The Essentials of Cord Training

The competitive advantage provided by our patented cords should not be overlooked. The performance gains that athletes can realize with a well-executed cord program will always be superior to a program that doesn't include cords. But a word of caution, improper use of the cords can have a detrimental effect on an athlete's performance potential and even risk an injury. We patented theses devices to help you further develop the athletes you train. Learn how to use them right and you will be an invaluable coach helping your athletes reap the benefits!

The key element of nearly all our cord patents (SprintCords, Throwing cords, Kicking cords, Plyo cords, and PowerCords) is that they are designed to load adjacent body segments. This is what makes them to be such a powerful tool for helping athletes improve power in sport-specific movements.

We always emphasize "training between the asymptotes" of the force-velocity curve, or in simpler terms, expanding the athlete's range of movement velocities they train. Athletic Republic's patented cords provide one of the best tools for doing just that. Science based, proven and developing power in sport specific movements.

Its time to revisit how the cords can improve your business and ensure your trainers are prepared and educated to integrate these tools into your programs. For more information about Athletic Republic's patented cords please call Kobus at 318-323-1613.

Did You Know?

1. Broccoli contains twice the vitamin C of an orange.
2. You don't need to eat bananas for the potassium! (Although it is present in bananas, potassium is the predominant nutrient among most all fruits and vegetables.)
3. Celery is the best vegetable source of naturally occurring sodium.
4. To obtain the maximum nutritional benefits, onions should be eaten raw or lightly steamed.
5. Be careful: eating too many sweet potatoes may cause abdominal swelling and indigestion.

Question of the week?

Q: I want to lift heavier but it stresses my joints - especially my wrists. What are my options?

A: This is actually a common problem for many. First off, it's important to check with your doctor first to rule out any injury. If you have the go-ahead from your doctor, one way to address this problem is to use less weight, but do more repetitions. Stay within the eight to 12 repetition range, which will lead to strength and muscle gains. You don't have to minimize the amount of weight drastically. The problem in your wrists could also be caused by barbells. If so, try switching to dumbbells, which can reduce the strain on the wrists and allow more movement of the joints. You could also try isometric training, a type of strength training in which the joint angle and muscle length do not change during contraction, either worked against an immovable force or held in a static position while opposed by resistance, such as pressing your fingers together in front of your body.

There are also a couple non-training options to tweak: Wearing a wrist wrap to support the area and/or using a resistance band to build strength. If all else fails just go light for a few weeks and rest - it's better to train light than be sidelined with injury by training too heavy!

Jeff Edney

A Journey of Strength (Part 1)

recently read a book called "Convict Conditioning" about using ones own bodyweight for strength training. Really loved the concept and I have applied some of those principles to our training program. I have seen athlete after athlete come through our doors and not be able to squat or lunge with proper form, do a basic Push Up or a Pull Up. Walk into virtually any gym in the world and you will find any number of pumped up athletes who think that they are "strong" athletes because they can bench press a heavy bar, have eighteen inch arms or look big in a tank top or T-shirt.

But how many of them are truly strong?

1. How many of them have genuine athletic strength they can use?
2. How many of them could drop and give you twenty perfect one-arm Push Ups?
3. How many have the pure knee and hip strength to squat right down to the ground and stand up again - on one leg?
4. How many of them could grab hold of an overhead bar and execute a flawless one-arm Pull Up?
   
   The answer is
   :
   Almost none.
   
   You will find almost no athlete today, whether it is a FOOTBALL to SOFTBALL athlete who can perform these simple body-weight feats. In today's sports performance world being able to bench press 300 lb, power clean (who cares about technique) 400 lbs, flip a monster truck tire (my biggest pet peeve) 100 yards has become the accepted status quo of ultimate conditioning. This seems like total insanity to me. What does it matter how much weight you claim to be able to lift in a gym or on a special machine? How can somebody be considered to be "strong" if they can not move their own body around as nature itended.
   
   Calisthenics is not a word commonly heard much in strength circles anymore, indeed, most personal trainers would have trouble even spelling it. The word itself has been used in the English language since at least the nineteenth century, but the term has very ancient origins. It comes from the ancient Greek kallos meaning, "beauty", and sthénos, which means "strength."
   
   Calisthenics is basically the art of using the body's own weight and qualities of inertia as a means of physical development. Unfortuantley modern calisthenics is not really understood as a hardcore strength training technology. If you mention calisthenics today, most people would think only of high reptition Push Ups, crunches (a worthless exercise), and less taxing exercises like jumping jacks or running on the sport. Calisthenics has become a secondary option, a cheap form of circuit training more like an aerobic exercise. But it wasn't always this way.
   
   I could pretty much write a thesis on why old school calisthenics is in a different league to modern, gym-based training. But since space is short, I'm going to stick to the basics. Here are six dang important reasons where old school calisthenics scores over other, more modern methods:
   
   1. Bodyweight Training Requires Very Little Equipment: There has never been a system of strength training more perfectly in harmony with the principles of independence and economy, and there never will be. Even the most ardent weightlifter will have to admit this fact. For the master of calisthenics, his or her body becomes a gymnasium
   2. Bodyweight Training Develops Useful, Functional Athletic Abilities:Calisthenics is the ultimate in functional training. In most sports, the human body doesn't need to move barbells or dumbbells around. Before it can move anything external at all, it has to be able to move itself around!
   3. Bodyweight Training Maximizes Strength: Calisthenics movements are the most efficient exercises possible, because they work the body as it evolved to work; not by using individual muscles, or the portions of a muscle, but as in an integrated unit. This means developing the tendons, joints, and nervous system as well as the muscles.
   4. Bodyweight Training Protects the Joints and Makes Them Stronger - For Life: One of the major problems with modern forms of strength and resistance training is the damage they do to the joints. The joints of the body are supported by delicate soft tissues - tendons, fascia, ligaments and bursae - which are simply not evolved to take the pounding of heavy weight training. Weak areas include the wrists, elbows, knees, lower back, hips, and the rhomboid - complex, spine and neck. The shoulders are particularly susceptible to damage from bodybuilding motions.
   5. Bodyweight Training Quickly Develops the Physique to Perfection: Strength and health should be the major goals of your training. You need to be as powerful and functional as you possibly can be, for long time into your old age. Calisthenics can give you that.
   6. Bodyweight Training Normalizes and Regulates Your Body Fat Levels: Weight-training and the psychology of overeating go hand in hand.Before a hard session, an athlete convinces themselves that if they eat more, they'll lift better and put on beef. After a hard session, an athlete is artificially depleted and his appetite increases accordingly. The opposite dynamic occurs when an athlete begins training seriously in calisthenics. If obesity and bodybuilding are best friends, obesity and calisthenics arenatural enemies. If your goal is to bench press 300 lbs., you could overeat as much as you like and probably still meet your goal despite carrying around a massive gut. But you couldn't set a goal doing one-arm Pull Ups with out watching your bodyweight. Nobody ever became better at calisthenics by bulking up into a big fat pig.
   In the next several newsletters I will take you on a Journey of Strength.If you would like to take that Journey than make a commitment to your - self and joining me on this journey. If you would like to join just post your commitment on our Facebook Page.

Your Coach,
Drew
Wade, P. (2010). Convict condtioning. St. Paul, MN: Dragon Door Puclications, Inc.

Getting Better or Getting Tired

I see so much "stuff" out there now that just makes the athlete tired. Just making a workout hard or an exercise an butt-kicker does not make it a productive workout or a beneficial exercise. Each exercise should be carefully chosen to fit into the overall program. Each training session needs to be strategically placed in the context of the previous workout and subsequent workouts, in other words as part of an overall plan of development to meet the athletes' needs.

If you are logging onto the Internet each day and downloading the workout of the day, you are not meeting the above criteria. It is just work, just training, in all probability it is hard, just like yesterday and the day before and the day before that, all hard. Step back and take a close look at what you are doing. In all probability you are probably just finding different ways to make your athletes or your self tired, but are you really making them/yourself better?

Need a PLAN? Athletic Republic can draft one for you? By using our philosophy TEST-TEACH-TRAIN, every athlete is train specifically as an individual. Our PLAN for the athlete is to train their weaknesses to be their strengths and to train their strengths to be even stronger.


Holiday Camps

Thanksgiving Play 360 Acceleration Camp
The Play 360 program is designed to introduce and create foundations of overall FITNESS, ATHLETICISM in a FUN, POSITIVE environment The Play 360 Program uses games and structured play to encourage improvement of overall fitness, improve eye/hand coordination, teach proper running form, promote agility and balance, develop sport-specific movements and skills and much more.....

Dates: November 22nd - 23rd: Monday & Tuesday
Time: 10:00am - 12:00pm
Cost: Members $20, Non Members $40
$10/$20 per day
$10 non-refundable registration fee

Ages: 7-12
Class Size: Limited to 20

Christmas Play 360 Acceleration Camp
The Play 360 program is designed to introduce and create foundations of overall FITNESS, ATHLETICISM in a FUN, POSITIVE environment The Play 360 Program uses games and structured play to encourage improvement of overall fitness, improve eye/hand coordination, teach proper running form, promote agility and balance, develop sport-specific movements and skills and much more.....

Dates: December 20th - 23rd: Monday - Thursday
Time: 10:00am -12:00pm
Cost: Members $20, Non Members $40
$10/$20 per day
$10 non-refundable registration fee

Ages: 7-12
Class Size: Limited to 20

Knee Deep Injury

ACL tears are eight times more likely for women than men. Here's how to prevent this type of grueling injury from happening to you.

ACL Anatomy: The ACL is found deep in the knee join and acts together with the PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) as the primary stabilizer of the knee joint. The ACL connects the tibia (shin bone) with the femur (thigh bone) and helps to prevent excessive forward movement and inward rotation of the shin on the thigh bone during agility, jumping and deceleration activities.

Are you at Risk? The configuration of the knee makes the ligaments and the cartilage prone to injury with any contact to the knee, or often with just the force of a hard muscle contraction-like performing a quick change of direction when sprinting or a very sudden deceleration maneuver. You can also incur an ACL injury with an improper landing technique; landing with a straight knee and hip on a flat foot.

The four common risk factors include anatomy, environment, hormones and biomechanical. In terms of anatomy females demonstrate a wider pelvis, greater lower leg rotation and more inward caving of the knee. Athletic footwear is designed to allow the athlete to cut and pivot quickly. However, if friction is between the shoe and the playing surface is too high, you can increase the force on the lower leg. There is a fine line between performance enhancement and increasing risk of injury. When it comes to hormones because receptors for estrogen, progesterone and relaxin have been found to physically exist on the ACL ligament there have been studies on the female menstrual cycle to see whether or not the monthly fluctuation in estrogen and progesterone can be linked to an increase in ACL injury. As of yet, no consensus has been reached.

Biomechanical risks do seem to have merit. Intervention programs designed to alter strength, balance and joint awareness have been highly effective in decreasing the number of ACL injuries.
ACL prevention programs tend to be sport specific and focus on core stability, flexibility, trunk strength, lower body strength, balance and power. One program that has experienced great success is the PEP Program (Prevent injury, Enhance Performance) from the Santa Monica Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Research Foundation. It is a highly specific, 20-minute field training session that replaces the traditional warm-up. Here is one exercise included in the program:

Walking Lunge: Lunge forward leading with your left leg. Drop the back knee straight down with your front knee over your ankle. Keep your shoulders over your hips and control the motion to avoid letting your front knee cave inward. If you can't see your toes on your leading leg, you are doing the exercise incorrectly. Step forward with the right leg and repeat. Complete 30 repetitions on each leg.

Holly Jacinda Silvers

Is Brown Sugar Better than White Sugar?

The brown sugar sold at grocery stores is actually white granulated sugar with added molasses. Yes, brown sugar contains minute amounts of minerals. But unless you eat a gigantic portion of brown sugar every day, the mineral content difference between brown sugar and white sugar is absolutely insignificant. The idea that brown and white sugar have big differences is another common nutrition myth.

Gloria Tsang

Question of the Week?

Q: How much protein do I need to build muscle?

A: With increases in training intensity, you need additional protein to support muscle growth and increases in certain blood compounds. On the basis of the latest research with strength trainers, I recommend that you eat 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (0.9 grams per pound) a day. Here's how you would figure that requirement if you weigh 130 pounds or 59 kilograms:

2.0 g protein x 59 kg = 118 g of protein a day

0.91 g protein x 130 lbs = 118 g of protein a day

Strength trainers living in high altitudes need even more protein: 2.2 g per kg (1.0 g/lb) of body weight daily. If you do 5 or more hours of aerobic/endurance exercise during the week you need the same amount as the high altitude strength trainer. And, vegan vegetarians should take in 10 percent more protein. I recommend 2.2 g of protein per kg (0.91 g/lb) of body weight a day to make sure their diets are providing all the amino acids their bodies require.

Susan M. Kleiner

Holiday Camps

Thanksgiving Play 360 Acceleration Camp
The Play 360 program is designed to introduce and create foundations of overall FITNESS, ATHLETICISM in a FUN, POSITIVE environment The Play 360 Program uses games and structured play to encourage improvement of overall fitness, improve eye/hand coordination, teach proper running form, promote agility and balance, develop sport-specific movements and skills and much more.....

Dates: November 22nd - 23rd: Monday & Tuesday
Time: 10:00am - 12:00pm
Cost: Members $20, Non Members $40
$10/$20 per day
$10 non-refundable registration fee
Ages: 7-12
Class Size: Limited to 20

Christmas Play 360 Acceleration Camp
The Play 360 program is designed to introduce and create foundations of overall FITNESS, ATHLETICISM in a FUN, POSITIVE environment The Play 360 Program uses games and structured play to encourage improvement of overall fitness, improve eye/hand coordination, teach proper running form, promote agility and balance, develop sport-specific movements and skills and much more.....

Dates: December 20th - 23rd: Monday - Thursday
Time: 10:00am -12:00pm
Cost: Members $20, Non Members $40
$10/$20 per day
$10 non-refundable registration fee
Ages: 7-12
Class Size: Limited to 20

I was reading a blog this morning from one of the pioneers of Strength & Conditioning. His name is Vern Gambetta and he is internationally known as the father of functional sports training. I have two of books along with some DVDs. Coach Gambetta was talking about the importance of in-season training. I see so many athletes who train for 3 months prior to their season and stop when their season starts to only train the next 3 months prior to the next season. My question is how do you expect to become better if you are not training all year round? If you do not think in-season training is not important than read Coach Gambetta's blog:









The Slow Leak


Here is the scenario. A team or for that matter an individual makes a huge investment in their off season and their preseason training. Training camp commences which usually consists of multiple sessions a day and the emphasis is now entirely on the sport itself. Training of the physical qualities is stopped, or drastically reduced. There is minimal work done on strength training, power development or speed development outside of the actual activities of the sport practice. The process of the slow leak begins. All the physical qualities that were developed in the off and preseason begin to erode. Some erode faster than others. In the female athlete strength and power erode rapidly. The best analogy is that is like driving your car with a slow leak in a tire. For quite sometime it is virtually unnoticeable but a time goes on and the tire loses pressure the ride gets bumpier and bumpier until the tire is entirely flat.

This is precisely what happens to athletes when they do not follow a comprehensive program to maintain during the off-season and even in some cases continue to build the physical capacities they have developed during the off-season. Mind you that if the job has been done in the off-season then maintaining those qualities during the competitive season is not especially difficult, but it must be done in a systematic manner. In season training is not a matter of volume, it is more a matter of very intense directed work designed to hone and sharpen specific physical qualities based on individual needs and sport demands.

All of this comes back to the law of reversibility - use it or lose it. Relatively small training session that target speed development, power and strength trained on a regular basis can certainly help maintain those qualities for the duration of the competitive season. With younger developmental athletes who are in the competitive season it would be careless not to continue to develop their physical qualities. If you do not, you are missing a huge window of adaptation, an opportunity to take advantage of the endocrine hormonal advantage their have during their developing years. For females generally this is in the age range of from 12 to 16 and for males from 14 to 18. Those are general guidelines that must be adapted to each individual.

An in-season sports performance program is just as important as the off-season performance program. The only difference between the two is that you should take more of a strategic approach that emphasis various qualities based on individual need. Look at what qualities the games, matches, meets and actual practices address and reinforce those without adding stress to stress. My rule of thumb is that, as the season progresses I want to make sure to keep a good thread of strength training up to and through the peak competition phase. The female athlete must NEVER stop strength training, even up through and to the championship competition. The male athlete can reduce and sometime curtail strength training entirely during the taper with no ill effects.

The moral of the story is that to keep the tire from leaking you must train during the competition season.

When you think of success do you look at your wins vs. your losses?

Look at this "Pyramid of Success" created by Coach Wooden. Where is the win block? Where is the losing block?

If you look at the cornerstones of the pyramid what are they, "industriousness and enthusiasm" and in between them forming the foundation of the pyramid are "friendship, loyalty and cooperation". Nothing about how many wins, points, touchdowns, or homeruns. On top of the foundation row is the mental row "self-control, alertness, initiative and intentness", followed by the physical row "condition, skill, and team spirit". These two rows Coach Wooden valued them most. This is where he coached "be quick but don't hurry. In the heart of the pyramid is skill. Coach Wooden always taught his players to think small during games and to concentrate on quick but proper execution. Right before the apex comes the spiritual row of "poise and confidence". This row can be thought of as Mr. Wooden's definition of success: peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable. Nothing about how many championships you won! At the apex of the pyramid is "competitive greatness". "Competitive Greatness" turns out to be a byproduct of what has gone before, and the so-called corny phrases that built the Pyramid turn out not to be words at all but the example set by all who want to become more than just a winner.