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.

- Show and Go

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!

- HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com

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.

- The Precision Nutrition System

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!

Complex training refers to a form of training that uses a combination of a strength exercise and a power/plyometric exercise to improve total power output.  The concept is to do a loaded (preferably a maximum strength exercise) followed by a power exercise like a jump variation for example.  The science behind this method is that by doing the strength exercise first you will increase the efficiency of your nervous system by engaging a maximum number of fast twitch muscle fibers, and immediately taking advantage of this improved neural drive by performing a power exercise; the result being more fast twitch muscle fibers engaged in the power exercise, and therefore a better force output (resulting in higher jumps if you’re using a jumping exercise for example).  This method is very effective to develop strength, speed and power.

Here is a good example of complex training by combining a Trap Bar Deadlift with Broad Jumps (Please note that in the video I’m actually doing the 2 exercises within 15 seconds apart from one another.  In reality, you would want to wait longer, somewhere between 30 seconds up to 3 minutes) :

You want to keep the number of reps low on the strength exercise and the weight below your RM (rep max); the goal is to take advantage of the increased CNS (central nervous system) activation without creating fatigue, which would defeat the whole purpose of the method.  Also you will want to use 2 exercises with a similar movement pattern because the increased neural drive will be movement specific to a certain degree; by doing this you will benefit the complex method the most.

The possibilities are just endless with the complex training method; your imagination really is the only limit.  A great tool to have for complex training is the Vertimax platform.  However expensive, the Vertimax gives a lot of options when it comes down to complex training. 

My colleague and friend Kevin Neeld put up an awesome video on how we use the Vertimax with our athletes at Endeavor.  Kevin talks about how to use the Vertimax for complex training, but also talks about how to use it for hockey-specific movements.  The video is just great and it’s only 6 minutes long, so make sure to check it out:

Everyone who’s been lifting for a while knows there should be some ground rules about the way we should behave in a gym, some sort of etiquette.  You know, the kind of rules that will help you be considered a normal human being even under heavy lifting conditions and more than aything else that won’t make you look like a douchebag in the gym.  So that being said, I decided to put a list of my own.  Here it is in no particular order.

1. Sleeveless shirt are not acceptable.  I don’t care what your excuse is and if it is because you feel more comfortable with it, if you’re wearing sleeveless shirts to lift, you’re really just showing off.

2. On a related note, it’s not called an UNDERshirt for nothing.

I don’t care how jacked you are, you shouldn’t wear this to lift.

3. If you’re talking during a set, it’s not heavy enough.  Females included.  Period.

4. This is nothing new, but worth reiterating: doing curls in the squat rack is totally unacceptable.  Bodybuilding enthusiasts need to understand this.  I’m this close to exercising my vengeance and doing like this kid in every single commercial gym in America:

You think it’s ridiculous? So next time, stay away from the squat rack when you do curls, Johnny Baloney!

5. Speaking of curls, it seems to be every beginner’s favorite exercise.  But honestly, if you can’t do 5 bodyweight chin ups, I don’t even know why you’re wasting your time doing curls. 

6. Your cellphone should be turned off and put in your locker as you walk in the gym.  It amazes me how it’s becoming such a plague among exercise enthusiasts to send text messages in between sets when they lift.  How are you supposed to be focused and ready to lift heavy weights with such a distraction!  Time between sets should be better spent doing stretches, corrective exercises and other “filler exercises” that are going to make your time in the gym more effecient and really help you in the long run.  Plus, recent studies have clearly demonstrated that sending text messages between sets decreases your testosterone levels and makes you less attractive to members of the opposite sex. 

7. You should be able to squat and deadlift wayyyy more than you can bench press.  If that’s not the case, you know what you need to start doing more than once a week, right?

8. No crunches.  I mean EVER!  There is a time and a place for doing crunches; that time is never and that place is nowhere.  Seriously, it’s 2010, and we know by now that there are far better options to work your core muscles other than doing crunches, which let’s face it are as useless as Kim Kardashian. 

And no, crunches won’t shed off the fat around your midsection.  Add to the fact that a hgh volume of crunches will make your posture significantly worse because of the attachement point of the rectus abdominis on the lower ribs.  Also, crunches are really just a flexion of your lumbar spine, which according to the most knowledgeable researcher in the world on lower back, Dr. Stuart McGill, is one of the most common injury mechanism on the lumbar spine.

9. Unless you’re hitting a PR, there is no reason why you would grunt and moan on every single rep of an 8 rep set of DB chest press. Yes I’m talking about you Matt!

Granted on the video he’s hitting a PR (405 x 5, which is more than I can do!).  But now imagine him, doing every rep of a scap wall slide making the same noise!  Nothing will get you demoted faster at Endeavor. (Kidding Mat…not really!)

10. Proven fact, you need to include one or more of the following on your workout playlist if you want to make substantial gains: Slipknot, Rise Against, Marilyn Manson, Busta Rhymes, Eminem, DMX, Lil Wayne, Linkin Park, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down and Phil Collins (I might have forgotten a few acceptable options…)

One thing that people overlook too often is the reason why they’re training in the first place.  I see too many people who don’t keep their goal in mind when they train.  And I’m not only talking about the athletes or fitness enthousiasts themselves here, I’m also talking about the coaches and trainers.  Everybody wants to workout hard and do unique style training using all kinds of fancy equipement that they perceive as being magical tools to achieve their special needs.

Impressive….but stupid

Too often people will judge of the training they’re doing by how tired they are at the end of the session and how sore they are the next day.  How ridiculous is that? A wise man once said:”every trainer can make you tired, not every trainer can give you results.” 

Google “workout tired”….this is what comes up

This couldn’t be more accurate.  Whatever you do, make sure you ALWAYS keep your training goals in mind.  Never judge your level of fatigue after a workout as an accurate measure for your goal achievements.  Never use soreness either as an indicator of your progress. 

If you’re training to improve speed, it doesn’t make sense to do interval based work with short rest periods; you will get tired quickly and you won’t be able to give a 100% on every effort.  Same thing goes for people who do crossfit type training (as it seems to be the new trend) and are looking to increase their strength and power for sports peformance. 

What’s all the hype with that crossfit stuff anyway?

I do think that there are many pros and cons to consider with this crossfit thing before you get into it, but using crossfit for sport-specific performance is totally ridiculous; doing tons of reps with minimal rest is not going to improve your strength and power for anyone with more than 2 years of lifting experience.  Also the risk to benefit ratio with crossfit is not worth it if you’re an athlete, as you often perform complex movements with a high level of fatigue.  And as I’ve mentionned times and times before, doing distance running or aerobic based training to improve sport-specific conditioning for anaerobic sports like hockey, football, soccer, lacrosse and the like is equally idiotic.

But I’ll stop here as I feel I’m starting to bitch a little too much here.  The take home message is this: always keep your training goals in mind whatever you do.  Consider what you really want to achieve; whether it’s to increase your speed, increase your power and strength, lower your body fat or gain muscle.  Plan your training in a smart way and be consistent with your goals and train accordingly.  Also accept the fact that it’s ok to leave the gym not tired sometimes, and it might actually be more beneficial to your results.

When you’re a strength coach, one question that comes up all the time is: Should athletes do strength training during the season?  The long answer is it really depends on the athlete’s situation, but more often than not the answer is yes.

The first thing to consider is the purpose of training in-season; most athletes who play at a competitive level have a high volume of practices and games.  Therefore, it is very difficult to make gains without getting too tired which in turns mean performing less than optimally in games.  But if you’re not going to make any gains, why even bother training? For one, injury prevention is very good reason to train in-season.  That way training can be geared toward fixing imbalances created by the same repetitive movements that the athlete will perform over and over in the practice of their sport. 

Second, if the athlete has been training during the off-season and made tremendous gains in strength and power, you would definitely want to train to at least maintain those gains.  Strength and power are the two most important qualities that you want to maintain.  I am saying that because gains made in speed, agility and level of conditioning in the off-season will, most of the time, be easily maintained through the practice of their sport alone.  Let me give you a couple of examples: will a soccer player really improve his speed by doing, let’s say, an additional 10-15 sprints in their training while they’re actually sprinting for the ball hundreds of times a week while practicing and playing?  Similarly, will a basketball player really improve his conditioning with 15-30 more minutes of interval training while he’s practicing and playing in a sport-specific environment for over 5 hours a week?  I think you get the idea…

Please note here that I also said “most of the time” speed and agility training as well as additional conditioning are not necessary in-season.  An exception to that might be if a player is not on the starting line-up or just not playing a lot; in that case, the athlete might need the additional volume of speed, agility and conditioning to stay on top of his game.

Strength and power are totally different though.  The reason is because these two qualities require the use of some sort of additional resistance.  That is why if not trained, strength and power will progressively decrease and the athlete might lose all of what he gained during the off-season.  That is going to become more obvious as the season progresses, as athletes gets more and more tired from the high volumes of practices, games and stress in general related to everyday life (school, family, boy/girlfriend, job, etc).  It is imortant to be careful with the volume of training that is given to the athlete, because it can contribute to overtraining.  Also, you do not need high volumes of training to maintain athletic qualities; most of the time, only a couple of sets per week will be more than enough.

Again, there are a lot of factors to consider for training in-season, but it is definitely essential to maintain gains made in the off-season and help prevent injuries.

I mentioned in a previous post that single exercises like reverse lunges, back leg raised split squats and 1-leg squats can have great value in a training program as it improves your strength, your stability and your balance on 1 leg, which is the way most sports are played.  Whether it is when you run, when you change direction, when you skate (if your sport is played on the ice) or when you decelerate, all of these actions take place on one leg at a time.

For these reasons, single leg exercises might be more “functional” than 2-legs exercises like squats.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love squats, but they might not be as useful as single leg exercises when it comes to transferring strength gains to your sport.  You just need to know which one to use and when.

For many years I have been a big fan of single leg exercises as they help develop strength and balance in the knee extensors (quadriceps), hip extensors (glute maximus and hamstrings) as well as hip abductors (glute medius) and hip adductors (adductor magnus, longus and brevis) all at the same time.  But I have to say that I have always been hesitant to use single leg exercises as a main lower body lift in the past because I always thought that you could load 2-leg exercises like the squat a lot more than you could with single leg exercises.  And more loads also equals better strength gains….Well that’s what I thought a couple months ago….Not anymore.

With all the athletes we’ve seen at Endeavor this summer, I am now convinced that you don’t NEED 2-leg exercises to significantly load a lower body exercise and see great strength gains.

We’ve had numerous hockey players use over 225 pounds for a barbell reverse lunge with a front squat grip, a couple of them going up to around 265!  These guys were D-1 College players or Junior League players around 18-19 years old. 

Here is Endeavor athlete Charlie Vasaturo, 19 years old, doing reverse lunges with a front squat grip with 255 for 6 reps:

This is also not uncommon to have younger kids(around 14) do dumbbell reverse lunges with over 50 pounds in each hand.

Here is a video of an other Endeavor athlete, Conor Landrigan, 14 years old, who started training with us about 6 months ago and had pretty much no lifting experience before that.  Here he is doing a dumbbell reverse lunge for 6 reps with 65 pounds in each hand:

The fact is that once you get used to the movement pattern of a single leg exercise, you can load them up almost as much as you can with 2-leg exercises like squats(in fact, we have our athletes front squat as well and their number are not that much higher than they are for reverse lunges and split squats). 

So don’t be affraid to use a single leg exercise as your main lower body lift, as you will be able to load them significantly, your strength gains will transfer better to your sport and you will improve your balance in a sport-specific way.