Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Too Heavy, Too Soon.

There has been a rash of new heads in the gyms around town lately trying to move weight that is too heavy. With the rise of Crossfit over the past few years I've noticed more and more kids doing Olympic lifts, kipping pull ups, muscle-ups and other training techniques that only the well informed gym heads and trainers know about. This is great! I love seeing girls do front squats and dead lifts. That's something that you wouldn't see in your average gym 2 years ago.
That said, I'm seeing a lot of bad form and lift attempts with weight that is just TOO HEAVY.
Guys,
THE STRENGTH WILL COME. Focus on form!!! Work with a trainer. Watching the Crossfit games on ESPN is not enough to prepare you to do a 200lb Snatch!

The old rules are still true: 1. If you're training for strength keep your reps between 8-10 (every set to failure)
                                           2. If you're training for size keep your reps between 10-15 (every set to failure)

Trying for a "Max" or "PR" rep is okay to do once in a while (like 3 or 4 times a year) just to see how far you've come, but that's it! Single rep maxes are good for an ego boost, but there's a high risk of injury especially if your form is bad.
Happy Training!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Training with an Injury

Injuries are an unfortunate part of an active lifestyle. Take all the precautions you like, sooner or later something's gonna pull, strain, sprain, tweak, spasm, break, hyper extend, or tear. For athletes this can be a stressful time. Not training for a person who trains 1-3 hours a day 6-7 days a week  is unthinkable. Fortunately there are tricks that allow you to train around your injury. You may need to take the intensity down a few notches (which can be just as frustrating) but its better than sitting on the couch.
Recently I took on a client whose ankle needed to be completely immobilized for 4 weeks. She went from playing tennis 2-4 hours a day 5-6 days a week, to not being able to run, bear weight on her leg, and only limited walking (with a severe limp).  My challenge was to put together a workout intense enough to challenge her level of endurance without aggravating her injury. Very tricky since most of the high intensity cardiopulmonary drills in my wheelhouse involve sprints and sharp changes of direction.

Super sets are a great way to train opposing muscle groups. They allow one muscle group to rest while you train the other, all while forcing you heart to pump blood to both. Boom! Cardio without running.

 Super-set 1 (Immobile foot)

Heavy rope, double (seated) 60 seconds/ Seated dumbbell curls. 8-15 reps to failure. Repeat 3xs
Since we train 2 days on/ one day off I split our sessions into pushing muscle groups (anterior and medial delts, pecs, tri's) and pulling muscle groups (lats, posterior delts, bi's). This way we avoid over -training.  All super-setted with various 60 second heavy rope drills. It does get a little repetitive, but it's temporary.
DON'T LETS INJURIES SLOW YOU DOWN!