Hi Friend,
Happy Thursday to you! It sure sounds and smells like spring. Yay for us to have reached a new season and to be spring sports ready. Now we have 13 weeks to get beach season #1 and summer sports ready.
Perform Better - One Day Seminar, Boston, MA
The conference on Saturday was excellent. My notes were covered with stars on it, that represented nuggets I could use right away. My favorite, ironically was something I already knew, but was shared differently, which gave it an even more powerful useage for me/us.
Mini Band Hip Rotations
You know the mini band hip rotations we do with the band either above or below your knees? Well I use it for a myriad of reason: to turn on your hip rotators to help stabilize your hip, which indirectly helps to stabilize your knee and stop it from collapsing inward and to help stabilize pronators (people who's feet collapse inwards). The part that was said that got my attention was when the presenter said if you have a person who has a fallen arch on 1 foot vs. the other, this exercise is really good to help rebuild the arch. DUH!!! Pronation = A Fallen Arch. I'm such an idiot. Anyone who tells me they pronate, I'm going to have them do these mini band exercises, but if someone says they don't have arches or that they have flat feet or that they have a fallen arch on 1 foot, not the other, I may not have prescribed Mini Band Hip Rotations as a first option. So....
Try this: take your shoes and socks off. Stand up. Slide your fingers under your left arch and then your right arch. Can you get your fingers under them? If yes, you have arches. If no, you have flat feet and possibly pronate. If 1 arch is higher than the other, then 1 arch is falling or has fallen and you may pronate on that foot. Flat feet, fallen arches, pronating, can lead to your knee collapsing inward and causing inside knee pain. Your foot pronating and a valgus collapse of your knee (knee falling inward) can lead to outside hip pain. Mini Band Hip Rotations can help. So do these every day until your arch comes back. Do them before hikes, long walks, running, sports and long standing. Do them if your hip / back hurts on the side of the fallen arch, if your inside knee hurts on the side of the fallen arch and if your arch hurts.
Moving forward. Let's have a great time getting the most out of our next 91 days as we enjoy our spring and get ready for summer. Isn't it so much more fun to live with purpose in the moment while also preparing for what's next.
Q2 Overview - March 20 to June 9
It always feels good to be proactive, early and ahead of schedule. Use the information below to help you plan for tomorrow and live for today.
Dates:
Phase 4: March 20 to April 14 (4 on, 1 off)
Guest Weeks, 3/20-3/31
F, April 7, No Live Workouts - Good Friday
Empowerment Week: April 15 to April 22
Su, 4/23, Weekend Workout
Phase 5: April 23 to May 12 (3 on, 0 off)
Phase 6: May 14 to June 9 (4 on, 0 off)
Guest Weeks, 5/15-5/24
6:30p, M & T, 5/22 & 5/23 @ Mackenzie; no virtual workout on Th, 5/25
Th, May 25 - M, May 29, No Live Workouts - Memorial Day Weekend
Momentum:
we're in the middle of 7 weeks straight (P3's 3 weeks + P4's 4 weeks)
Q2 = 11 weeks total of face to face w/ 1 week off
we finish the quarter w/ 7 weeks straight of training (P5+P6)
10 weeks straight to 4th of July if you include P5, P6 and the 3 weeks of P7
These are lots of opportunities for momentum. Take advantage of it!
Q2 Themes: Fat Loss, Muscle Definition, Beach Season #1 and Summer Sports Ready
The increased skill level of the exercises as well as the suggested increase in DB Loads will help to promote an environment to build muscle and decrease body fat. The exercises chosen and the organization of them can help you to feel more confident in your summer clothes and bathing suits. The exercises chosen both in the warm up and the workout also considered movement patterns, common injuries and energy systems of sports commonly played in the summer months.
E.g Tall Kneeling External Rotation @ 90 Degrees of Shoulder Abduction. Rotator Cuff injuries are common with overhead sports (swimming & throwing) so having this as part of our warm up is a proactive way to consider a common injury some may experience.
E.g. Lateral Lunges & Lateral Skaters are frontal plane movements that are common with striking a ball (tennis, golf, baseball & softball) in which you shift body weight from 1-leg to the other or stealing a base or changing direction like in (baseball, softball, lacrosse, ultimate frisbee, beach volleyball).
E.g. Chops & Reaches are both diagonal patterns common in rowing, paddle boarding, striking, throwing, swinging, spiking, serving, etc... that require you to put force into the ground, stabilize through your core and transfer the force to the upper extremity and ultimate to your hand or implement in your hand. Chops & Reaches help plug energy leaks and reduce risk for injury by addressing left to right and right to left imbalances and building up your strength endurance to resist extension, flexion, rotation and a combination of those when your body is supposed to remain stable. *Plus as a side effect these exercises can have a nice aesthetic affect to your core if you train to fatigue.
Highs & Lows, DB Loads & Recovery
This week marks the return of highs & lows or strong & fast days or white & gray days. The purpose is to overreach on the strong days (highs & white) and push yourself forward and then to go light and fast on the gray & low days to help you recovery. You have to push yourself to get stronger, build muscle, develop skills and get better AND you have to manage the recovery from those efforts so you feel good, reduce injury risk and can see the benefits or your efforts.
DB Loads
Either use the suggested Total DB Loads as a % of your body weight below or choose weights & levels in which you feel like you can do 1, no more than 2 reps more than the suggested reps on a strong day to build muscle, get stronger and decrease body fat.
On a light and fast day there are 2 choices. Train light & fast to recovery and train your neuromuscular system to be fast or do maximum reps of the exercise until fatigue to build muscle. Whichever option you choose, use either the suggested DB Load or something lighter than your strong day or simply bodyweight or an easier exercise level.
P4: H: 20-40%BW, L: 15-35%BW
P5: H: 25-45%BW, L: 15-35%BW
P6: H: 30-50%BW, L: 15-35%BW
*the DB Hang Speed Snatch is often lower than the suggested strong by 5-10% or more of body weight.
Recovery
We have many members who enjoy training for and participating in endurance events and many others who enjoy training for and playing field and court team sports. Oddly in the adult world it is more common to hear about multi-week training plans (4, 6, 8, 10, 12 week programs) for endurance sports (5k's, 10k's, half marathons, marathons, triathlons, etc...) than it is to hear about off season training for tennis, baseball, soccer, basketball, skiing, etc... in a number of weeks before the season example.
Taper
Most programs include taper weeks or unloading weeks to help you recover and peak for important events and they usually follow high volume weeks.
e.g. Think long runs of 16, 18, 20, 22 miles in marathon training, followed by an "easier week".
Teaching Weeks = Less Volume = Unloading = Taper = More Energy
Every phase, especially every quarter begins with a teaching week that is unloading in nature (less volume, less sets, rounds, etc...), which serves as a perfect taper. When possible, time your events for the weekend after the 1st week of a new phase and preferably a new quarter. This will allow you to manage your recovery by doing less while still learning the new stuff. Plus, make sure you train safe, fast & explosive during the unloading / taper week, so you keep your nervous system sharp. You can use lighter weights and/or easier levels to reduce risk of soreness. The extra time teaching automatically reduces the total volume that can be done in the workout so you still get to experience the new workout with your peers and you get to accumulate energy for your event.
Accumulating energy
Each workout you do less than you could have, while still training with maximum effort on the things you do do, (haha) leaves you with more potential energy you could have used in your back pocket. Every day you do this, adds more and more energy to your reserves that can be released at your event. I recommend getting an energy massage the week of your race to further help you recover and bring out your best for race day. Be specific to say you don't want a deep tissue massage or anything that's going to leave you feeling sore or tired afterwards.
Work Backwards
Whether it's aesthetics and/or performance, work backwards from an end date or event.
How do you want to look, feel and/or perform on the end date?
Where are you now?
What do you need to do to get there?
What do you need to get?
How can you provide accountability and support for yourself?
How can you break it up into 13 weekly goals and/or 3 phases of goals?
Who can help you (maybe I can)?
Get started!
Play a sport!
CYBBC may be your weekly scheduled self-care under the guidance of a caring coach, while training with awesome people and following a results-oriented fun program where you train like an athlete, but because you train like an athlete it's really fun to play like an athlete.
When the window of time opens up for you to commit to a sport at least 1x/wk, go for it. You just might have an exhilarating experience, it'll give you more purpose to your training and it could raise the quality of your life, relationships and work. And again. It's FUN! Don't discount fun. It's important. You only get 1 shot at life. Don't be too serious all the time. You need to have fun too, and do interesting things other than the things you already do. Plus you may meet new people and that can enhance the quality of your life too.
So pick a sport that looks interesting and give it a try. If you don't like it, keep picking and trying sports until you find something you do like.
Make it count, there are only 90 days until summer!
Mike
p.s. this week and next week are guest weeks. if you know someone who might love what we do and can do what we do invite them. Email introduce us, we'll connect and I'll treat them like your VIG and hand hold them if needed all the way to a guest workout.
p.p.s. this week we'll get 22 min / workout.
p.p.p.s. the next weekend workout is Sun, 4/23.
