My Top Five.....

.....exercises to get your ski legs.

This post probably should have been written about four weeks ago, but with the temperature hovering around the 70's in October the idea of getting ready for the ski season never crossed my mind. All that changed this morning when I saw the early morning temp of 27 degrees. It will soon be time for some of you to be hitting the slopes which means it's time to get pre-season ski training under way.

A lot of the muscular qualities that are important for downhill skiing are also important for other sports: single leg strength, posterior chain strength, hip stabilization, core endurance and strength endurance. So if you're existing training program focuses on these qualities, great. If not, I'm going to suggest five exercises to work into your training program that stress these qualities:

1. Low Box TKE. One of my favorite exercises in regards to knee health. Not only are you strengthening the quadriceps, but working from the unsupported position brings your hip and foot stabilizers into play.
2. Trap Bar Deadlifts. Posterior chain strength is crucial when it comes to maintaining knee and low back health. Plus the positioning of the trap bar deadlift looks close to that of the tuck position during a downhill run.
3. Low Cable Split Squat. Any split squat variation is great to work out any left to right asymmetries. Left to right asymmetries are a good predictor of future injury. Using the low cable position also brings in an anti-flexion and anti-rotation core component.
4. KB Swings. Another posterior chain exercise. I'd suggest performing these in the higher rep range (20-25 reps) or for timed sets to increase the time under tension for the set and bring in more of a conditioning component.
5. Bulgarian Squat Holds. This exercise serves two purposes. One is to create that burning sensation in your legs you may get after a hard downhill run. Two, to help open your hips and increase your hip mobility. Poor hip mobility leads to knee and low back injuries. To perform, get into the bottom position of a Bulgarian Squat (some refer to it as a rear foot elevated split squat) and hold for 30-60 seconds on each leg. A great way to finish off your leg workouts.

For other ways to get those legs ski ready shoot me an email or call (781)538-6664.

Accelerated Athlete Program

On November 8 we will be starting up our newest program, the Accelerated Athlete. The Accelerated Athlete Program is an in-season and off-season training program to help high school athletes with their sport performance. Walk into any high school weight room and you're going to see a lot of bench pressing, barbell curls and whatever else Johnny can do to impress his buddies. But little does Johnny know that what he's doing is not doing much to help him on the field or court. His focus should be on: dynamic flexibility and joint mobility, core strength and endurance, lower and upper body strength training, linear and lateral movement and injury prevention. All parts of the Accelerated Athlete Program.

The Accelerated Athlete Program will run from start at 3pm on Monday-Friday with each training session lasting 75-90 minutes. All training sessions will be limited to 4-6 athletes, so to reserve a spot please call (781)538-6664 or send an email to rich@acceleratedfts.com.

Exercise of the Week: Kettlebell Squat Thrust

Fixing Your Squat

Watching the way most people squat is not a pretty thing. And it's usually not a strength issue as much it is a mobility issue. The following video gives you three pretty simple mobility exercises to incorporate into your warm up or to use before your next squat session to maybe help clear up some of those mobility issues.

Bits & Pieces....

....picked up from the Hardstyle Kettlebell Training workshop we hosted this past Saturday.

• More than goes into the swing than you think. If I was going to watch 10 people perform a swing, I'd bet eight out of them would be butchering the exercise. Watching a YouTube video or two would not be the suggested way to learn either because a lot of what you're going to find on YouTube is crap. Get with a certified instructor or trainer who has been schooled in the mechanics of the swing.
• Done right, the swing should not stress your lower back, knees, elbows or shoulders. It's not a squat. It's a front raise. And it's not a combination of those two. It's a swing generated from your hips snapping forward. "Pop the hips".
• Think of the swing just as your would think of doing a broad jump. Your hips should push back in order to explode forward.
• So my swings are pretty good. I understand the hips back, neutral spine concept. But my snatches are absolutely horrible. It's going to take some time and practice to get those down. I was basically trying to snatch the kettlebell like I was trying to snatch a dumbbell, but there's big differences between the two. The kettlebell snatch has much more of an arcing motion with just a flip of the wrist. There's not much of a catch phase as there is in a dumbbell snatch.
• If you're learning how to perform kettlebell snatches be ready to have your forearms banged up. And take off that nice watch of yours unless you're in the market for a new one.
• The first place to start squatting with load should probably be the kettlebell goblet squat. A nice progression would be a kettlebell goblet squat to a barbell front squat to a barbell back squat.
• It's nice to be able to get into a rock bottom squat. That is if you can maintain lordosis in that rock bottom position. Once your hips are about to round under you and your back is about to flatten out, that's where you're squat depth ends, especially under load. As nice as it sounds to get everyone to squat "ass to the grass", it's not so nice if you can't your ass to the grass without rounding out at the bottom. If you're having trouble getting appropriate depth before this occurs it's time to clear up some mobility issues that could be occurring at the ankles or hips.
• My squat under load is much better than without any load. Why? My core stability kicks in under this loaded environment.
• If anyone tells you they than can hold a plank for two minutes, call "bulls***".
• I thought my plank was alright, until I learned the Hardstyle version which teaches you to push the hells back. Doing so engages that entire core area a whole lot more.
• A nice teaching tool to learn the plank correctly is to lay a dowel lengthwise along the spine. The dowel should have three contact points: your head, your thoracic spine and your glutes. And the spaces that are created underneath the dowel should not change the entire duration of the plank.

A special thanks goes out to Mike Perry of Skill of Strength for showing us the finer points of some of the most basic kettlebell exercises. We look forward to having him back in the future.

Exercise of the Week: Single Arm TRX Push Up

A great core stability exercise. A great shoulder stability exercise. Another way to use the TRX. Play around with your foot position to increase or decrease the difficulty of the exercise. Feet being back and narrower will increase the difficulty. Feet being further out and wider will decrease the difficulty. In the following video, you'll see me adjusting my position to find the right level of difficulty.

Random Thoughts...

...while trying to figure out what is wrong with my fantasy football team.

• I hated biology in high school. I hated biology in college. And I still hate biology now. Why do I mention this? The initial parts of studying for my Precision Nutrition certification require some reading and knowledge about what goes on at the biological level in regards to nutrition. I just want to get to the part where I find out what materials Twinkies and Ring Dings are made of.
• The need for a training partner or great training environment is greatly underestimated. I know personally. I will never be as strong as I was when I was in college. Why? It's not because I'm not lifting heavy weights anymore. I still do singles or work up to three rep maxes. But I have no one encouraging me to do more or work harder. It's mentally tough to get through a workout on your own. As Alwyn Cosgrove states, "Psychology trumps physiology every time". Find the right training environment. Get with the right training partner. Watch your results take off.
• Yes, nutrition can be complex. But for most of us it doesn't have to be. I hear people talking about supplementation, carb cycling, nutrient ratios, etc.. Yet, these same people do not have any of the basic principles in place. Supplementation doesn't matter if the majority of your calories are coming from what could not even be considered "real food". Carb cyling doesn't work if your first meal of the day is not until that Subway sandwich run for your lunch break. A simple way to look at good nutrition comes from Michael Pollan's Food Rules, which I suggest reading, "Eat food. Mostly from plants and animals. Not too much".
  
• Speaking of good nutrition, I love hearing peoples views on good nutrition. I hear everything from, "no sweets after 7pm" to "I get my Italian subs on a wheat roll" to "I only consume about 800 calories a day". Good nutrition is more than just eating certain foods or taking in so many calories. Dr. John Berardi has four criteria that good nutrition follows: 1)It controls energy balance 2)Provides nutrient density 3)Achieves health, body composition and performance goals 4)Is honest and outcome based.
  
• What is going on with the recent increase in concussions? You hear about it a lot on the professional level, but I'm also hearing it happening on the youth and high school level. And it's not just football. It's all sports. Is what we used to term as getting our bell rung now termed a concussion? I understand the concern, but I do not know if there is a solution. Better equipment? Less equipment? Better screening and diagnosis? A lot of questions need to be looked at.
• Looking forward to the the Hardstyle Kettlebell workshop, we're hosting this weekend at Accelerated Fitness. RKC certified strength coach Mike Perry is basically going to give us an intro on the right way to use the kettlebell as a training tool. The right way to do the swing, the snatch and the goblet squat. Yeah, they sound like three pretty simple exercises, but there is more to them than you think. One person I would suggest not learning the swing from? America's most popular trainer, Jillian Michaels

That's not what a swing should look like. I don't even what should look like that.

• One last thing. If you live in the Lexington area and are looking for a quality massage therapist, I highly recommend the staff at Essential Bodywork and Massage.