CategoriesProgram Design Strength Training

10 Must Do’s to Stay Athletic (Part 2)

Before we get to Part 2 of James’ guest post from yesterday, a few things:

1.  You should read Part 1 if you haven’t already. This isn’t like The Matrix Reloaded or Revolutions or anything where, if you didn’t watch the original Matrix, you’d be throwing your hands up in the air wondering what WTF is going on.

Where did 100 Agent Smith’s come from?

If Neo can fly, why go through all the trouble of kung-fu’ing everyone?

And, who the hell is this Architect character and why is he obsessed with the word “ergo”?

Nevertheless, you can absolutely read Part 2 (below) and not Part 1 and get the gist of everything.  But, it’s still nice to have the whole story.

2.  The guys over at Examine.com (THE best source for INDEPENDENT and UNBIASED supplement information in the history of the internet) just released their new product, Stack Guides, today.

If you’ve ever asked yourself the question, “what supplements should I take for ______?” then this may be right up your alley.

The Stack Guides are easy to use and provide a step-by-step breakdown of the most prominent queries people have towards supplementation:

Fat Loss
Muscle Gain & Exercise Performance
Bone Health
Sleep Quality
Libido
Mood/Depression
Vegetarianism/Veganism
Insulin Sensitivity, etc……..

You name it, Examine.com probably has it covered.  For more information, you can go HERE.

And with that, lets get to Part 2 of James’ article….

6.  Maintain an Aerobic Base

Low intensity, long duration cardio gets a bad rap sometimes.  If you listen to some people, it sounds as if even thinking about going aerobic will automatically make you lose all your gains.  Unless all you do is low intensity, long duration cardio, that’s not the case.  Your muscle will not melt off your body.  I promise.

Here are a few reasons to maintain a stellar aerobic base:

– It’s always contributing to energy production

– It plays an enormous role in regenerating the necessary substrates to fuel alactic metabolism (aka it helps you recover)

– Is the most trainable of the three energy systems because its only byproducts are CO2 and water.

– Can push out your anaerobic threshold, which in turn allows you to avoid the fatiguing effects of anaerobic metabolism.

For more on this topic I’d recommend checking out this article.

Action Item:  Do cardiac output work once a week for 30-60 min and mix in tempo work once a week at the end of a workout.

7.  Eat Well 90% of the Time

You are what you eat.  It’s pretty self-explanatory.  Eat like crap, and you’ll probably perform and feel like crap.

If you do your due diligence and eat well 90% of the time, and by well I mean focus on lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats, then you’ll do great.

I hate when people get all paranoid and never allow themselves some breathing room.  If you’re craving a milkshake go crush a damn milkshake.  If you make yourself miserable trying not to have it, you’re more likely to binge eat later.  Just indulge yourself within reason and stay on point the other 90% of the time.

If you have questions about nutrition and want an easy to follow plan based on your body type and goals, then click here.

Action Item:  Get protein (lean meat), carbs (veggies and fruit), and fat (nuts, seeds and oils) into every meal you eat.

8.  Play

One of my favorite quotes is by George Shaw, and it goes like this:  “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

Think back to when you were a kid, and how much you enjoyed the art of playing.  Just reckless, mindless, good old fashioned playing.  For some reason we lose that as adults, and it’s sad because the health benefits from playing are great.

Although the list is long, I think most of it comes back to stress management.  Playing allows us to take a much needed break from the constant stressors of todays 24/7 lifestyle, and may very well help keep our stress response in tune (ala not “on” all the time).

If you’re interested in reading more about stress and its impact on the body, I couldn’t recommend the book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky enough.

Action Item:  Play for at least 1 hour each week.

9.  Have an off switch

Getting jacked up and ripping 500lbs off the floor is great and all, but you have to be able to shut down afterwards.

More specifically, you have to be able to turn off your sympathetic (flight or fight) nervous system and get into your parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system.  This is important for a host of reasons, but here’s a quick example.

Let’s say you find yourself roaming the Serengeti and come across this cuddly little guy:

Without having to think about it, your sympathetic nervous system will kick into gear, diverting blood flow to your muscles and dumping things like glucocorticoids into the bloodstream, while most other bodily functions that don’t help you survive at this immediate moment get put on the back burner (digesting food, secretion of sex hormones etc.).

Side note:  this is what happens when you train.

Once you’ve escaped the lion you’d like to be able to shut off the sympathetic system and find your parasympathetic system so you can rest, digest and recover.  Unfortunately, some people lose the ability to do this.  They stay sympathetic all the time causing their bodies to constantly act as if they’re running from a lion.  Needless to say, that’s not healthy in the long run.

Action Item:  Try doing 3 minutes of crocodile breathing after workouts and before bed every night.

Note from TG:  Crocodile or Belly breathing is easy to do.  The idea is to “coach” people to become less of a chest breather – which is an aberrant pattern that tends to jack up our secondary respiratory muscles like the upper traps and scalenes (and, not coincidentally, often leads to neck and shoulder pain) –  and learn to breath more into their belly.

Here, you’ll lie prone on your stomach with your forehead resting on your forearms. From there try to inhale and breath more into your stomach.  You know you’re doing it correctly if you notice your lower back moving up and down, like in the video below.

10.  Surround Yourself With the Right People

You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.  If you hang out with people who have zero interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you will also not care about having a healthy lifestyle.

Not only that, having a supporting cast and a few good training partners can make all the difference in the world.  So choose wisely who you associate with.

Action Item:  Make a new friend this month that shares your health and fitness related goals.

Note from TG:  or, you could also just hang out with Jason Bourne.  That would be pretty bad ass.

11.  Bonus: Have Something to Train For

As much as I’d love for everyone to train just because they love training, I’m a realist.

I know that’s not the case for the majority of people. Go out of your way to find something train for.  It can be anything.  Do a Tough Mudder.  Sign up for a powerlifting meet.  Really…anything goes.  Just pick something you can put on the calendar that’ll act as a source of accountability.

Action Item:  Find an event you can compete in sometime over the next 6 months.

Closing Thoughts

Some of the material presented in this article is probably new, and some is probably old news.  Either way, the overarching theme is this:  if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Funny as that may be, it’s true.  The body will adapt to whatever stimulus you place on it, and that includes whatever stimulus you don’t place on it.

The easiest way to stay athletic is to stay on top of your game—it’s always easier to maintain something than it is to get it back.

About the Author

James Cerbie, CSCS, Pn1, USAW, Crossfit Level 1

James Cerbie is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, Precision Nutrition, USA Weightlifting and Crossfit.  He has worked with athletes from the middle school to professional level, powerlifters, olympic lifters, and Crossfit athletes alike.  He’s the owner of Rebel Performance and currently works as a strength and conditioning intern at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training.

P.S.  He would love it if you hung out with him on Facebook and Twitter.

CategoriesProgram Design

10 Must Do’s To Stay Athletic (Part I)

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of former Cressey Performance intern, James Cerbie. As the title suggests it’s all about how to maintain athleticism, which is something that will hit home for many former athletes, weekend warriors, and Al Bundy-like people who like to bask in the glory of their high-school and college days.

Enjoy!

What does it mean to be an athlete?

Sure, there’s getting all the girls of course.

Kidding…kidding…we all know there’s more to it than that.

So what is it?

The thrill of winning, the rush of competing, the butterflies before a game, the anticipation of a daunting challenge, the brotherhood (could be sisterhood but I’m speaking from my own experience), the pain of defeat, the constant drive towards perfection…it’s hard to say.

Being an athlete, to me at least, encompasses all of those things and more.  It’s truly a way of life, and hard to rid yourself of once you’re so called playing days are over.

Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t seem to recognize this.  Once you leave college or professional sports, you’re thrust into a world that almost looks down on being an athlete.  They’ll just tell you:  “Oh, you had your chance.  Your playing days are over.  It’s time to hang up the cleats and begin your slow decline into decrepitude.”

Whew, doesn’t that sound fun?

It truly pains me to see this happen, and I see it happen a lot—people who were once exceptional athletes who have fallen off the tracks, and are now mere shadows of what they used to be (it honestly reminds me of animals locked up in captivity, but the animal is you and captivity is being locked behind a desk all day).

Don’t get me wrong.  The chances of you being able to maintain your fitness level from college, pro’s etc. is highly unlikely.   This is merely due to the fact that it’s no longer your major commitment.  You have a job, perhaps a significant other, and a life to live.  You just don’t have 20 plus hours a week to commit to training, practice and the sorts.

BUT, that doesn’t mean you can’t stay athletic…so here are 10 must do’s if you hope to avoid turning into a desk slob.

1.  Take Care of Movement

Focusing on how well you move may be boring, but it’s essential.  Without good movement patterns, you are setting yourself up for failure in two big ways.

First, increased risk of injury.  It should come as no surprise that if you move poorly you are more likely to get injured.  Instead of things rolling, sliding, gliding and staying where they’re supposed to, they start banging, pinching, and putting pressure on places they shouldn’t—this is called compensation.

Here’s a simple example:  Say you have poor scapulohumeral mechanics.  In other words, you’re not very good at maintaining the position of the humeral head in the socket in coordination with scapular movement.

As opposed to keeping the humeral head centered in the already small glenohumeral socket (it’s like a golf ball sitting on a tee), it may glide forward and start cranking on the long head of your biceps (ever had pain on the front of your shoulder?).  Although that example is WAY oversimplified, I hope it gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Second, and the seller for most people, is decreased performance—big time muscles are taking a break while the smaller, less capable muscles carry the brunt of the load.

The human body is like a machine, and to guarantee health and maximal performance you have to make sure all the pieces are balanced, strong and in the right position to function optimally.

Action Item:  Get assessed and have someone fix your movement woes.

2.  Lift Heavy Stuff

Please don’t stop lifting heavy things (unless you have an injury or don’t move well).  The benefits it brings about are second to none, and are so essential to long term health and functionality.

I wrote a whole blog post just on this topic a while back, so instead of repeating myself, I’ll refer you here if you want to learn more

Action Item:  Lift something heavy at least once a week.

3.  Sprint

If you’re like most athletes, you can’t wait to drop sprints from your workout regiment. You’ve been doing them your whole life, they suck, and you can’t wait to throw them behind you forever.

Sorry to break it to you, but sprints are necessary.  Similar to lifting heavy weights, sprints are one of the best ways to optimize your hormonal response.  In other words, there appears to be a minimum required threshold of intensity for your body to start dumping things like testosterone and HGH into the bloodstream.

This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective and is backed up in the research.  I’d recommend checking out this article if you want to read more about the many health benefits brought about by sprinting.

Action Item:  Get outside and run at least once a week.  Think hill sprints, 40 yard sprints, 60 yard sprints, 100 yard sprints etc. etc.

4.  Jump

A large amount of athleticism comes down to your rate of force development—how quickly you can generate force.  The only way to maintain and improve this quality, is to do things that require you to generate force as quickly as possible.  Jumping is one of the best ways to accomplish this.

Here’s an easy example:  your absolute strength level is like a pool of water.  The bigger the pool the more strength you have.  The size of the pool, however, doesn’t necessarily mean you can draw out a lot of water at once or do it quickly.  It just means you have the potential to do so.  Jumping, and a host of other exercises, teaches you to draw out a lot of water and to do so quickly.

If you want to stay explosive and powerful, jumping is must.

Action Item:  At the beginning of one workout a week, jump onto something 10-20 times.  I’m not talking about just hopping around through, like really jump.

Note from TG: check out THIS article on common mistakes when it comes to box jumps.

5.  Be Agile

What do you think happens to your joints during athletics?  In particular, during the planting and cutting portion?  Sure you may have some wear and tear (a lot of that goes back to the movement piece though), but your joints adapt to the stressor being placed on them.

They gain the ability to absorb force and help you change direction without your knee going one way and your body going the other.  Similar to jumping and sprinting, this is one of the first items to fall by the wayside at the conclusion of playing competitive sports.

Unless you’re constantly being chased by dogs, cops or maybe even zombies, it’s highly unlikely you’re getting this stimulus in your day to day life.  Can you imagine someone sprinting down the sidewalk of a major city trying to cut, juke, dodge and avoid all the pedestrians?  It doesn’t happen.  Thus, you have to go out of your way to make sure it does.

If not, then say bye-bye to any “agileness” you once had.

Action Item:  Do t-drills, 20 yard shuttles and other actions that involve planting and cutting in a rapid fashion once a week.

And that’s it for today. Check back tomorrow where I’ll discuss the other five keys to stay athletic.

About the Author

James Cerbie, CSCS, Pn1, USAW, Crossfit Level 1

James Cerbie is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, Precision Nutrition, USA Weightlifting and Crossfit.  He has worked with athletes from the middle school to professional level, powerlifters, olympic lifters, and Crossfit athletes alike.  He’s the owner of Rebel Performance and currently works as a strength and conditioning intern at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training.

P.S.  He would love it if you hung out with him on Facebook and Twitter.