It's No Longer Manny Being Manny

Bye, bye Manny.......




Hello Jason Bay.....



Team. But let's not get crazy folks. Jason Bay is a very good ballplayer, but he is not quite the caliber of the first ballot hall of Thank you Manny for helping bring two World Series titles to Boston, but the headaches just were not worth it any more. Manny wanted out and he got his wish. Good luck to him (and to Joe Torre) out in L.A.. Now we have a left fielder who actually will want to play for the Olde Townefamer who just left town. But may be he'll breathe life life into his club, rather than sucking the life out of it. Let life after Manny begin.

Give It Time

How do you know a program is not working for you if you're constantly bouncing from program to program? Stop being so damn impatient with getting results and give the program some time. If you're always switching up workout routines, it's impossible to know what is working and what is not. If it's a six week program and is supposed to give you "x" results, follow the program for six weeks and see if it's given you "x" results. Most programs are set up to give you the desired results by the end of the program, not in the first week. Being consistent within your workouts is just as important as consistently working out.

Thirsty?

Drink some water or green tea. Don't be fooled into thinking that any of these sugar laden juices or sports drinks are good for you. Chances are that they are high in simple sugars and carbohydrates. Take a look at the ingredients and I'm sure one of the first 2-3 ingredients will be high fructose corn syrup, one of the main causes of the obesity epidemic here in the U.S.. It's no coincidence that since beverage makers starting using this awful ingredient in the mid 1980s that we've gotten fatter as a country and have seen a rise in diabetes and heart disease.

What about diet sodas you ask? Stay away from them to. The artificial sweeteners in these drinks will wreak havoc with your insulin levels helping you pack on some body fat when you thought you were doing something good for yourself.

Juices and diet drinks are not really as "healthy" as you may think they are.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Single Arm Push Up Lockouts w/Medicine Ball

Did you get all that? Long title, but a great exercise to work into a progression towards being able to do a single arm push up.

And after after going to the Country Music Fest last night, I decide to throw in some country music for this weeks video. Great concert, great time last night.

Row More

If everyone included a little bit more rowing or horizontal pulling exercises in their workout programs, the incidences of shoulder injuries would probably be far less. Most shoulder injuries are posture related, especially when it comes to muscle, tendon or ligament injuries. We live in a very sedentary society. We drive to work or sit on the train. We get to work and sit at a desk or behind the computer. We then drive or take the car home and then sit down on the couch or at the table for dinner. We then sit at the computer checking our email before we go behind. The same cycle starts the next day. And I bet, very few of us are thinking about our posture during that time. We're not thinking eyes, chest up, shoulders down and back. Instead our head juts forward, chin drops down and shoulders rotate forward. Do this for awhile and you're just setting yourself up for some type of shoulder injury.

Then for those who go to the gym, the first workout of the week is usually "chest day". So again the shoulders are internally rotated. After 5 different chest exercises, you might throw one or two back exercises in, right? Oh yeah, don't forget to do some biceps curls. Curls for the girls . Shoulders rotated internally again. Then for some cardio work, you get on the back or elliptical, while reading the latest issue of People magazine. Shoulders rotated internally again.

As I mentioned earlier, there's a simple solution to that shoulder injury that's waiting to happen or already has happened: row more. If more people focused on upper back development and retracting their shoulders blades, we'd see a lot less shoulder injuries. Here are some suggestions:

• Balance out your movement patterns. For every horizontal pressing exercise (bench press as an example) include a horizontal pulling exercise (seated row for instance). And in some cases you might want to do one more horizontal pulling rather than pressing exercise.
• Start your workout with pulling movements. For example if you're supersetting chest and back exercises, perform the back exercise first then move to the chest exercise.
• Perform a couple more reps of pulling exercises than the pressing exercises. If you're doing sets of 8 reps for bench presses, perform sets of 10 for seated rows.

It's a pretty simple concept people. It doesn't require a whole lot more effort, just a little more thinking. And it will save you a trip to the doctor in the long run.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Low Box TKE

A couple of posts back, I mentioned that a good way to keep your knees healthy is to perform terminal knee extensions (TKE). This video is going to show you how to perform it using a low box. If you're really having knee issues, I'd suggest performing 2-3 sets of 20-25 reps in order to get that VMO really firing. And you should also really feel that glute medius working as a hip stabilizer. I suggest a higher number of reps since the range of motion here is relatively small.

You may not be able to tell from the video, but one coaching cue thatI'll use with most clients is "heel touch". Touching down with the heel, as opposed to the toes, of the non-working leg will prevent you from pushing of with that leg, there by placing more tension on the working leg. Got it? Take a look:

Super Foods

Having trouble deciding what healthy foods to serve at your next summer barbecue? Check out this article from Certified Nutrition Specialist, Mike Geary, for a few ideas:

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/top-10-superfoods-great-health.html

My Top Five....

....ways to keep your knee s feeling good.

1. Perform soft tissue work (massage, foam roller, tennis ball, etc.) on your glute medius and IT Band.
2. Perform some glute activation work (lateral bamd walks, supine hip exetensions, bird dogs)
3. Develop adequate mobility through the ankles and the hips.
4. Strengthen the VMO with terminal knee exetensions using a superband or low box.
5. Strengthen the posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes and lower back).
   

Can you hear me now?

Until a I know a good majority of my clients or people I talk to are using it, I'm going to keep talking about it. What am I talking about? Fish oil. Here is some more research showing what it can do for you. Dr John Berardi points to data from the University of Western Ontario showing that fish oil supplementation increases lean body mass (during non-dieting conditions), increases BMR (by up to 400kcal/day), decreases inflammation, and improves the ratio of fat/carb oxidized (sparing carbs, burning fat). What are you waiting for?

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Dumbbell Reverse Lunge

Too old?

Excuses....everyone's got them. Me included.

• "I have no time."
• "It's too hard."
• "I'm too old for that."

Check out this video clip about 41 year old Dara Torres, the oldest member of the United States swim team. She swim in her first Olympics in 1984 and is a favorite again to medal in this year's Being Olympics.



No more excuses. Good luck Dara.

Question to RichRuff Training

A few months back I went on a diet to try to get rid of some fat and give myself a nice lean, musclar physique with great abs. While dieting I was not eating enough for all the cardio I was doing and ended up losing most of my muscle. I am looking to rebuild all this muscle I once had, lose the remaining fat on my body, and get a nice, lean physique and was hoping you could guide me in the right direction with exercises and calorie intake and how long this should take. JJ Hi JJ. I wouldn't focus on calorie intake as much as I would suggest focusing on the quality and the timing of your foods. Borrowing a quote from Charles Poliquin, "If it doesn't walk, run, swim or fly and it's not green, don't eat it". You don't have to take it to that extreme, but the message is to eat whole, unprocessed foods. Aim to have a small feeding or meal every 2-3 hours. This meal should always include some source of protein. Once you get closer to your ideal physique, then you may to want to focus a bit more on calorie intake. Training wise, get rid of your cardio. Performing cardio along with a low calorie diet is a recipe for muscle loss. Get back into a strength training routine, probably a full-body or upper/lower split performed 3-4 times per week. A good portion of your workout should consist of compound movements (squats, presses, pulls, lunges, etc.). And then use accessory exercises, such as biceps curls or lateral raises, to bring up any lagging body parts. Good luck.

Random Thoughts

Some random thoughts that crossed my mind over the last week or so:

• Too many people are too weak. And I don't even mean in terms of lifting weights. This goes for bodyweight exercises also. Watch the average person perform a split squat and most likely you'll see their legs buckle.
• I hate Heineken, but I love Heineken Light. It's my new favorite light beer. Plus it'll save you 10-20 calories per beer compared to some other light beers out there.
• Why do people think I'm strange just becasue I have no desire to eat dessert. I'd much rather load up on some steak or burgers rather than save room for dessert.
• I still can't believe how many people still use the Smith Machine.
• Let's get the football season started now. The Patriots have some redeeming to do.
• Saying "I have no time to exercise" is the poorest excuse I hear. If your healthy is a priority, you will find 3-5 hours/week to exercise. That's 2-3% of your week.
• If you can read a magazine while walking on the treadmill, you're not working hard enough. What's worse, I even once saw a guy reading a newspaper, walking backwards on the treadmill at an 8% incline. That image will never leave my head.
• How can people not eat breakfast in the morning? I know when I wake up in the morning, it's the first thing that crosses my mind.
• A-Rod makes me sick. A-Rod and Madonna together make me violently ill.
• Too many people continue to drink soda. Not diet soda. Regular soda. The stuff is liquid crack and will wreak havoc on your body composition. Diet soda isn't much better.
  
• I feel really old now that I'm 32. But I'd also like to think I'm a bit wiser...may be.
  

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Standing Push/Pull

I hope every one had a great holiday weekend. I know I did. Played some golf (best round of the year so far). Drank a couple beers (If you want to save a couple of calories, go for the Heineken Lights). Went to the beach. Ate some burgers and hot dogs. Now it's time to get back in the gym after being out of there for a couple of days. We still have about 2 months of summer left and a few more trips to the beach.

This week's Exercise of the Week is the Standing Push/Pull. It's best done with any type of functional trainer piece. If your gym doesn't have one of those, you might be able to get away doing it with a cable cross over unit. Your gym better have one of those or it's time to find a new gym.

As you'll see in the video, the movement is being performed by the upper body, but this is actually a great core strengthening exercise. The goal is to resist rotation around the waist as you're pushing and pulling. If done right, you should really feel it through the oblique area. Remember, work on core stabilization and anti-rotation before getting into any type of rotational core training.

My Top Five....

.....core stabilization exercises:

1. Prone Plank
2. Side Plank
3. Bird Dog
4. Pallof Press
5. Ab Wheel Rollout