What’s the first thing to age as we age?

There is no debating that from the time we are born we get older every second of everyday. I am older now then I was a sentence ago. I can also say I am closer to my next birthday party too!

The bottom line is we are getting older whether we like it or not. We move differently in different stages of our lives. Typically, as a kid we are much more active then we are after college with few exceptions. Life happens and we spend our time differently. I know growing up I focused on school, sports and girls. I had very little other responsibility. I knew I had a house to come home to, a meal to eat, no bills to be paid, etc. Now, my life, and I’m assuming your too, is very different. I hope like me, in a good way. So, since life is different, we should recognize what in our bodies is different.

What is the first thing to age as we age from a performance standpoint?

It is not strength. Not cardio-pulmonary health. Not balance. Not flexibility.

It is power. Power is like the golden nugget of training. So what is it and how do we get it? Power is the sum of speed and strength. In other words, how fast can I move a load, whether it is a weight, cable, or my own body. There are various ways to tap into your power source. For the sake of this post we will focus on just one: plyometric training. The reason I want to focus on this one is you can do this anywhere because it just requires you.

My recommendation is that you start off simple and work your way up from that. Get the foundational stuff down then you have earned the right to advance. Below is a simple progression I use with various populations:

1. skip (forward, backward and lateral)
2. high knee skip (forward, backward and lateral)
3. 1 leg hop with pause
4. 1 leg hop no pause
5. jump with pause
6. double jump with no pause

You will find that doing this will tap into a completely different training system then you are used to. I hope it adds a different component to your program.

P.S. If you think power is just for performance people, think again. Every step you take walking is a low level form of power and it takes less than a millisecond to put one foot in front of another. If your telling me that as we age walking isn’t important take a look at a IHop restaurant on a Tuesday afternoon/evening when all the senior citizens are there?

Charity Workout!

1. Next Saturday the 1st of October I am holding a charity workout at 930am. All are welcome to come and get a workout on me! The only catch it that I ask you to make a donation to a Waukegan Elementary school for a bike rack for the kids that ride to school. It also happens to be the same school my wife is a 5th grade teacher at. The rack costs $500 and I hope that we can find a way to get that for them. So I need your help!

2. I am looking for places, organizations, schools, teams, charities, families, etc. that need help. Each month I will be hosting a charity workout with proceeds going to various charitable causes. If you have anything in mind please let me know so I can get in touch with the right people and help support good work and people in our community.

Thank you and I hope to see you next Saturday.

P.S. If you would like to donate but can not attend please email me back for donation details.

Charity Workout!

1. Next Saturday the 1st of October I am holding a charity workout at 930am. All are welcome to come and get a workout on me! The only catch it that I ask you to make a donation to a Waukegan Elementary school for a bike rack for the kids that ride to school. It also happens to be the same school my wife is a 5th grade teacher at. The rack costs $500 and I hope that we can find a way to get that for them. So I need your help!

2. I am looking for places, organizations, schools, teams, charities, families, etc. that need help. Each month I will be hosting a charity workout with proceeds going to various charitable causes. If you have anything in mind please let me know so I can get in touch with the right people and help support good work and people in our community.

Thank you and I hope to see you next Saturday.

P.S. If you would like to donate but can not attend please email me back for donation details.

When is the right time?

School is back in session and sports are up and running. New freshman are doing their best to compete and upperclassmen are fighting for positions. Down the road the middle school athletics and youth teams are in full roar. Kids from 8-17 are competing at various levels in various sports. There are definite standouts and ones that are just out there for a good time or I should say because their parents want them out there. Both parents and kids are looking for an edge to be the best. So when is the right time to specialize in one sport? When do you put the other sports aside and just focus on one. It is quite the debate in my house with my wife since I grew up playing varsity sports in all seasons and she focused on one; swimming. So what road worked the best? What produced the best results?

Well… It depends. We both played sports all the way through college at a competitive level with her achieving All-American status. Score one for the wife. In my high school graduating class I graduated with the most varsity letters and was captain of some of the teams. Score one for Ben. Before we had kids we both were competitive yet anything that was outside the pool she would always say, “I’m not very good with the land sports, get me in a pool and I’ll kick your a@$”

She was right in both aspects.

What’s the moral? Let your wife win. Just kidding.

The moral is to let kids be kids. They are too busy playing video games and other technology for one. Secondly, encourage them to play and experience all kinds of sports. It teaches valuable movement and athleticism that will be sorely missed if only one sport is focused on. In fact I will go as far to say that playing other sports will help them become better at their favorite sport. It kills me to see a kid that has played the same thing all their life and has no idea how to swing a baseball bat or a golf club going into high school. Absolutely absurd!

Lastly, when it comes to training kids. Movement quality, development and education injected with tons of fun will produce the best results. Giving kids weights and saying have at it or I saw this on TV or in a magazine is a recipe for disaster.

If you have kids and have questions about their training (or lack of) or development please email me for more information.

An Exclusive Group

I wanted to send a quick note and let you know I have been accepted into a exclusive group that will have a huge and massive impact on you. Only 200 people a year are able to do this.

This group is responsible for more successful weight loss coaching than all seasons of the Biggest Loser COMBINED!

This group is responsible for the nutritional success of some of the top athletes and performers in the world.

It is called the Precision Nutrition Certification.

It will take me about 3 months, like a normal college semester, to complete and officially become certified. Once completed I will be able to…

Provide comprehensive nutrition education and coaching. The course work covers the science of nutrition; cellular biology, digestion, metabolism, macronutritients, micronutrients and more, all in depth and the practice of coaching. The coaching is the key.

If I ask anyone how to eat right or what the best foods are for optimal health, most will know with no hesitation. The problem and struggle comes with actually implementing it into your life and lifestyle. That is the true success of the program.

Stay turned for more details and how this will create a new opportunity in your life.

Competition for a Cure making headlines!

The Competition for a Cure, my charity event each year in support of breast cancer research, has been national recognized by Yoplait Yogurt.

Each year in the month of October they have a pink lid campaign wherein if you buy the yogurt and send in the lids they donate a portion to breast cancer research. They feature various stories and events of the year to highlight in their month long campaign.

They have chosen our event and story as one to feature on their media outreach campaign this fall! We will be on Yoplait’s website, Facebook page, in media outlets to include online, print and broadcast.

This is so great for the event and for all that came to support it. It was all of you that helped make this happen. Thank You!

The Sitting Effect

How much do you sit on a daily basis? If you are like most, then you sleep on your side, which resembles a sitting position, you sit to eat breakfast, sit to drive to work, sit while at work, sit at lunch, sit back down to finish the work day, sit to drive home, sit to have dinner, sit on the couch to read or watch TV, then fall asleep on your side which resembles the sitting position again. (by the way, I’m sitting right now writing this.)

It is amazing how much we sit!

What is this doing to us? How is this affecting our bodies? Our function? Our health?

More importantly, what can we do about it?
First, let’s look at the things we can have an impact on since we can drive standing or laying down. We can change how we work or what we sit on. We can change the activity level throughout the course of the day and we can change the position that we sleep. Without disrupting too much, I would start with the seat at your desk or work station. Use a stability ball for a seat instead of a chair and/or raise your desk so you can stand throughout the day and work. More important, is your level of activity throughout the day. Sounds simple, but take a walk at lunch. It will help get you out of that postural pattern.

Ideally, train your back half. Anything you have to pull is great. Rows and chin ups are an example for your upper body. Bridging, hip lifts, kettlebell swings, and deadlifts are great for your lower body.

The bottom line… do something other than sitting!