Show Me Strength

ATTENTION: DON’T FORGET TO SET YOUR CLOCKS AHEAD AN HOUR TODAY (SUNDAY)

Ok, now that you avoided missing your plans today by an hour, or rushed yourself to where you need to be, here our our reads of the week. Here at Show Me Strength, we hope to help you on your quest to learn and evolve…to create your UNSTOPPABLE self.

What a Decade-Long Education in Health, Exercise, and Sports Nutrition Teaches You by Ryan Zielonka

Ryan’s post brings up a lot of great points in the study of health, exercise and sports nutrition. You’ll find that he is able to cut through some of the fallacies involved in this area of study. He presents some of the key points he’s picked up as he has sifted through the errors in the pursuit of real, useful knowledge!

The Ten Rules of Progressive Overload by Bret Contreras

Once again, Bret does a great job of clearly demonstrating the science behind a common but often misinterpreted training philosophy. In his 10 rules, he explains the theory behind progressive overload, how to employ it for your benefit in the weight room. You might be surprised to see some of the ways to progressively overload your body for strength devlopment which you had not considered before…we did!

Engineering The Perfect Sleep: 10 Steps to Follow Tonight by Craig Weller

If you are up reading this right now, you probably need to read this right away! Or if you ever wished for more efficient, restful sleep, here are some great tips to follow.

20 Ways to Prepare Young Athletes for Success in Sports and in Life by Eric Cressey

Finally, another long but tremendous read. Eric is around enough youth athletes to come up with some great suggestions for parents, coaches, and even for the youth athletes themselves to think about when preparing for sports and more importantly for life outside of sports.

“We have to remember that at the end of the day, less than 1% of the kids who participate in youth sports will become professional athletes. However, sports are still an outstanding medium through which to instill a variety of favorable qualities beyond just athleticism. To that end, I hope that some of the suggestions here will help to make kids not only better athletes, but better people, too.”

And a bonus VIEW of the week courtesy of strength coach Dave Rak!

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“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” Jerry Rice

Jerry Rice’s work ethic is legendary. His teammates hold him in the highest regard, something every athlete aspires to achieve. I can remember during my childhood, my dad would always talk about how Jerry would run this hill in his offseason training to separate himself from his competition. Apparently every single day rain, snow, or shine, he would go do sprinits up a very intimidating mountain near where he lived. This wasn’t the extent of his offseason training obviously, but the fact that he never took days off from the pain speaks volumes. We just don’t have many athletes willing to really grind it out in the trenches anymore like he did. I really look up to guys like this because I can see it in their eyes how hungry they are to continue pushing for success. Here is a good video and article give you a deeper look into Jerry Rice’s amazing career and “the hill.”

Hard Work Carries Jerry Rice To The Hall Of Fame < Read Here!

Marcus Luttrell’s book, Lone Survivor, is in my top 5 favorite books of all-time..and for good reason. He is a veteran of the Navy Seals, and has shared his incredible story to all of us lucky readers. In his time overseas he basically was in the shit constantly. His squad was composed with some of the most lethal and highly trained warriors on the planet who were always tagged with some of the toughest and most dangerous missions the United States had to battle through. A true warrior with a never quit mentality both saved his life and served as an inspiration to us all. Awesome video.

MarcusLuttrell.com < Boom

Goal Setting For Hard Asses by Dan John- Sometimes we make goal setting and action steps toward that big goal or project seem like rocket science. Dan states it pretty clearly here taken from this T-Nation article. “ The worst client for most coaches and trainers is, well, most of us! We know how we want to look or how much we want to lift, but we’re not sure how to get there and have no deadline spurring us on. So let’s talk about goal setting and how to figure out your motivations. Then let’s explore how to put it all together and really make it work. Again, Dan is someone I admire because he’s been in the trenches. He’s put in the work, fought through the injuries, and seen it through to the other side. Check this awesome article of you are having trouble reigning in your focus.

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Its a pretty obvious statement to make that staying healthy over the length of a competitive baseball season greatly improves our chances for success. Its alot easier said than done, yes. It also is an area baseball players consistently take for granted. Over and over kids get hurt playing the game they love. Even professionals at the highest level end up hurt from injuries they possibly could have avoided with the right focus.

Since there are a bunch of variables that go into completing a season injury free, you better be controlling the important things that are within your power. To first understand this in its entirety, we must figure out what we can’t control. Events on or off the field that should not absorb our energy and focus. Here’s a short list.

UNCONTROLLABLES 

- FREAK INJURIES (rolling an ankle covering first base, getting hit by a line drive off your arm, ect.)

- TEAMMATES SUCCESS OR FAILURE (concerning yourself over whether or not your competition is doing well or not is a waste of time. Always pull for your teammates. Even if they are the ones standing in your way.  Rooting against them is bad karma and will zap your energy away from concentrating on what you can control.)

-POOR COACHING OR BAD MANAGERIAL DECISIONS- ( We’ve all been there. Sometimes a coach keeps us in too long or not long enough, doesn’t give us enough time to warmup, or puts someone else in the game instead of you. Again, this is not in our control.)

Its only natural to get pissed off at these such occurrences. Just as easy as it is to get pissed, its easy to get wrapped up in worrying about how these things may or may not affect the outcome of your season. I’m here to tell you that if you can refocus your effort and worry into the things that truly are within your control, you can really start making some serious progress.

So what do we have to do? I know that in order to succeed on the field I must stay healthy, stay sharp with my ability to get guys out, and be ready when called upon to get the job done. Here are three ways to do just that.

1.) Become friends with a foam roller.

Strength, mobility, and stability all matter, but as the season goes along, and the wear and tear starts to set in, even the most elite athletes will start to experience some soft tissue restrictions at some capacity. I’m assuming that most of you won’t have access to a massage or manual therapist 24/7, so making a small investment in a foam roller can go along way in keeping you healthy this year. Check out how to go about rolling in the video below by my strength coaches at Cressey Performance.

2.) Don’t waste throws in practice. I’ve already spoken to this point over at this blog post, but I don’t believe I can overstate how important it is to think of each throw you make as a critical piece to your development. Since we are now in the season, you must take into consideration all the throws you are bound to make during the months to come will add up quickly. With this in mind, our bullpen and practice sessions need to be more straight and to the point. No f****** around! If you have a game tonight, you can’t throw 100 times today. You need to make minor tweaks in a short period of time. My suggestions are as follows for in-season work from a throwing standpoint.

A.) Use dry work, towel drills, or other less stressful ways to fine tune your mechanics.

B.) If you need to work on a pitch or something more substantial in your delivery, be sure to have total focus on what you need to work on before each pitch or throw. Set a number you are comfortable with, and get your work done in those tosses.

3.) Dont piss away the work you did in the off-season. One thing that I’ve come to realize is that you must make the mental and physical distinction between the off-season and season. The off-season and winter months is a time for laying down serious strength, sorting out imbalances, pain, and movement issues accumulated during the previous season. The season is time for you to reap those rewards from the long hours logged in the gym, on the mound, and in the kitchen. This however does not mean we should stop training, eating right, and sleeping well. In fact, it is crucial to maintain these habits during the season. They just might take a different shape. Here are some things to keep in mind.

A.) Get 8 quality hours of sleep each night. Since recovery and bouncing back is the name of the game in baseball, this is where its done. Boozing, staying out late, and getting insufficient sleep might be fun, but it will catch up to you. Get all the quality sleep you can during the season to increase your chances of staying healthy.

B.) Stay on top of getting quality food and supplements. Yes, it might be the case that you’ll find yourself in situations when tremendously good food just isn’t available. When you have the opportunity to cook in bulk, eat a nutritious meal, and knock down your protein powder, multivitamin, fish oil, and vitamin D…make sure to take advantage of that. Make these things readily available as often as possible.

C.) Keep your strength and mobility. With the added stress of games, our training, warmups, and stretching need to take a different form.  I’ve found that getting a couple good strength training sessions weekly, a couple sprint sessions weekly, and plenty of mobility work in are the best way for me to stay in great shape in-season. No, I don’t go crazy in the gym like the off-season, but I keep my strength up with a couple fully body training sessions per week. I also try and do mobility stuff twice a day since pitchers tend do a lot of sitting around. Remember the main goal is staying fresh and on the field.

Each one of you are different. You have different bodies, different minds, and different circumstances or situations. In baseball, we can all agree that health, consistency, performance, and reliability are huge factors in our success. It is from my experience that we hope to share our ideas to help you reach and achieve your goals this season. Let us know if these tips help you out. Thanks!

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“Maybe that’s why I’ve made it as far as I have – 2,521 miles. If I ran to a doctor every time I got a little cyst or abrasion I’d still be in Nova Scotia. Or else I’d never have started. I’ve seen people in so much pain. The little bit of pain I’m going through is nothing. They can’t shut it off, and I can’t shut down every time I feel a little sore.”

Terry Fox

Warrior Inspiration: Terry Fox via Warrior Thinking- As you know, Matt and I here at Show Me Strength are all about finding ways to inspire those of you who enjoy reading our work. We are grateful for our followers and the feedback you all give us. We believe motivation can come in a million different forms, but few are are as inspiring as common people in life and death struggles, who find a way to persevere through the hardships to make a lasting difference. Although in this example, Terry eventually succumbed to cancer, it wasn’t before he made it his mission to raise millions for research by running a marathon everyday until he made it all the way across the entire length of Canada.

Not Dead Cant Quit- No limit thinking with Navy Seal Veteran, Richard Machowicz via tradingmarkets.com- Talk about making a difference, “Mack,” creator of Not Dead Cant Quit (NDCQ), 10 year veteran of the Navy Seals, and author of one of our favorite reads, Unleash The Warrior Within, has made it his mission to help people break their own self doubt, and achieve their dreams with a will to overcome all the obstacles in the way. This article is a fantastic read, and a wonderful example of what it takes to live life like a warrior.

48 Gems of Bruce Lee Wisdom- I’m sure most of you know of the Dragon’s on screen presence in several hollywood films, but before that, Bruce overcame many obstacles to make it to the US, reach unprecedented heights in the martial arts, and break into the film industry at such a young age. Also a hearalded phiosopher, Bruce Lee had an infinite number of inspirational quotes and stories that have endured time and transcended cultures.

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As the mantra goes, “You can’t outrain a bad diet,” Matt and I here at Show Me Strength, truly take those words to heart. Matt wrote about what he eats on a daily basis here, and in this post, I will show you every meal that I eat over the course of a normal day and the ingredients that bring these delicious and nutritious feasts together.

Whether it be for sport or for life, eating foods that have a positive effect on my health is my number once priority. I treat my body as the high performance vehicle that will carry me through not only my career as a professional athlete, but through the awesome adventures that I plan on having throughout my existence.

If I want to be a strong, powerful, healthy, and happy human being, it’s an obvious choice for me that I not only have to train hard, but I have to eat incredibly well.

Unfortunately today, we don’t live in a healthy society. Obesity, diabetes, and other diseases brought on by poor health choices have only gotten worse. More than ever, food that is convenient, easy to make, and often made from animal byproducts to save on costs have made us fatter and sicker.

Here are some current stats and predictions.

As of right now 37.5 percent of americans have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. This means that 37.5 percent of United States citizens are obese. Experts predict that this number is on track to reach 50 percent by the year 2030.

These are astounding numbers that mean one thing to a person who wants to be healthy, strong, and capable. It means you must not take the easiest and most traveled route. You must take the way that will forge an unbreakable body, mind, and spirit. One of the biggest pieces to that puzzle is an incredibly nutritious diet.

Here is what I eat on a daily basis to give me the energy, strength, stamina, and health to do all the things I love to my full capabilities.

NOTE- My current weight is 220 lbs at a height of 6’3″. I want to remain at the weight I am at while continuing to get stronger. I am not on a bulking diet. This way of eating has been successful with these personal goals in mind. I recommend taking your own physique, sport, performance, or weight gain/loss goals into consideration before designing any sort of meal plan. This doesn’t, however, stop you from making health conscience food choices.

Testosterone Protocol- In a society where men are gradually becoming less and less manly and more and more soft, I believe it’s important to not only hold on tight to the virtues that make great men manly, but also eat in a way that promotes optimal testosterone (manly) levels. I’ve taken it a step further and started to implement a protocol from Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4-hour body (An uncommon guide to rapid fat loss, incredible sex, and becoming superhuman). With the all natural foods and supplements below paired with a stellar manly diet, I have assured myself from a nutrition standpoint, optimum T levels.

BENEFITS OF OPTIMAL TESTOSTERONE

- healthy brain function

- stronger bones

- increased muscle mass

- decreased fat

- healthy cardiac function

- increased sex drive and sexual performance

- increased energy, confidence, awesomeness

PROTOCOL- 2 organic cage free raw eggs, 3 fish oil capsules, 5000IU vitamin D, 500mg vitamin C, 50mg zinc, 2 brazil nuts for selenium. I have all of this on an empty stomach when I wake up, and then right before I goto bed. I also wash it down with heaping tablespoon of the delicious athletic greens mixed with a full glass of water, which are optimized on an empty stomach first thing after waking.

BREAKFAST- 5 cage free whole eggs, a couple cups of cage free egg whites, and mixed veggies all cooked together in a tablespoon of coconut oil.

- No starchy carbs or fruit, just a good amount of protein, healthy fats, and fresh veggies.

While cooking I like to add a little bit of garlic, then when on the plate I’ll add guacamole, salsa, turmeric, and salt/pepper

Health Note- The spice turmeric has been shown to reduce inflammation targets in the body among several other positive health benefits. It is also very tasty on meat and eggs.

DURING TRAINING- 13 BCAA Capsules, 5g creatine monohydrate, water

-BCAA’s or branched chained amino acids help to trigger fat loss and help the synthesis of proteins that aid in muscle-building. Creatine has many benefits, but during training it helps my work capacity increase.

POST WORKOUT SHAKE- Coconut milk, vanilla whey/casein protein powder, 5g creatine, berries, rolled oats, almonds, pecans, walnuts, raw pumpkin, greek yogurt, cinnamon, peanut butter, flaxseed, cacao nibs, chia seeds.

-Health note- I will only have oats and fruit in my shake post training, not pre bed. My muscles are depleted of glycogen and glucose at this point and can use the carbohydrates/fructose.

LUNCH- 2 free range chicken breasts marinated in balsamic vinaigrette, garlic, and turmeric with sides of brown rice and mixed steamed veggies.

- Since this meal will be within the hour after training, I add some carbohydrates in with the rice. This will help the muscle rebuilding process after a strenuous workout. I’m also getting plenty of protein with the chicken as well as key vitamins and minerals with the veggies.

DINNER- This recipe, made famous by our friend, and precision nutrition expert, Brian St. Pierre, is mind-bogglingly delicious and incredibly dense in muscle-building nutrients. The recipe below is with the measurements I use for a week’s worth of chili.

For dinner I’ll have a huge bowl of this along with a glass of Pino Noir.

5 pounds of grass feed ground beef, 2 onions, 2 green peppers, 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato sauce, 1 can of light red kidney beans, 1 can of dark red kidney beans, 1 can of garbanzo beans, 1 can of black beans, 1 small can of minced garlic, 3 tablespoons of turmeric, 3 tablespoons of chili powder, 3 tablespoons of pepper.

PRE BED SHAKE- Almond milk, vanilla whey/casein protein powder, almonds, pecans, walnuts, raw pumpkin, greek yogurt, cinnamon, peanut butter, flaxseed, cacao nibs, chia seeds.

- The only differences between this one and my post workout shake are the base (almond milk vs coconut milk) and the absence of berries and oats.

TESTOSTERONE PROTOCOL- 2 organic cage free raw eggs, 3 fish oil capsules, 5000IU vitamin D, 500mg vitamin C, 50mg zinc, 2 brazil nuts for selenium. I have all of this with a heaping tablespoon of athletic greens in water.

As you can see, I don’t really f*** around. I want to be strong. I want to be healthy. I want to have energy. I want to look great with my clothes on and with my clothes off. I want to perform on the field and in life. To me if I work hard in the gym, on the field, and in the kitchen, all of these wants of mine will be fulfilled.

This is a typical day in the life of my stomach. I mix it up with other recipes often, but this is a normal day of eating for me. Consuming amazingly healthy foods as you can see can also be super delicious. It just takes a little creativity and preparation to design a meal schedule like this one that will allow you to fire on all your cylinders all the time.

I hope you enjoyed this post and found it helpful. Leave a comment or questions below and follow us here. Like us here.

*As always, please consult your physician or other nutrition health professional before modifying your diet. We offer these posts to share our own successful experiences through our own experimentation; however, we do not yet have our medical or nutritional certifications.

Every so often its important to make sure we aren’t succumbing to resistance. If you haven’t been reading our articles consistently, there’s a chance that you may have missed some of my references to Steven Pressfield and his take on a force in our lives called resistance. Here is his definition.

Resistance - “An energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. It’s aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”

Unfortunately we are all victims to resistance from time to time, whether it be putting off a project that’s due at school to watch a game on tv, or skipping a workout because you have a bit of a sniffle. Whatever it may be, we are all good at coming up with what seems to be at the time, excellent excuses.

The blunt fact though is we are just putting off our work because it might be uncomfortable, tough, or challenging.

The good news is that resistance can be defeated. We can get to the gym, make our meals healthy, get to bed on time, and finish our work. Our potential as humans will most likely never see the day when we hit our full capability or limit, because that is self-imposed and resistance has made us “comfortable.” Here are a few questions, inspired from the photo above, to ask yourself from an athletic perspective, if resistance is creeping into your life without you even knowing…

Even though you got a sufficient amount of sleep, do you lay in bed for an extra hour because you think it’s still to early to get out of bed? Could this be preventing you from getting an amazing breakfast and a good amount of work accomplished? This is resistance.

Did you promise yourself to go for a run this morning, but it was 30 degrees outside and you deemed it too cold? This is resistance.

Did you dominate yesterdays leg lift, wake up sore today, and skip your training sessions until you feel recovered? This is resistance.

Were you up late last night talking to your girlfriend or boyfriend, sleep in till noon, therefore skipping an important meal? This is resistance.

We’ve all been there, but not all of us have realized that it’s crushing our potential. Everyone of us succumb to it from time to time, but we must to fight it back hard and get our shit done. Here are some inspiring videos and quotes taken from them that have helped us kill resistance. We hope that it will do the same for you.

“Respect is earned. Respect ain’t given to no damn body” RL

“We get one opportunity in life. One chance in life … to do whatever you’re gonna do. To lay your foundation. To make whatever mark you’re gonna make. To leave whatever legacy you’re gonna leave. Leave your legacy. And it’s found through effort. Wins and losses come a dime a dozen. But effort? Nobody can judge effort. Effort is between you and you. Effort aint got nothing to do with nobody else. So that team that think they ready to seen you? They think what they seen on film. They ain’t saw what film shows. Because every day is a new day. Every moment is a new moment. So now you got to go out and show them that you a different creature now than I was five minutes ago. CAUSE IM PISSED OFF FOR GREATNESS. Because if you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that means you’re OK with being mediocre. ” RL

“Listen to me: pain is temporary. It may last for a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year. But eventually it will subside, and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it will last forever.” Eric Thomas

“I’m not eating like I eat at home. That’s why you’re going to go to the next level, because if you ate like you ate at home, you’re going to remain a boy or a girl. Its time to become men and women.” Eric Thomas

“But I’m exactly where I want to be because I got to commit my entire being to this thing. I got to breath it, sleep it, eat it. Until you get there, you’ll never be successful in life. But once you get there, I guarantee you the world is yours. So work hard and you can have whatever it is that you want.” Eric Thomas

“Along the way you might fall down, . .. sometimes in life, you might fall down and can’t find the strength to get back up… do you think you have hope? Because I tell you, I’m down here and I have no arms and no legs, … It should be impossible for me to get up, but it’s not” Nick Vujicic

“I will try one hundred times to get up, and if I fail one hundred times. If I fail and I give up, will I ever get up? No! If I fail I’ll try again, and again and again. But I want to tell you it’s not the end.” 
- Nick Vujicic

Inspiration is everywhere you look, as you can see from some of these awesome videos. At the end of the day though, its us that must rise out of bed with a fire burning inside. Its us that needs to make our mind up to be great.

Have you made up your mind yet to be awesome?

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Well the end of the week should mark something. I believe it should mark a pretty significant change in each of our lives. Instead of going through the motions just praying to make it to the weekend, shouldn’t we be living the life we dream of having? If we aren’t doing that quite yet, don’t you believe we could be actively working toward  and not away from the health, career, relationships, and life that we want? It’s just some food for thought. I hope I didn’t depress anyone. We all have work to do, and I hope each of your weeks were brilliantly productive.

In this edition of best reads, we have a few true pros in the female fitness world. Check out their awesome content, ladies!

1.) 3 Steps To Getting Your Girl To Train By Joy Victoria- This post will most definitely be one that changes some lives out there. Although all of us, women included, know the benefits of weight training are surely positive, females often have to overcome some different challenges in the weight room both physically and socially to adapt. Joy does an absolutely incredible job of showing guys how to make the transition for girls into the world of strength a more easier and fun experience. Great read for everyone works or wants to work with the female population.

Check out Joy here

2.) Everything (And Nothing) In Moderation by Neghar Fonooni- If every girl in the world would take Neghar’s training, nutrition, and lifestyle advice to heart, the world would be a sexier, fitter, healthier, and more awesome place to live in for us guys. So much of the female population is afraid to train heavy and get after it in the weight room for a variety of reasons, but Neghar, who is a goto expert in the fitness industry, is truly helping the cause for women everywhere to pursue a more healthy and more badass life. I really think highly of her work, and hope you girls out there will take a look at her stuff and implement some of her ideas into your lifestyle.

Follow Neghar here

3.) Eat & Train To Thrive By Alli Mckee- This is a fantastic read for the girls who are looking to learn more about some of the added benefits that come from strength training, conditioning, and healthy eating, but mostly the eating side of things. The good-looking body is only one awesome side effect. Alli, another amazing and highly respected female fitness expert, put it wonderfully in one of her last sentences.

“To me, eating to be lean is important but eating to promote the best hormonal responses, digestion, sleep patterns, daily energy levels, disease prevention, anti-inflammation and more.. Now that’s Eating to THRIVE.”

These words should be enough to stick with an awesome eating plan. Even someone in as great of shape as Alli will have a cheat meal or cheat day once in a while. You gotta live life. The thing is though, when you are very consistent with your healthy lifestyle habits, you can afford these splurges. To be so in tune with your body is such an amazing feeling. This is a wonderful article that clears the air on what ladies as fit as Alli eat regularly. No tricks. No BS. No shortcuts. Just clean living.

Follow Alli here

So what did we learn? These girls are obviously in tremendous shape. They are all very successful at helping others become more sexy and confident in their own skin. They all understand there are no shortcuts, no fad diets, no starving themselves to fit into a dress, no hours upon hours on the elliptical.

These women are models for the girls looking to get healthy, strong, sexy, and happy. These are the traits that are truly attractive to us men. Do yourself a huge favor and read some of their work. You’ll be better for it.