same thing here you see a white triangle when in fact there is no triangle at all our Brains just naturally like to fill in the gaps.
This constructive ability of the brain is pretty awesome, it can take an incomplete picture or sound and make it complete. I think alot of people don't realize how well the brain does this not only in vision and hearing but also in thought. Have you ever been describing something to someone and thought it was perfectly clear but the person had no idea what you were talking about or vice versa? It is important not to skip over important points because it is so ingrained that your brain 'fills in the gaps', the problem being that the person you are talking to doesn't have that luxury. Just something to pay attention to. You can't unlearn something so you can become better at explaining it
Thursday, November 26, 2009
A Jack of All Trades, Master of None.
"A jack of all trades, master of none."
According to the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins:
The 'jack of all trades' part of the phrase was in common use during the 1600s and was generally used as a term of praise. Later the 'master of none' was added and the expression ceased to be very flattering. Today, the phrase used in its entirety generally describes a person whose knowledge, while covering a number of areas, is superficial in all of them.
It is interesting how this phrase has changed just like we have. Leonardo Di Vinci was a painter, mathematician, inventor, sculptor, and biologist. He was absolutely a jack of all trades also known as a renaissance man. This was a positive affixation, so how did ‘master of none’ get tacked on? Well we kept learning and specializing and learning and specializing. The amount of knowledge has increased exponentially. Technology went from being understandable, 200 years ago I could know nothing about agriculture but if you showed me a cotton gin I could understand how it works, to being something that takes years/decades of studying to grasp, imagine trying to understand how a TV works just by looking at it (and the television set isn’t a recent invention).
Specialization took over; it was the only way to progress there was too much knowledge for any single person. If I want to get my taxes done by an accountant did I want the accountant who was also a good sculptor or did I want the one who I knew spent every waking minute trying to understand tax codes and laws? Specialists ruled the day. To compete with specialists a generalist needed to decide what they wanted to do and focus on that.
The funny thing is I believe we are coming full circle, as knowledge continues to increase, more and more specialization occurs. These compartments are getting smaller and smaller to the point where none of them can stand on their own, which makes someone who understands all the compartments (albeit, not as deeply as the specialists) and how they fit and work together very important. There is a rarely used second half of this quote (according to Wikipedia) that is “A jack of all trades but master of none is better than a master of one”. I think it is time to adopt the full quote to reflect the progress we have made.
I think a good example of this is the medical profession. Someone who was only a doctor was preferred to someone who was a doctor among many other things. Especially as the amount of knowledge in the field increased. However, as the amount of knowledge increased more and more just being a doctor wasn’t good enough, more specialization occurred so now there are brain surgeons, cancer specialists, people who only deal with kidneys all these different small compartments. It would be foolish to hire any because what happens if I have a stroke but my doctor is a kidney specialist. What is needed are doctors that have a good understanding of everything. Then if the problem is beyond their understanding they can refer you to a specialist.
As a coach, I try to understand many topics, but obviously I can’t focus on only one. I spend a lot of time researching sports nutrition but not enough to create my own protein bar. I spend a lot of time looking at sports psychology, I can recognize warning signs of over training and understand why positive reinforcement works better than punishment, but I can’t counsel someone who is having emotional issues. I can understand why ice is good to use immediately after an injury but I can’t re-set a dislocated shoulder. Despite the negative connotations I have always been drawn to the idea of being a 'Jack of all trades'. In college during my undergrad I recieved a dual degree in Physics and Economics, I then went back to school and got a master's degree in kinesiology.
In my continued attempt to become a generalist I am creating a blog which I will use as a journal. I find myself going through all this research on all these topics and not enough of it sticking that I had hoped so I am planning on using the journal as a chance to write down my thoughts on different news articles, research studies, books and experiences that I have. Forcing myself to write down my thoughts serving the dual purpose of 1) forcing me to have a thought 2) forcing me to consider the implications of the thought since I am posting it in a public forum. Basically it is my way of digesting all this information out there, hence the title: My Brain’s Colon.
According to the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins:
The 'jack of all trades' part of the phrase was in common use during the 1600s and was generally used as a term of praise. Later the 'master of none' was added and the expression ceased to be very flattering. Today, the phrase used in its entirety generally describes a person whose knowledge, while covering a number of areas, is superficial in all of them.
It is interesting how this phrase has changed just like we have. Leonardo Di Vinci was a painter, mathematician, inventor, sculptor, and biologist. He was absolutely a jack of all trades also known as a renaissance man. This was a positive affixation, so how did ‘master of none’ get tacked on? Well we kept learning and specializing and learning and specializing. The amount of knowledge has increased exponentially. Technology went from being understandable, 200 years ago I could know nothing about agriculture but if you showed me a cotton gin I could understand how it works, to being something that takes years/decades of studying to grasp, imagine trying to understand how a TV works just by looking at it (and the television set isn’t a recent invention).
Specialization took over; it was the only way to progress there was too much knowledge for any single person. If I want to get my taxes done by an accountant did I want the accountant who was also a good sculptor or did I want the one who I knew spent every waking minute trying to understand tax codes and laws? Specialists ruled the day. To compete with specialists a generalist needed to decide what they wanted to do and focus on that.
The funny thing is I believe we are coming full circle, as knowledge continues to increase, more and more specialization occurs. These compartments are getting smaller and smaller to the point where none of them can stand on their own, which makes someone who understands all the compartments (albeit, not as deeply as the specialists) and how they fit and work together very important. There is a rarely used second half of this quote (according to Wikipedia) that is “A jack of all trades but master of none is better than a master of one”. I think it is time to adopt the full quote to reflect the progress we have made.
I think a good example of this is the medical profession. Someone who was only a doctor was preferred to someone who was a doctor among many other things. Especially as the amount of knowledge in the field increased. However, as the amount of knowledge increased more and more just being a doctor wasn’t good enough, more specialization occurred so now there are brain surgeons, cancer specialists, people who only deal with kidneys all these different small compartments. It would be foolish to hire any because what happens if I have a stroke but my doctor is a kidney specialist. What is needed are doctors that have a good understanding of everything. Then if the problem is beyond their understanding they can refer you to a specialist.
As a coach, I try to understand many topics, but obviously I can’t focus on only one. I spend a lot of time researching sports nutrition but not enough to create my own protein bar. I spend a lot of time looking at sports psychology, I can recognize warning signs of over training and understand why positive reinforcement works better than punishment, but I can’t counsel someone who is having emotional issues. I can understand why ice is good to use immediately after an injury but I can’t re-set a dislocated shoulder. Despite the negative connotations I have always been drawn to the idea of being a 'Jack of all trades'. In college during my undergrad I recieved a dual degree in Physics and Economics, I then went back to school and got a master's degree in kinesiology.
In my continued attempt to become a generalist I am creating a blog which I will use as a journal. I find myself going through all this research on all these topics and not enough of it sticking that I had hoped so I am planning on using the journal as a chance to write down my thoughts on different news articles, research studies, books and experiences that I have. Forcing myself to write down my thoughts serving the dual purpose of 1) forcing me to have a thought 2) forcing me to consider the implications of the thought since I am posting it in a public forum. Basically it is my way of digesting all this information out there, hence the title: My Brain’s Colon.
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