For those of you who don’t already know, I’ve been writing articles for 2 different membership websites in the last couple of months. If you’re not familiar with these 2 websites, I highly suggest you check them out today, as there is a ton of great content on both of them. One is hockey specific and the other one is rehab oriented.
Hockey Strength and Conditioning is a tremendous resource for anyone who trains hockey player, whether you are an on-ice coach or a strength and conditioning coach…and actually it is a great resource for anyone who wants to know more about hockey training. The information that is available on this site is unbelievable. There are videos, audio interviews with some of the best people in the hockey training, detailed programs from NHL strength coaches, articles and much more. For me to be a part of Hockey Strength and Conditioning as a writer is more than an honor for me; having articles posted on the same website as Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks) and Darryl Nelson (USA Hockey) is quite an honor. These guys know their stuff, and they stay on top of things, and when you see their programs and articles, it’s easy to tell. If you’re somehow involved on hockey, you NEED to check it out.
The second one, as I mentioned is more rehab and injury prevention oriented, but is just as good! On Sports Rehab Expert you can find articles, injury prevention and rehab protocols, new exercises, audio interviews and videos. There is some sport-specific material as well as more in-depth physical therapy protocols. With guys like Joe Heiler (who’s the founder), Eric Cressey, Charlie Weingroff and Gray Cook contributing to the site, you know right off the bat that there’s going to be some high quality information there. I still can’t believe that my articles are right there for everyone to read with all these smart guys! This is another site that you absolutely need to check out if haven’t before!
For those who missed part 1, make sure to read it HERE first. I highlighted how easy social network tools like Facebook and Twitter have made our pursuit of continuing education in the fitness and strength and conditioning industry. You just have to “friend” or “like” the smart people in the industry that put quality information out here to easily access their material through your News Feed page.
In last week’s post I mentioned that this post would be to give an list of good people to follow and “friend” on Facebook and Twitter to get access to good material. So without further ado, here it is:
“Friend” on Facebook:
Alan Aragon, nutrition
Anthony Renna, from StrengthCoach.com and StrengthandConditioningWebinars.com
Ben Bruno (also on Twitter @benbruno1), from Mike Boyle S&C
Bret Contreras (also on Twitter @ bretcontreras), writer for T-Nation
Brian Grasso, from S&C coach and IYCA founder
Brian St. Pierre (also on Twitter @BSPNutrition), nutrition
Brijesh Patel, S&C coach at Qunnipiac
Chad Waterbury, writer for T-Nation
Charlie Weingroff, S&C coach and PT
Craig Liebenson, chiropractor and ART specialist
Dana Cavalea (also on Twitter @danacavalea), New York Yankees S&C coach
Dan John, renowned coach
Dave Ruel, nutrition
David Tate, from EliteFTS.com
Endeavor Fit
Indy Fast, Bill Hartman & Mike Robertson’s facility
James Smith, from Diesel Crew
Jim Wendler, from EliteFTS.com
Joe Dowdell (also on Twitter @joedowdellnyc), Peak Performance owner and celebrity trainer
Joseph Heiler, PT and founder of SportRehabExpert.com
Juan Carlos Santana, renowned S&C coach
Kelly Baggett, speed and power training expert
Kevin Larrabee, from Mike Boyle S&C and the Fitcast
Kevin Neeld (also on Twitter @KevinNeeld)
Lee Taft, speed training expert
Leigh Peele (also on Twitter @LeighPeele), nutrition
Mark Young (also on Twitter @MarkYoungTrain), research expert
Matt Siniscalchi, S&C coach and speed training expert
Mike Reinolds (also on Twitter @mikereinoldblog), PT for the Boston Red Sox
Mike Robertson (@RobTrainSystems)
Nate Green (also on Twitter @nategreen03), from Precision Nutrition
Patrick Ward (also on Twitter @OSPpatrick), manual therapist and PT
Perry Nickelston (also on Twitter @laserdr), manual therapist and FMS, SFMA specialist
Sam Leahy, former intern from Cressey Performance and Mike Boyle S&C
Sean Hyson, Men’s Fitness editor
Sean Skahan (also on Twitter @SeanSkahan), Anaheim Ducks S&C coach
Sue Falsone (also on Twitter @suefalsone), PT at Athlete’s Performance
Tony Gentilcore (also on Twitter @tonygentilcore1), from Cressey Performance
Follow on Twitter:
Jaime Rodriguez (@Jrodstrength), S&C coach
Gray Coook (@graycookPT), PT and book author
John Romaniello, fat loss expert
Todd Durkin, pro athlete trainer and business owner
Diesel Crew (@dieselstrength)
Mike Roussell, nutrition
Jeff Cubos, chiropractic sports specialist and hockey expert
Anatomy Trains, Thomas Myers’ great work on fascia and the human body
Charles Poliquin, world famous S&C coach
Eric Cressey, world famous S&C coach
Mike Boyle (@mikeboyle1959), world famous S&C coach
Obviously there are probably 100s of professionals out there that haven’t listed or that I don’t know about, but this what I have on my Facebook and Twitter pages for now! And with the decent list I just gave you, you have a good place to start!
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It comes to no surprise to anyone who’s been successful enough in this business to understand the value of continuing education. Everything in fitness and strength and conditioning is evolving and we discover new things on a daily basis. What might be an optimal prescription for your clients and athletes today might be totally outdated in 5 years from now. Human anatomy and physiology is not an exact science; there are a lot of gray areas and researchers find new things about how the body works all the time. Bottom line is we don’t know as much as we might think.
These are the very reasons why continuing education is so important. For most people 5 years ago, doing continuing education meant buying books, going to seminars and networking with smarter people than you. Attending seminars and networking still have their place at the top of continuing education priorities; let’s face it, nothing is ever gonna compare to meeting new people and learning from them on how they view training and how they implement their knowledge.
Eric Cressey once told me “everyone has something to teach. They might not know as much as you do or have more experience, but there is at least one thing you can learn from somebody who’s been in the business for a while”. Whether it is something about anatomy, physiology, practical application, business, marketing, human relations, or anything else, you can learn something from everyone.
But the other continuing education mean, buying books might have lost some value in the last couple of years. Don’t get me wrong, I still buy books myself and the basic anatomy and physiology books are still essential to read.
Still a MUST read
But with the rise of the internet, books have taken a downfall. By the time an author has his book published, there is gonna be at least one thing that will have changed in his perspective. That’s mainly because by the time an author finishes writing a book, there might be some time passing by before the book finds its way on the shelves, sometimes up to 2 or 3 years! This is why the internet has came in so handy; information easily and quickly accessible. Of course with this great solution arises a major problem; the information you find on the internet can be, well, full of crap. Anyone can put information on the web, nobody controls it and we end up with so many self-proclaimed internet experts who actually don’t train anyone and are just good at selling themselves. But I digress. If you know where to look for for quality information, that pretty much eliminates the problem.
So the internet has brought us some easily and quickly accessible information that is more updated than books in general. But as I just mentioned, you need to know where to look for. Granted that it’s not always easy to find good websites and good blogs out there (I’ll come back to this later).
What has made our job even easier are the social networks. Good articles, blog posts, websites, videos, etc. just became so easy to find with Facebook and Twitter!
What first was a network to connect with old friends and stalk people, can actually be an amazing learning and networking tool. When Facebook first became popular, I was pretty much against it and saw it as a waste of time. But then I gave in to the social media wave that struck our entire society (seriously, who isn’t on Facebook in 2011?). But I still thought it was a little retarded and didn’t really see any use to it, other than posting thoughts that nobody cares about or stalking people.
And then, when I started my blog last year, I started posting links to all of my blog posts on Facebook (hey, that might just be how you heard about my blog in the first place!), and slowly realize that a lot of strength an conditioning and fitness professionals did the same thing. So I created myself a Twitter account and did the same thing and link to all my blog posts on there too. And at this point, Facebook and Twitter have pretty much became professional tools for me, and I know they are for so many other people too (I would say that 60-70% of the time I use Facebook is for professional use, and for Twitter it’s literally 100% of the time). I’m friends on Facebook and follow on Twitter over 100 strength and conditioning professionals who want to network or who post links to good continuing education material, whether it’s their own blogs and articles they wrote or just some other peoples’ material.
Honestly, it is so easy to access quality information and network with reputable professionals with Facebook and Twitter. You don’t even have to browse every individual website or google everything, once you’ve built your network on Facebook and Twitter. Follow the people you like, friend them on Facebook, “Like” their company or their product; it is THAT easy (and by the way, they will all accept your friend’s request even if they don’t know you; they understand how it works). Once you’ve established that, it doesn’t get any simpler than that. Just log in to Facebook and/or Twitter and check your “News Feed”; you’ll have plenty of quality information to read from!
The other cool thing is that you can tag these same people in your posts and send them direct messages. It’s an easy way to get in touch with them. Even if most of them are super busy people, most of them are very accessible will almost always answer your messages (if you’re polite relevant, of course).
Stay tuned for my next blog post, I’ll tell you who to follow on Twitter and who to “friend” and “like” on Facebook for quality information!
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After my blog post from last week on the Bench Press Alternatives for Bum Shoulders, I thought it might be a good idea to do the same kind of post on the knees. Let’s face it, the knee is probably one of the most troublesome joints in the body, especially amongst athletes. Before we delve into the squat and lunge alternatives for your bum knees, I’ll mention the same thing I mentioned in my bench press post; before getting started with any of these exercises, if you have pain, you need to consult a qualified professional and get assessed. You need to clear out any underlying issues that might aggravate your problem before getting started. And also makes sure when you try one of these exercises that you can perform them totally pain-free, because as you probably know by now, pain equals irritation, and irritation equals your knee not getting better. Now that we got the boring stuff out of the way, let’s move on to the good stuff!
- Sled Drags and Prowler Push. The sled drag might be one of the most knee-friendly alternatives to heavy squat and lunges. Most knee pains occur at a significant amount of knee flexion (read: when the knee is bent close to 90°). Sled drags and Prowler pushes (with a high grip) involve a lot less knee flexion than any squat variation. The other advantage the Sled drag and Prowler push have is that they don’t have an eccentric action; it’s mostly concentric actions as you keep moving forward and driving your feet into the ground. You really have no forces to decelerate. For some people with knee pain, eccentric contractions may be more painful. And even if it’s not the case, it still put less stress on your joints.
- Deadlift variations. Posterior chain exercises can usually be done pain-free because they involve less knee flexion and they put most of the stress on the posterior chain (hamstring, glutes, lumbar erectors). If you’re going to use deadlift variations, depending on how bad your knees hurt, you might want to start with more straight-legs variations. The first one to try is definitely the SLDL (Stiff-Leg Deadlift) because it involves almost no knee flexion at all:
Then you can move to Rack Pulls, which involve a little more knee flexion (depending on where you set up the pins):
And if your knees allow more flexion without pain, you can try and pull from the floor, either with a straight bar or with a trap bar:
- Box Squat. This is an option for when your knees start to feel better. The box squat is a great option because, even if it’s technically a quad dominant exercise (also means more stressful on the knees), the goal is to sit as far back as possible on the box. The result is that it shifts your weight posteriorly to make it less knee dominant. Charlie Weingroff went into great detail in his DVDs Training = Rehab, Rehab = Training about how the box squat keeps you more in a vertical shin position, and therefore it puts less stress on your knees. Everybody that has been dealing with some sort of knee pain and want to reintroduce the squat in their training should re-learn to squat with (at least somewhat of) a vertical shin:
- Split Squat Isometric Holds. These are not much of a typical strength training option, but it can be a great addition to your training for different reasons; single-leg endurance, conditioning purposes, etc. So if you can tolerate some knee flexion, holding an isometric position for time usually doesn’t irritate the knees.
Split Squat Holds can be very versatile, and if you get creative like Kevin Neeld (seriously, he’s sooo smart) you can use them this way:
Having pain and injuries is probably the most frustrating thing in the world for athletes and weekend warriors alike. The last thing you want is be reminded constantly of the things you can’t do; that’s why it’s important to find alternatives and focus on what the athlete actually CAN do! As my colleague Eric Cressey puts it: ” you want to feel like an athlete, not like a patient”.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m a huge fan of random thoughts posts, both when I write for my own website and also when I read other people’s blogs. I think it’s a great way to transmit many different ideas/topics while keeping the read short. So without further, here’s my newest edition of random thoughts!
1. I just had my first article published on SportsRehabExpert.com last week. For those of you who don’t already know the website, it’s an amazing resource for fitness professionals from physical therapists, to chiropractors, to strength coaches. The website brings you THE MOST up-to-date information on sports and orthopedic rehab and injury prevention available on the internet. It is a membership site, but you can join today for only 1$! With names like Gray Cook, Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, Mike Reinolds and Charlie Weingroff contributing to the website, you’d be crazy not to take advantage of this offer! Needless to say that I’m really excited about writing for SportsRehabExpert.com ; it is quite an honor for me to be lined up next to those big names! You can join today by clicking on the banner below.
2. A while ago, my colleague Eric Cressey posted a picture of his med ball graveyard.
Upon seeing that picture, I was like:”How is that possible to have this many cracked medicine balls?”. At the time, we had yet to have one pop at Endeavor! But that was almost a year ago. A hockey off-season and a baseball off-season later, we’re catching up!
We’re nowhere close to where Cressey Performance is yet, but it feels good to know that our athletes too can pop medicine balls!
3. I have only a couple spots left for my online program design services. If you’re looking for a quality program that will bring you the results and make you feel better than ever (read: pain and injury free), shoot me an e-mail and I’ll take care of you. Don’t settle for the cookie-cutter program you’ll find in a fitness magazine that won’t do anything for you anyway. Save yourself the hassle of writing your own program, and have someone write a smart, no B.S. program geared toward your specific needs and your specific goals. You’ll achieve your fitness goals way faster than you ever thought possible! Visit my Services page for more details.
4. I’ve been food shopping at Whole Foods for a little while now, and I must say it is the smartest nutrition related decision I could have made. For those who live outside the US, Whole Foods is a mostly organic grocery store that carry the freshest produce and the highest quality food. It’s simply amazing! You won’t see this kind of sign in any other grocery store:
Not only do they carry the best quality foods around, by they also encourage people to eat healthy and they make proper recommendations (like this one on the sign) about the basics of healthy dietary habits.
5. A big shout out to the Comcast U-18 AAA hockey team who qualified for the Nationals this past weekend by winning the USA Hockey Atlantic District. Jared, our boss at Endeavor is the head coach of the team and we train most of the players on the team in the off-season and some of them throughout the season as well. They won a best of 3 series with their biggest rivals, the Junior Flyers. They won the first game 5-1, lost the second 5-4 and won the decisive game 9-2 in an amazing game! Congratulations guys!
6. I set a new deadlift PR yesterday! I haven’t been deadlifting very heavily lately. To make a long story short, I messed up my back a couple weeks ago and it’s been bothering me ever since and one of my knee is pretty banged up. Despite the fact that my whole body is a mess right now, I managed to pull 445, and did it totally pain free! Needless to say that I’m pretty excited about that new PR…and even more about the fact that my body’s feeling great with heavy loads again. 445 might not be that much, but in my situation right now, I’m pretty pleased with that. And the next couple of weeks are looking pretty good!
I’ve written in the past about what the biggest secret to gaining weight was: EATING MORE. The so-called hard gainers out there who blame their genetics and are trying to find the magical training program out there to gain muscle mass. There is no secret. But there are ways that are more effective than others. Eating whole natural foods and eating more of it, and following a well designed training program like Show and Go from my colleague Eric Cressey will definitely get you where you want to be.
I just finished the last phase of Show and Go along with the whole Endeavor staff, and I must say that I’m really pleased with the results. I established new PRs (personal records) for my front squat and my bench press, along with packing on 11 pounds (8-9 of which is lean muscle) over 4 months! And honestly, gaining weight was not even my first goal going into the program; my main goal was to gain strength. But I did eat a lot during those 4 months, so the weight and muscle gain was expected.
Here’s a sample 1-day diet record of what I was usually eating in a day:
Breakfast:
- 8 eggs omelet with onions, peppers, spinach and organic sharp cheddar cheese
- 2 Ezekiel bread toasts with organic butter
- 2 clementines, 1 kiwi fruit and 3oz of pomegranate juice
Post Training:
- Smoothie w/ 1.5 cup of organic whole milk, 1 scoop of protein, 1 banana, 4 strawberries, 1 T.spoon flax seeds, 1 T.spoon cacao nibs, 2 T.spoon natural peanut butter and 1/2 cup of oats
16oz of plain whole fat organic yogurt, 1 scoop of protein powder, handful of cashews, 1/2 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup granola mix
Dinner:
3/4 pound of pork chops breaded w/ quinoa flakes
2 cups of green beans cooked in organic butter
Pork, quinoa and green beans
I don’t know exactly how many calories it represents, but if I had to guess I would say close to 4,000. And yes I do realize that it’s a lot of food in one day; and it’s also almost all whole natural foods (nothing pre-packaged or overly processed). I went from 220 to 231 pounds in 4 months eating pretty much like that everyday. My goal is not to show off, but rather to make “hardgainers” realize what does eating A LOT of food actually means.
It’s really easy to make excuses, but a lot harder to cook food, plan ahead for all your meals for the day and actually eat that much food. Combine those strategies with a good, no-nonsense training program like Show and Go and you won’t have to complain about not gaining weight anymore.
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My colleague Kevin Neeld was having a phone conversation with a fellow strength and conditioning coach on the phone yesterday, and since we share the same office I couldn’t help but hear everything he was saying.
Sharing an office with Kevin is sooooo much fun
He was talking about the way we do things at Endeavor and how it might be different for other coaches in different settings. That got me thinking on how important it is to take your setting into consideration with the way you do assessments, write programs, coach your athletes, etc.
At Endeavor, we are training mostly hockey players, which means that we are super busy during the summer months (May through August) which is the hockey off-season and the rest of the year during the hockey season things are slower and we train some athletes from other sports that are in their off-season (mostly baseball, soccer and lacrosse). The athletes we train from those other sports also happen to be much younger than the college/pro hockey players we train in the summer; most of them are 16 and under. We do mostly small group training and the time we spend with our athletes every week is not a lot. In that type of setting, we do things differently than we would with a professional team or in a college setting for example.
Doesn’t exactly look like Endeavor!
It might come as a big surprise to many that we currently don’t have an assessment or testing protocol with our new athletes. Some may argue that testing and assessing every new athlete that walks through your door is of utmost importance, and they might be right. But again it comes down to the fact that you need to do what’s best in your own situation. With the little time we see our athletes, we can’t afford to waste our time with things that are not going to be top priorities. And the truth is that we used to have an assessment protocol which was basically the FMS (functional movement screen) and some goniometer measurements, but we realized after using that protocol for a while that it didn’t change the way we were writing programs anyway.
Hurdle step test from the FMS
So why do it in the first place? Even athletes playing the same sports will need to be trained pretty much the same way, but I will admit that there might be some individual differences between athletes playing the same sport. But the thing that we found out is that we can always identify the problems just by observing our athletes move during the warm up and the rest of the training. If you’ve been around long enough, major dysfunctions are easily identifiable and adjustments on the programs can be made on the fly. We also have a high number of younger athletes, and they definitely don’t present with as many restrictions (if any) as some of the older athletes will. We’ve been quite successful with that approach, both from a time management and injury prevention standpoint.
A similar situation presents itself with performance testing; most of our athletes (for the older ones at least) get tested by their own team at the end of the season and at the beginning of training camp. So where’s the need for performance testing really when they provide us with all the data they/we need anyway twice a year, sometimes more.
There are many factors that will determine how you implement your system and the way you work with your athletes. These include, but are not limited to:
- Number of athletes per group
- Sports the athletes play (do all athlete within a group play the same sport?)
- Age of the athletes and training experience
- Number of coach-to-athlete ratio
- Time available with athletes every session and every week
- Equipment available
- Setting of your facility (how your facility is divided and if you can keep an eye on everyone all the time)
- Experience
- Etc.
As you can see it leaves a lot of possibilities depending on many different factors. You can’t judge what someone does until you’ve seen what their situation is. Every good strength coach or trainer out there does things differently because they are in a different setting. Eric Cressey assesses and writes an individual program for every client and athlete that trains at his facility. Mike Boyle, who’s an equally good and successful coach doesn’t assess anyone and have all his athletes from the same sport on the same program. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Again, I think they’re both right because they do what’s best for their own situation.
All in all, it’s very important to be able to adapt. In my opinion, it might be what distinguishes the great coaches for the good ones. Analyze, apply and adjust things in order to be as efficient as possible in your situation and to get the best results possible for your athletes.
In last Thursday’s post about the neck, I mentioned some considerations we should have with the neck in strength and conditioning. But where does that leave us in the way we write our program and how do we go about training the neck?
I think the answer really depends on what type athlete/client you’re dealing with and the sport he plays. Some sports like wrestling and football will need some extra consideration for the neck because of the nature of the sport. But that doesn’t mean, you should do some stupid stuff that have far more injury risk than benefits; things like neck harness extensions and neck bridges are, in my opinion, a perfect example of risk vs benefit ratio that’s way too high.
The first way to go about neck training with any type of athlete/client is definitely to teach proper neck position. A drill that I like a lot and that’s also pretty simple is the chin tuck against the wall. It’s really a good place to start to learn the right position and to know how it should feel.
When performing this drill, you want to tuck your chin while pushing the back of your head against the wall; you also want to keep your jaw closed and push your tongue against the roof of your mouth. It will feel very awkward at first, but this is the packed neck position you want to have when lifting, especially when you’re handling heavy loads. Another reason I really like this drill is because when you tell someone to tuck their chin this is usually what it’s going to look like:
This is obviously wrong because it brings the cervical spine into flexion, and this is exactly the type of position we want to avoid. Your athletes and clients need to be able to make the difference between pulling your head back (packed neck) and tucking down (picture above) to get in the “double chin” position. By using the wall and forcing the athlete or client to maintain contact with his head, it will force them to pack back instead of tucking down.
Once the right chin tucked position is mastered and the deep neck flexor muscles can be properly engaged, you can use chin tuck variations to reinforce the packed neck posture in different positions. The quadruped chin tuck is a good example. By taking the wall out of the equation, you can’t rely on anything to find to find the right position and it requires more proprioception. Here’s a video from Eric Cressey that demonstrates the quadruped chin tuck:
But all these exercises are still just activation drills that reinforce the proper packed position.
When able to get the right packed neck position, you’ll want to integrate that into conventional lifts. Being able to maintain the proper position under heavy loads is going to be pretty challengeable to most at first.
So the first thing with the neck is to able to get that packed neck position and then be able to integrate it with conventional lifts. In some cases (wrestlers and football players, for example), you might need extra neck work because of the demands of the sports, but this would be the topic for a whole different blog post.
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2010 is coming to an end, and I must say it has been an incredible year for me! In the spirit of the holidays and as we’re wrapping up 2010 by the end of the week, I’ve decided to do the first ever DavidLasnier.com Best of 2010 Awards. So without further ado, here it is:
Best Website: HockeyStrengthAndConditioning.com . This website contains all the information you need from the top guys in the business. If you train hockey players, or if you’re a hockey player yourself, the information on this website will be of great help.
Best New Exercise: Standing Belly-to-Overhead Press. I got this one from my colleague Tony Gentilcore, and I simply love it. The Standing Belly Press was already one of my favorite exercise, especially because it’s so functional and also because there are so many variations you can use. Here’s the latest variation; it adds an overhead/anti-lateral flexion component to an already great core stabilization exercise.
Best Blog Post (from me):Keep Your Goal in Mind. This was definitely one of my favorite blogpost, because I feel so many athletes are studying for the wrong test when it comes to training for sports peformance.
Best Blog Post (from someone else): The Case Against Conventional Dairy by Brian St. Pierre. Technically, Brian wrote it in 2009 (December 21st, to be more specific), but it is by far the blog post that had the most impact on my life in 2010. Brian raises many interesting facts on conventional dairy; the way it is produced, the way the cows are raised and how it affects the quality of dairy, and how low fat dairy products are linked to different types of cancer. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not just Brian’s opinion; there are enough scientific proofs to support his point. Simply put, if you are still consuming dairy products, you NEED to at least make the switch to the organic kind.
Best Quote: “We judge others by their behaviors. We judge ourselves by our intentions.” by Stephen Covey. I read that quote for the first time on Kevin Neeld‘s website a couple of weeks ago. Think about it for a second. We all judge people around us by the way they act, even if their intentions might be different, but NEVER will we ever judge ourselves by our actions; only by our intentions. This is a very powerful quote that impacts all of the relationships we have with other human beings.
Honorable Mention: On a funnier note, this is the most hysterical quote EVER: “Arguing over the internet is like the special Olympics; nobody wins and you’re still a retard” by Tony Gentilcore. Hahaha…I have nothing else to say!
Best Sport Moment of the Year:
Enough Said.
Best Training Related Product: Show And Go by Eric Cressey. If you have been reading my blog consistently this will come to no surprise for most of you. The Show and Go program have been tested and approved by the whole Endeavor staff; and the results speak for themselves. If you’re looking for a great training program that’s been proven effective without taking any guess on the results, Show and Go is what you need.
Best Song: Sitting on top of DavidLasnier.com’s Billboard for the past 3 months, none other than No Love, featuring Eminem and Lil’ Wayne:
Best Supplement: Vitamin D. I have blogged many times in the past HERE and HERE about the positive effects of supplementing with vitamin D, so I won’t go over all the benefits in details again. I will simply say this; with all the scientific proofs piling up, vitamin D is now considered an ESSENTIAL supplement. It has been proven to increase levels of awesomeness and decrease the risks of everything that doesn’t make you awesome.
Best Picture:
Best Conditioning Modality: Split Squat Iso-Holds Into Slideboard. I will admit that this is very hockey-specific type of conditioning, but 80% of our athletes at Endeavor are hockey players, so did you expect anything else?! My colleague Kevin Neeld came up with this idea this past summer, and I’m still amazed at how great that idea was! Hockey is exactly that; iso-holds positions (when just gliding on the ice) alternated with short powerful bursts of acceleration (when skating).
Best TV Show: Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets. That show featured on HBO was simply awesome!
Rex Ryan is the freakin’ man!
2010 was a great year, and honestly I’m sure 2011 will be just as exciting, if not more! I wish to all of you nothing but the best for 2011; may this upcoming year bring you health, love and joy! I will see all of you in 2011!
P.S. I have postponed my special announcement and my surprise to you, my readers, after New Year’s day, as I’m sure most of you will have something more interesting to do than read strength and conditioning blogs on December 30th and 31st.
This year marks the first time in probably over 10 years that I finished all my holiday shopping more than 2 days before Christmas! Hopefully you did too! But if you still have gifts to buy to people around you who are either athletes, a coaches or just fitness enthusiasts, here’s a couple of ideas that you might want to consider.
This might be the perfect gift for anyone who doesn’t have access to a good coach or trainer, or anyone who doesn’t want to spend hours writing his own programs and going through trial and error to find what works. Eric Cressey has done an outstanding job with this product, and he’s basically eliminating the guessing work one needs to go through when building his own training programs. Show and Go is a proven system that has been put to the test by many before Eric actually launched the product. It provides you with 16 weeks of programs that guarantee you the results you’re looking for. The whole Endeavor staff has been on the Show and Go system for the last 10 weeks, and we’ve ALL made tremendous gains in both size and strength! Click HERE to get your copy now!
This is a great gift idea for anyone involved in hockey training; whether it’s for a player or a coach, a membership to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com is a gift that will help them get better. Some of the brightest minds in hockey training are behind that website; names like Mike Boyle (Boston University), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks), Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks), Darryl Nelson (USA Hockey) and Endeavor’s own Kevin Neeld are all contributing to the website to help develop better hockey players. For less than 10$/month (less than 100$/year if you pay all at once), a membership to this site will guide any hockey player in the right direction when it comes to his training. What’s even cooler is that you have the option of signing up and getting a 30 day trial for only $1! If you’re not satisfied with the content (which won’t happen trust me!) you can just cancel you subscription. Click HERE to get the 30 day trial.
With the new year coming up, for all these people making fat loss related resolutions, the Precision Nutrition System is definitely the ideal present to guide them through their lifestyle and nutritional changes that will lead them to their results. The Precision Nutrition System includes everything you need to help you make necessary changes in your eating habits in order to get results; everything from cookbooks to online support through the Precision Nutrition website, everything is included. The price is currently down from $147 to $97 for the whole system, so order now!
So if you need a last minute gift for the athlete or fitness enthusiast in your life, one of these should be a perfect fit.
On a side note, as I’ve mentioned last week I’m working on a couple different projects. One of them is related to my website and my readers; stay tuned next week for a special announcement as well as a thank you gift for my readers who have been following my work!
Hockey Strength and Conditioning is a tremendous resource for anyone who trains hockey player, whether you are an on-ice coach or a strength and conditioning coach…and actually it is a great resource for anyone who wants to know more about hockey training. The information that is available on this site is unbelievable. There are videos, audio interviews with some of the best people in the hockey training, detailed programs from NHL strength coaches, articles and much more. For me to be a part of Hockey Strength and Conditioning as a writer is more than an honor for me; having articles posted on the same website as Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks) and Darryl Nelson (USA Hockey) is quite an honor. These guys know their stuff, and they stay on top of things, and when you see their programs and articles, it’s easy to tell. If you’re somehow involved on hockey, you NEED to check it out.
