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Friday, November 28, 2014

Stretching: Where's the Swag?

C'mon, be truthful. you do not stretch because...there is very little swag in stretching. Right? No?

There is about as much swag in stretching as there is taste in tofu and cooperation between bi-partisan groups. The good thing is that stretching can help with the following:

1. Alleviates pain.
2. Decreases blood pooling in an area of your muscle. Oh, circulation improvement!
3. Makes you taller.
4. Relaxes you.
5. Helps you to move more smoothly.

Yes, makes you taller. Think about your spine. If you do not stretch, then muscles pull in a certain direction, which creates tightness. When you stretch, your spine gets to have fun bending and flexing. So, your spine gets a chance to help your body adapt to to muscular changes. If it helps even more, think about someone who bench presses often or sits with a hunched posture. They are bound to have tight muscles - the bench presser develops tight pecs, shoulder, etc; the huncher develops tight pecs, neck, shoulders, etc. Who wins? the bench and the sitting chair until they wear out.

Avoiding wear out takes swag:

1. Play some music with a funky beat.
2. Stretch with a partner.
3. Look tough when you are stretching. Really, like you know what you are doing.
4. Walk around like a wrestler in between stretches. It's not scientifically proven, but why wait?
5. Stretch on a bench, tree, fence, wall....again looking like one tough "niece or nephew of an aunt or uncle."
6. Laugh...with your stretch buddy.
7. Stare down your competition....if you are outdoors, then look at other exercisers...if you are indoors, then look at other exercisers.
8. Don't fall over.
9. Don't fall over and stay hurt.
10. Don't fall over, get up, and fall again.

Yo might develop some more swag with stretching with these ten choices. It is just cooler when you look like you know what you are doing while stretching. So, here you go:

Top Chest Stretches for In-home or In-office:
1. Door Stretch
2. "O" Overhead
3. Supine Foam Roll Stretch

Top Hamstring/Hip Flexor Stretches for In-home or In-office:
1. The Greatest Stretch
2. The Greatest Stretch Modified
3. 90-90
Bonus: Toe Touch - old fashion, but it works!

Just a few.

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS         www.teempt.com            TEEM Performance Training

Monday, November 17, 2014

In Defense: What's a Ram Got to Do With It?

It's not proper grammar. I like proper grammar. But, blame the title on Tina Turner

Attitude. Grit. Desire. And a short mean streak. These attributes describe rams or male bighorn sheep.
http://www.bighorn.org/images/Full%20Body%20Ram%20A.jpgRams are good sized animals that are built like very robust fullbacks. In fact, they can stand five to six feet tall at 260 to 280 pounds. Ouch! The, they have the nerve to ram or butt heads to win over a mate. These guys can jump over 20 feet and run up mountains at 15 miles per hour or 6.7 meters per second. Get this...they can charge at each up to 40 miles per hour. A ram is a good example of standing your ground (in the good sense) and fighting towards goals.

Translate this behavior to human movement. You are not going to butt heads with someone at 40 miles per hour. You may butt heads mentally at 40 miles per hour. Physically, the closest you may come to this action is, one, participating in tackle football, ice hockey, boxing, martial arts, and other contact sports. On the other end, your physical capacity can be determined by how much mental capacity you own and vice versa. Stand facing an eight foot high horizontal bar that lies between you and your first ever successful pull-up. Attack it like a ram. Stand facing an exercise goal that has been on your list all year or for many years, but you have never achieved it. Attack it like a ram.

This "In Defense" series has ended. 

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS       www.teempt.com        TEEM Performance Training

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Unite Boston 2014


“Do you need a translator?” ”What is that echo?” ”Oh my! Everyone is praying again." "Are your arms tired? My shoulders are getting sore.” "I’m so hungry that I could have communion again.”

Church is part of life whether folks like it or not. Pause right there.

Fitness is also a part of life whether folks like it or not. Sigh.

Visiting other denominations, as a way of promoting unity among various churches in the Greater Boston Area is a sign that for a location that is supposedly ranked 98th (out of 100) parlays with the non-believers mind. It breaks barriers and builds relationships that express unity or the way God would like his soldiers or followers to behave without bias but with love, intrigue, fervor, and an open heart. God also has a lot of humor that unexpectedly sneaks up on you. Oh yes! You see if you are going to go to a different church everyday for one week, then you have to be physical able. 

 Cue the line about fitness.

There are many parallels between fitness and church, and Unite Boston hints at this parallel. Boston is a dynamic place of many aspects of health. You can call it a health mecca of the United States. It is not know as an area rich of church love even though there are so many houses of the Lord, and so many people who are all in for the Lord. You just have to be willing to meet these individuals and to experience their congregations in order to dispel the negative stereotype of a church-less Greater Boston Area. So, what is one way to engage in this dismissal? Have an active mind and body. Your spirit is the smartest of the three.

I have never witnessed a Korean gathering until I actually experienced one. No-brainer there. Hearing a service in Korean opened my mind to a different way of worship and prayer. The convenience of having a translator and headphones enriched the worship experience. As each person prayed, I was reminded about being in a group exercise class. Only this time…the instructors kept changing within the same class. The sanctuary was rightfully dark and intimate like a spin class in the evening. Everyone even expressed his or her own genre of energy expenditure. Cool, what’s the next day like?

The last time I heard some Latin in a service was in high school at Gonzaga…and in the other Catholic services I had attended. But, attending a Taize service in a preserved church in the middle of downtown Boston makes spending time in the oldest YMCA in the middle of downtown Boston a run for its sweat. Sometimes, you just enter a service and everything feels sacred. And sometimes…you enter a gym for the first time and everything feels sacred and sweaty. But, the former wins! See, there is good – everything good is God - competition in church and fitness. Boston should be immune to good competition.

After a few days of competing with everything on your schedule between getting your family organized to attend these various churches, you thank the Lord that you can actually move well. Then, He reminds you that you need to eat meals throughout the day and stretch. 

Wait, what and why?

Well, a properly nourished individual will want to eat again if they move more. Hence, one take at communion should make a budding, adventurous, and curious churchgoer hungry for more communion and the body of Christ. Right? “Be still” for one second because as you lift your arms and open your palms as a sign of receiving the Lord, your deltoids begin to develop lactic acid. Lactic acid gets the bad rep of tiring out your muscles. Instead, it truly is the beginning of muscle fatigue due to your reverence to the Lord. 

Perfect practice makes perfect. The energetic services at these Unite Boston gatherings included many prayers. Many people were blessed as a result of lifting hands high. The city of Boston, in all of its alluring health is a mustard seed for the rest of the world. Unite Boston has exercises the branches needed to spread the vine of the Lord. In its essence, Boston has some serious worshippers. A city that is among the first in health is a city that is among the first in loving the Lord and is willing to work together in order to share the word!

Peace & Blessings,
Derek Arledge

Ice Hockey: Pre-game Warm-up

I'm not the biggest fan of how youth teams warm up before an ice hockey game. Somehow, the routine of statically stretching on the ice during a five-minute warm up has stretched across the hockey world. Not to get it get wrong, but many teams have found great success as each individual player is able to comfortable stretch after leaving the locker room. However, from my playing and coaching experiences, the better team - the team that flowed right off the opening face-off - did not waste time statically stretching. Instead, the entire team used its short warm-up to skate around with or without the puck. It makes sense. It's very functional and straightforward. I mean, ice hockey is played by skating with or without the puck.

The some high schools and prep schools, juniors, colleges, and pro teams can get away with the static warm up stretch because they all have longer warm up times. They come on and skate, go back to the locker room, and come back to skate before the anthems and opening face-off. As a player, I remember my most long warm-up period before a game...10+ minutes. Whoo! I did not know what to do. We had enough time to do breakouts, 2-on-1's, dump-and-chase (when it was THE thing to do), and more. My legs felt extremely ready.

As a coach the longer warm-up period has been beneficial as well. Not only did I get to sense how my team is warming up, which is very important. But, I had the opportunity to observe snippets of the opposing team. Of course, I kept in mind that the team I was coaching had more of my attention. After all, they were the ones being coached and not the opposing team.

I guess that younger players have not been coached on how to warm up before taking the ice. Sure, they can still stretch a on the ice; but it should not be a priority. If a player is very tight, then he or she may benefit from some static stretching. In my experience working with an NFL team in the past, I asked the strength and conditioning coach, "why do the players still statically stretch prior to practice or a game knowing that dynamic stretching is very helpful?" His answer: they just prefer it because they are used to it. Simply stated in my opinion. But, youth players, watch the elite teams in your age group; and see how much time they spend on on-ice stretching with a short warm-up period. My educated guess is that the team, who does not spend a lot of time stretching while a few players skate around, will warm up directly in to game situation drills, win or lose the opening face-off, and dominate the stretched out team for the first period.

It's probably best to observe two similar teams in this case, or two very different teams; and see how they respond to their normal level of play.

I always knew there was a purpose to showing up to games one hour ahead of time. I just hope that more youth ice hockey teams can get their players to properly warm up before going on the ice.

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS          www.teempt.com        TEEM Performance Training

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Bod-Anatomy Part 1: The Neck. You Do Not Need a Machine

Michael Jackson's "Body" song is not well known. I could be wrong. But, it is not well known.

To begin this first piece in the "Bod-Anatomy" series, let's start with the neck. How many people do you know who workout their neck?...Neck day! No one claims "neck day" because the neck is always worked out, holding our heavy noggins all day long. Don't me wrong, but some of us have some heavy loads on our shoulders. So, that anatomy alone makes it important to exercise your neck muscles. Just look at how many muscles and muscle lengths work to move your head:
http://www.painneck.com/images/anatomy-neck.gif Driving, lifting, typing on a computer (I'm stretching now), standing, applauding, running, walking, biking, jumping, eating, sleeping, washing clothes, gardening, bathing, swimming, skiing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, shopping, cooking, praying, dressing, turning, saluting, sitting, golfing, orienteering, and many other activities include so many neck movements and attention to the neck.

You have probably seen the neck machine in gyms. But, there is a large chance that you have never seen it. Why? Because it might be overused and injury prone. Also, you can do so many neck exercises without a machine. You can:

1. Laterally flex your neck by bringing your ear toward your shoulders.
2. Rotate your neck by saying, "No".
3. Look up and down being careful of dizziness.
4. Look up and down diagonally.
5. Look over each shoulder.
6. Look between your collar bones, which gives a different feel and movement than looking down at your feet.
7. Roll your neck half way around its full pivot.

These are only seven exercises. If you look at the image above and do these exercises, you basically hit all of those muscles. But, remember that the neck is sensitive and deserves plenty of attention in a warm-up and in posture while exercising.

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS        www.teempt.com        TEEM Performance Training

Favorite Exericse - The Lunge

It is bound to make everyone in your family smile, laugh, cringe, or be silent.


Most of your family members will probably hate the lunge variations. Personally, I am not sure why because the lunge looks so beautiful. Isn't the fall season beautiful? Lunges are one of the best alternating single leg exercises that targets several big muscle groups: the glutes, quads, hamstrings. Your hips will thank you. Lunges are one of the reasons that jeans appear under your Christmas tree and one of the reasons that yoga pants and stretch pants are band at work - except at the gym - and in some schools. They are sculptors like Aristocles or Pythagoras.

You can find a lunge variation in this posted video, Rise and Shine as well as in this darkened video, Winter Glutes.

Seriously, if you do not have something to talk about over the Thanksgiving table while everyone munches on very tasty turkey or stuffing/dressing, then take the fam out for a lunge fest sometime that morning.

That's it for now.

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS     www.teempt.com      TEEM Performance Training

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Period It! Part 3 - Oh, the Soreness!

You exercised on Monday. You are really feeling the soreness on Wednesday. Typical. You are normal.

You exercised on Monday. You have been feeling sore all week until Friday. Typical. You are normal. You did too much.

You exercised on Monday. It is Monday again, and you cannot move from last week's workout. Typical. Normal for those who do way too much.

When delayed onset muscle soreness sets in (DOMS), you feel it typically within 24 to 48 hours post-exercise. But, it also depends on how intense you exercised. If you have not performed exercise in a while at a certain intensity, then guess what? You are going to be sore for a longer period time. You probably hear someone say it or you may feel it often: "I did a workout, and now I cannot lift my arms...or it hurts when I go up the stairs." As long as the pain does not deter you from working out again, taper down the workout in the next session. For one, your range of motion will be a lot different or better when your soreness has time to rest.

What has happened in this case? Well, this extreme bout of soreness is an incidence of trying to include every type of workout that you can do in periodization. Remember that with periodization of your workouts, you want to train at a certain intensity (low, medium, or high), improving a certain fitness asset (power, strength, speed, agility, etc), in a certain time period (two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, etc), without injury, which is the number one thing to avoid in exercise.

Let's end this one right here: If you are going to "over-sore" yourself, then have a good massage therapist or massage appointments already lined up (see Massage Anyone, Everyone?)

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS       www.teempt.com        TEEM Performance Training

Saturday, November 1, 2014

In Defense: Kangaroo Thunder & Lightning

Toughness is not fighting when someone else picks an unnecessary fight. It makes the goons look like goons instead of channeling their inner "Chunk". Hey, you guys!

But what about kangaroos? Man, I wish kangaroos were reading these "In Defense" odes. They would get a chuckle.

You can learn a lot by watching the animal kingdom. Their movements are precise. Their behaviors are interesting. Translating exercises from animal movements is very common. The kangaroo, a marsupial in the family Macropodidae, offers a touch of athleticism, strength, power, balance, agility, and speed that can be demonstrated but not exactly duplicated. Of course, the genetic make up of kangaroos and human beings are different. But, you could, by observation, look at this marsupial and adopt some exercise movements that will improve areas in your movements.

Watch the kangaroo hop. It hops at about 17 mph, which is faster than your average treadmill; but slightly slower than a very fast sprinter. Actually, the kangaroo really jumps because hopping occurs on one leg and not two. Basically, kangaroos get around like a plyometric drill. They are a plyometric or a good conduction of muscle shortening and lengthening.

Watch the kangaroo box in the same video above. Plyometric is not only reserved for the lower body. When a boxer punches someone or something and connects, he or she has performed a plyometric drill. Look at their stance. So, what can kangaroo exercises help improve:

Glutes (butt), gastrocnemius (calf), quadriceps (thighs), hamstrings, deltoids (shoulders), triceps.

The exercises per group: kangaroo hopping (glutes, gastrocs, quads, hamstrings), kangaroo standing (gastrocs), kangaroo boxing (shoulders, triceps), kangaroo wall holds (triceps, calf). You can have fun from there on...

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS     www.teempt.com      TEEM Performance Training


Period It! 2: Two-Week Challenge

OK,  you know a little bit more about periodization (see Period It!). Let's put it in to action.

Periodization deals with micro-, meso-, and macrocycles in a way that is sort of like...well, I cannot draw an analogy right now. Wait, it is sort of like studying. Wow, horrible analogy. Here it out:

Microcycles are exercising in a certain manner for a short period of time, say, two weeks. In those two weeks, you do aerobic training. Concentration on aerobic training would improve your aerobic capacity and more.

Mesocycles are exercising for a longer period of time than microcycles. Keeping the same example, you do not have to stay with aerobic training. You can do strengthening and other forms of exercise.

Macrocycles...get it?

So, between today, Saturday, November 1, 2014 and Saturday, November 15, 2014, do one microcycle. Here it is and a former challenge:


If you have a treadmill, walk or run your normal distance but increase the total time by 10 seconds every other day.

If you have a child, play with him or her for an extra 5 minutes every other day.

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS       www.teempt.com       TEEM Performance Training

Breaking Down Exercise WITH Nutrition

It is family month. Follow the hashtag on Facebook and Twitter: #FamilyMonth

With Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Eve, holiday parties, Christmas, holiday parties, office parties, Hanukkah, holiday parties, school pageants, and sales coming, there will be plenty of food and bodies being broken down. Stuff will just be metabolized! So, let's start another series.

Are you the type of person or do you know another person in your family, neighborhood, or at work who struggles with eating late at night after a full day of work? Personally, I have fallen in to this situation at times. There is a way out.

1. You are not alone.

2. What you eat does make a difference, especially if you have lacked in certain food groups. More importantly, how much you eat makes a great difference.

3. Look at the earlier part of the day. If you were able to get in some exercise and good small meals, then you get an "A". It is like measuring the day in 100%. The early part might be 100% with the late night actions, in this case, at 70%. Do the math, and you still get a very solid and respectful "B" for the exercise and nutrition part of the day!

Enough math. That's it for now.

With heart,
Derek

Derek Arledge, MS, CSCS       www.teempt.com       TEEM Performance Training