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Aerobic Conditioning For Baseball Players: Practical Application by Doug Kechijian

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Read before: Part 1: Baseball Physical Preparation: Aerobic Fitness 101

 

pitcher tempo run

 

In part 1, we provided the physiological rationale for incorporating aerobic development into baseball physical preparatory programs.

Here, we’ll discuss how to translate theory into practice. To begin, we must dispel some common myths about aerobic development.

Aerobic Development Myths

The first is that one can train the aerobic system, or any energy system for that matter, in isolation. At any point in time, all three energy systems work concurrently to respond to environmental stressors as efficiently and safely as possible. Remember, in biology, everything has a cost- and potentially a benefit. Even as you read this article, presumably in a state of rest, your glycolytic system is “working” and producing lactate. The concentration of lactate, however, is not sufficient to skew the energy balance into the anaerobic realm.

In medicine and physiology, we compartmentalize things into different buckets to make the whole easier to understand. In reality, there is one “energy system” that calls upon different balances of various chemical processes (phosphagenic, glycolytic, aerobic) depending on an athlete’s physiological output.

The second myth is that interval training is necessarily anaerobic.

Interval training is only “anaerobic” if during the course of the protocol, the rate of lactate production exceeds the rate of lactate removal. Many (not all) of the interval training studies people cite in support of “anaerobic” training, especially those conducted on untrained subjects, utilize aerobically-based intervals performed at a higher intensity than the steady state control group.

Untrained subjects, in particular, aren’t fit or motivated enough to push themselves deeply enough into glycolysis for successive repetitions. That kind of stress is often too threatening for somebody unaccustomed to high intensity work. What these studies do suggest is that in certain populations and in certain contexts, aerobic interval work performed at higher intensities (but still below anaerobic threshold) may be superior to the steady state training traditionally associated with the aerobic system. Baseball players may, in fact, be one such population.

Train Slow, Be Slow?

The expression “train slow, be slow” requires context.

This saying is more applicable to true speed and power athletes than to athletes who accumulate several miles of running throughout a game. Most team sport athletes, baseball players being an exception, are not speed and power athletes.

Therefore, steady state training or long(er) duration intervals performed below anaerobic threshold serve more of a purpose in disciplines like soccer, MMA, and basketball, for example, than in baseball, powerlifting, and track and field throws and jumps. Appreciating the manner in which aerobic development may enhance performance in speed and power sports does not mean that all athletes should train the aerobic system the same way.

One of the best ways to develop the aerobic system for baseball is tempo running.

Charlie Francis discusses the “tempo method” at great length in The Charlie Francis Training System. Tempo work consists of interval-based running sessions conducted at submaximal velocities that often still far exceed the velocities encountered in other aerobic, and even glyocolytic, protocols.

The difference lies in the manner in which the distances and rest periods are manipulated.

When working with sprinters, Charlie utilized both extensive (less than or equal to 75% intensity) and intensive (generally between 80 and 85% intensity) methods depending on the duration of a sprinter’s event. For the purposes of this article, only extensive tempo methods apply.

During an extensive tempo session, a sprinter might perform 50 to 100m repeats at 75% or less than the speed he/she is capable of running for that distance. So a 10.0s (10m/s) 100m runner would perform extensive tempo repeats no faster than approximately 13.5s/100m. Since team sport athletes, including baseball players, rarely ever reach top speed in a game, even this “slow” tempo work is faster than the overwhelming majority of running that occurs in competition. Extensive tempo work remains “aerobic” as long as adequate rest is provided between repeats.

Video of tempo runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ7tl8zqX2o

In Applied Sprint Training, James Smith cleverly modifies Charlie’s tempo volume prescriptions for team sport athletes.

So while a 100m sprinter may perform 1000-2000m of extensive tempo in a session, 3000-4000m might be more suitable for a soccer or Aussie rules football player. Smith does not provide a prescription for baseball players, probably because baseball is physiologically simpler than the other sports he covers.

1000-1500m of extensive tempo work performed 2-3 times/week seems sufficient enough to aerobically cover a baseball player. Moreover, the extensive tempo work is fast enough to groove sprinting technique and condition the hamstrings for pure speed work conducted at different points in the training cycle.

There is a lot of controversy about how to best prevent hamstring injuries.

Confining an athlete’s training to the weight room until he/she leaves for camp, as is often done, is definitely not best practice. Calisthenics and medicine ball work can also be incorporated into the tempo sessions to increase the volume of work and the demand on the cardiac system. An example 8-week offseason extensive tempo progression for a baseball player might look something like this (remember MAXIMUM of 75% of peak velocity for that distance):

Sample Program

Week 1: 16x (Run 50m/Bear Pose x 5 breaths in though nose and out through mouth/Med Ball Side Throw x5 per side), heart rate recovery to 110bpm after each repetition

Week 2: 18x ….

Week 3: 20x

Week 4: 22x

Week 5: 10x (Run 100m/Full Rockback on Elbows x 5 breaths/recoiled rollover stomps to floor x8 total throws), heart rate recovery to 110bpm after each repetition

Week 6: 12x…

Week 7: 14x…

Week 8: 15x…

Performing a breathing-based exercise after the run forces the athlete to control his/her breathing with an elevated heart rate, a useful skill when confronted with any kind of stress. It also prevents athletes who have a difficultly autoregulating their intensity from running too fast.

The key during the run is to feel smooth and relaxed. The medicine ball work should be performed dynamically but not with max intensity. Once again, smooth and relaxed.

Tempo sessions should be performed on low CNS days if one follows a high/low template or on recovery days.

Assuming someone does pure speed and strength work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the tempo work would be done on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Tempo running is A way, albeit an effective and relatively specific one, to develop the aerobic system for baseball. Unless you can hit like Babe Ruth or Big Papi, you too might benefit from incorporating more running into your program.   Just don’t run too long or too slow.

If you’re already at this level of ballerness, disregard everything you just read

About the Author:

Doug Kechijian is a performance-based physical therapist who specializes in treating orthopedic injuries and chronic pain. He recognizes the continuum extending from acute rehabilitation to high-level sports conditioning. His comprehensive and integrated approach helps to not only relieve one’s symptoms, but addresses the underlying biomechanical and neurophysiological patterns that contribute to injury.  A co-founder of Resilient Performance Physical Therapy, Doug consults with professional sports teams and military and law enforcement special mission units.

Also a Pararescue Jumper (PJ) in the Air National Guard, Doug has trained and conducted operational missions with elite military units throughout the world. He is a nationally certified paramedic with advanced training in emergency, trauma, and wilderness medicine.  In 2015, he was selected as the Noncommissioned Officer of the Year by the U.S. Air Force.

Doug received his AB in Biology from Brown University and MA in Exercise Physiology/Doctor of Physical Therapy from Columbia University. He has undergone advanced training in Postural Restoration, joint and soft tissue manipulation, movement screening, and dry needling.

Doug is the owner of Resilient Performance Physical Therapy.  You can reach him at info@resilientperformancept.com and find out more information about his services at http://www.resilientperformancept.com

5 Reasons your Baseball Team is Full of “Dad Bods”

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Chipper dad bod

If there is one sport that totally encapsulates the “dad bod” phenomenon, it is baseball. It’s just one of those activities that doesn’t take tremendous fitness prowess to be great at. In fact, while it might seem like baseball players look fit (uniforms hide a lot), for the most part they are just skilled at specific activities.

Baseball is an equal mix fine motor skill, years of accumulated development and learning, and decent athleticism. The leanest, strongest, buffest, and most athletic looking guys are not generally the best baseball players. There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part, I would estimate that an average body fat percentage for a typical professional baseball team is somewhere in the 15-17% range. That’s your average Joe walking the street.

If you haven’t come to hear of “dad bod” phenomenon, some brilliantly average college girl wrote about the advantages of dating this type of guy. First, to give credit where credit is due, she defined this type of guy perfectly. Her definition is as follows…

The dad bod is defined as the type of physique that shows…“I go to the gym occasionally, but I also drink heavily on the weekends and enjoy eating eight slices of pizza at a time.”

She hit the nail on the head with that one. I’ll give her that. We’ve been trying to find the perfect definition here in modern society for a while now.

The article goes further into defending this type of soft-bodied male, sparking several shake my head in disappointment comments that I will let you read here. –>http://theodysseyonline.com/clemson/dad-bod/97484  If you’re a guy, and you want to be successful with the opposite sex, you’ll be fine if you do exactly the opposite of what she claims is attractive. Trust me.

Back to baseball…

Our lifestyle as baseball players is extremely conducive to becoming soft bodied. It’s happened to me, and I’m not here to hate, just point out facts. Some of the best baseball players who ever lived look like they never touched a weight or consumed a vegetable. Some don’t appear healthy in the slightest, but they manage to stay on the field and crush it.

The vast majority, however, epitomize the dad bod because of a few big external factors. They are..

1.) Pathetic Eating and Food Choices – If someone doesn’t have to do something to survive, it is unlikely that one will consistently do that certain thing. What do I mean? It isn’t completely necessary to becoming a great baseball player, and survive and thrive as a professional to eat superbly healthy all the time, so most just don’t do it. They do whats convenient and affordable. Do I think eating optimally would improve a player’s health and wellness? Absolutely. Do I think it will help a player throw more strikes or hit for a higher average? Not so much. In my experience, the players who are the least neurotic about working out and eating tend to do the best. It’s probably because their mind is more free of clutter and worry than those of us who sweat even the smallest of details.

Anyways, baseball players, especially minor leaguers, are put in positions all day every day to make less than desirable nutrition choices at each meal. Fast food is often your only option, and uber processed turkey after batting practice every day just can’t be good for that half fat, half abs midsection on a typical ball player. Even more, being ravenous after a game at 11pm with 20 boxes of pizza waiting for the team will crush even the most disciplined athlete. Believe me.

2.) Piss Poor Sleep Schedule and Oversleeping – If it’s you’re job to be at your best physically and mentally between the hours of 7:00-10:00 P.M. then you can imagine a professional baseball player won’t have your “typical” and normal circadian rhythm patterns. Combine this with trying to force sleep on busses, planes, and hotels at atypical hours, and you have a recipe for compensation with too much afternoon sleep and caffeine from absurd amounts of energy drinks and coffee. My off-seasons were as if I was a totally different person with totally different demands and surroundings. I trained hard, ate well, and slept normally, then once the season started it was like everything in the baseball world’s power pulls you away from doing those three things.

3.) Lack of Quality Movement – I admire and love to death the strength and conditioning coaches, trainers, and physical therapists in professional baseball. They accept jobs to work long hours helping kids who are prized investments of very large companies. They accept this job with the understanding that they will be paid like shit for an opportunity to work with some of the world’s most skilled athletes. Baseball, unfortunately, is still a sport spinning its rear wheels in the old school ways of approaching health and fitness. Young players are still getting hurt at a high percentage, and millions are still being wasted on guys chilling in the locker room slouched over chic-fila breakfast biscuits wiping crumbs off their crappy moving and looking body. Some of my best friends have been made in the weight room and at the training table, and many are on the other end, fighting the good fight against baseball “norms” that promote stagnation and deterioration of athleticism. Things like standing around, sitting around, laying around, and riding around for hours and hours, then being expected to go perform tasks on the baseball field that simply wreck a healthy body is too overwhelming of a task for even the best trainers and strength coaches.

4.) Alcohol – One of the greatest things in the world is having a beer at the bar with teammates after a hard-earned victory. Nothing brings a team closer than the camaraderie of post game shenanigans. Checking out girls, slugging down a few cold ones, raising hell, it’s the best, it really is. There’s a saying that is so true about baseball players…”All we do when we are playing is talk about last night out after the game. All we do when we are out is talk about that day at the field.” The friendships created and the “fraternity” type environment cultivated on successful teams almost always involves alcohol on some level. I’d argue that without the bond of going out with the boys and reminiscing over the day’s baseball activities that a team would fail, every time. Is it good for the body? Not a chance. Is it good for recovery? Hell to the no. Is it good for winning as a team? I’d argue, yes. The body suffers from alcohol. We know this. Hormones get bent over and screwed. Fat loss get halted and diverted in it’s tracks. Recovery becomes delayed like a flight out of Boston in January. Crushing beers after a game, and on a belly full of post game mystery meat and pasta is a recipe for an optimal, glowing “dad bod.”

5.) Lack of Optimal In-Season and Even Off-Season Programming – A decent amount great players work their fucking tail off in the offseason. They heal from the previous season’s wear and tear, and train at a high level during the winter months. The best players seek out great coaches like Eric Cressey to program for them outside of what an organization will hand out to every player at the end of the season. It’s all about the edge, and resources delivered to strength coaches within organizations simply aren’t enough for minor leaguers looking to get to the big leagues. You would think otherwise, but if it weren’t for guys like Cressey, most players would fail to take advantage of offseason opportunities for improvement. In season workout programs are a totally different animal. I was fortunate enough throughout my career to receive programs from the most sought after baseball strength coach in the world. I would visit the northeast every winter to make the most out of my off-seasons. Eric Cressey would also program for me despite my in-season hectic, weak, injury provoking, dad bod conducive situation that is the minor leagues. Teams do a really awful job of monitoring their investments in the offseason. That must be noted. When the season comes, strength coaches and trainers have no clue about what a player did for the previous 5-6 months. They just “expect” that the kid is in shape and didn’t fuck around for 5 months like most 20 somethings do. When spring training begins, even the best strength coaches and trainers are caught in a shit storm of rigid scheduling and agenda. Players sneak by with little to no real work on their bodies or health. They get on the field and they get off, and I feel that almost everyone who doesn’t take it upon themselves to go against the grain, loses a step in their true potential.

My colleague, trusted friend, and fellow Showmestrength.com writer/consultant, Andrew Ferreira will be back soon with a follow up to this article via an action plan..Stay tuned.

Hard Training Beginnings & 6 Fun “Post-Baseball” Exercises

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arnold-denny-gable-squat

 

Its really something how one’s training can evolve over the years as an athletic competitor. You always try to seek out the best ways to become better at the given time, and when you take a look back on many years of different styles of physical preparation, it’s really cool to see how far you’ve come, how strong you’ve gotten, and how much smarter you are now compared to then.

For me, serious training started a tad bit before I wanted. My father, tired of seeing me get continually banged up by bigger, less talented players in basketball, really pissed him when I was a youngin.

I can vividly recall a speech he gave me in our basement when I was probably 12 or so. He dragged me down to where our home gym was while I was probably playing Nintendo 64 and eating Doritos. I was trying to avoid him because I put out a less than desirable effort on the basketball floor that day.

He didn’t care if I played bad, he cared that I put out my best effort, which I did not. He clearly was about to call me out as soft, and weak, which would probably make me terribly upset. I couldn’t deal with him being upset, which wasn’t that often, so it would always catch me off guard.

When I was finally summoned down stairs, I remember the seeing him crush pushups and sit-ups like a white Bo Jackson. He was unbelievably strong and I was embarrassingly weak. I hated feeling weak around my friends who had went through puberty already, but I never really did anything about it. I remember my dad standing up and saying, “I’m gonna make you the strongest guy on the court next year whether you like it or not. I’m tired of seeing you leaving talent on the table. Come on let me show you a place.”

This is when my journey into the training world came at me like a freight train. My dad took me to the most badass gym I could ever imagine, and it was only 15 min away. I had no real testosterone flowing yet, so I didn’t realize the impact a facility like this could have on me, but I would be taught some serious lessons about how to work hard, show respect, and show up to give your best.

The gym was called “Bodybuilders Inc” in Akron, Ohio. It had loud, heavy music (shit I love now, but hated then), big guys working extremely hard, and the noise of weights banging and clanking across a couple rooms of really intimidating looking equipment.

My dad would make it mandatory that I come with him 3 days a week until basketball season started a few months later. We would lift, I’d have a huge protein shake, and we’d go eat 4 dollar breakfasts at a place down the road that had the best eggs ever. While I didn’t have a ton of interest yet, I learned the basics. Work hard, show up every day, put your shit away, and don’t fuck around. These are the principles I’ve carried with me for years, and always will.

 

 

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Of course, throughout my teenager years in junior high and high school, Dad would take me there often, hammering home in me the culture of hard work, sacrifice, and difficult training. He probably had more foresight into what my future would hold as an athlete and a competitor. That was something I didn’t see yet, however, I would never really stop working out from that point onward.

As I started showing great promise as an athlete, I would attend the best sports performance facilities in the area and take long drives with my family to obscure gyms that might have a trainer who would help me. I did all of these things from that point forward because I was on board in respect to hard training. It became a place where my dad and I would bond, and where I could see his incredible work ethic first hand.

Eventually you all know that I would end up at Cressey Sports Performance in Boston to train with the best baseball strength coach in the world, Eric Cressey, someone who my father also found. I would work with him for the majority of my professional career, learning invaluable lessons in proper training.

Every step along the way, I soaked up more and more information. My workouts changed, my body changed, and my priorities changed, yet I was all in. This had become a lifestyle for me, and it didn’t happen overnight. It takes time for something big to become big in your life.

From a skinny, goofy kid in a hardcore bodybuliders gym, to a high schooler getting more athletic at the Sports Performance Institute in Ohio, to a professional baseball player working with the best in the world in Boston, and currently a retired athlete looking to get bigger, stronger, and better looking naked. The same principles apply. The training evolves, but the principles still hold true. Work hard, show up every day, put your shit away, and don’t fuck around.

That’s where I am now. I’m now on the other side of the bar, coaching, and teaching what I’ve learned. I’ve begun writing about my interests and journey outside and inside the game here at Showmestrength.com. Where I’ll be several years from now remains to be seen, but I can guarantee just like eating, breathing, and sleeping, hard training will always be a part of my life.

My workouts have been surprisingly awesome since retirement. I was worried the fire would burn out, and I wouldn’t be very motivated, but I’ve gotten to try things I never would have done when competing in baseball. Exercises once thought of as “no-go’s” have now become staples in my programming.

Most recently I completed 6 months of Jim Wendlers 5/3/1 training variations. I would change up some things every month, but my priorities have changed and now I’m just interested in moving really heavy weight and becoming more of a silverback.

So enough rambling. I just wanted to paint a picture to show you how I’ve arrived at this point in my training journey.

Since retiring here are 6 exercises I wouldn’t have done preparing for a baseball season, but find enjoyment in now.

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1.) Barbell Back Squat-

I know. Realllllly interesting right? Well for me, yes. I learned there are more optimal ways to load the bar for squats in baseball training (front squat, giant cambered bar, safety squat bar) so I never really got to do any back squats until retirement. As some baseball training experts know, back squats can put your arm into unnecessary external rotation, so I stayed away. However, I love them now. I am thankful for years of learning proper squatting patterns, and years of mobility and stability work to allow me now to squat deep and heavy.

 

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2) Overhead Barbell Press

Here’s another one that isn’t too big a deal for most people, but pushing something heavy overhead repeatedly doesn’t really treat the old pitching shoulder too favorably, but it does feel pretty fucking awesome now. It’s been fun to see how much stronger I can get in certain areas because they have gone basically untrained for my entire life. I was embarrassingly weak at this to start, so it was a fun challenge to see how well I could progress. I started learning different strategies from more experienced powerlifters, and people who were stronger overhead than me. Again, even with an experienced training background, you can open a whole new can of worms, and grow a ton with new programming and brand new exercises.

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3) Bench Press –

Again, another real staple for most people, but for baseball players, the risk isn’t worth the reward from a conventional bench point of view. I did do a ton of pushup, cable pressing, and dumbbell pressing in my career, and even a little bit of multi purpose bar benching, but never any conventional bench pressing. And even though I considered myself to at least have decent upper body strength, I wanted to not look like I had a chest of a teenage boy like in my playing days. I started embarrassingly weak here also, but at least now I am pushing more than my body weight. I still have a lot of growing, and lot of strength to gain in these upper body moves, but I consider them a challenge and opportunity to learn.

kroc row

 

4) Kroc Rows –

Popularized by powerlifter Matt Kroczaleski, this exercise can allow you to crank heavy weight, build a bulletproof back, and make your deadlift and other posterior chain moves super powerful. I think more than any mid/upper back exercise this has to be my favorite. You can just get primal with the weight and explode it up, not worrying about super strict form. I like exercises I can take aggression out on, and as far as the upper body goes, this does the trick for me.

 

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5-6) Rope Chinups and Thick Grip Bicep Work –

In baseball, it was all about getting strong, safely. I understand some exercises would probably be great, but there were other ways to get the results I needed. Now, instead of minimal lat work over the last several years, I’ve been crushing chin-ups and pull-ups of all sorts. My favorite being rope chins. This exercise destroys the grip, giving it an insane pump if you do the full reps and lower slowly. It feels cool to grab ahold of something and pull yourself up over. As far as biceps go, it’s also something that had no place in my baseball training, but now it’s fair game. I prefer to add Fat-Gripz to the barbell or dumbbells for a better test of grip and forearm strength. How do they say it? It takes out two stones with one bird? Something like that..

 

 

 

5 Things Everyone Wants From A Training Program

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As coaches, we can easily fall into a big trap. I’ve seen it before, and I have been guilty of it in the past, but no longer do I let myself fit into this category I’m about to tell you about.

As for me, I’ve been a baseball coach, pitching instructor, and more recently, a personal trainer, and online strength coach. The trap I fell into early one was my own limiting beliefs on how I should design programs, and how I should coach.

The methods I used were no doubt tried and tested through years of training and learning with the best, but in order for a pupil to improve under my guidance and continue in a steady ascent to their goals, I needed to evolve into a “chameleon” coach as I like to call it.

The chameleon coach understands that his or her knowledge is a valuable gift, but at the same time places the equal value in adapting wisely to their student or client’s needs and wants. He or she masters the art of delivering priceless knowledge in a way that is sensitive to the student’s personality, background, goals, and specific needs.

Too soon in my coaching career did I feel so filled with valuable, and life changing knowledge that I neglected opening my heart to the individuals first and foremost. As an instructor, this was an area that could no question make me more well rounded.

I mentioned earlier that I’m now working as a personal trainer (Southwest Florida), and a writer/training program designer here at Show Me Strength. It’s my job to deeply understand everyone I work with so I can stay true to their success in health. Furthermore, I’ve discovered several things while coaching that everyone wants to see and feel if they are to take working out seriously for a long time.

Here they are.

1) We all want to look better in the mirror – No one is more in tune with our naked bodies than ourselves. We see us in the worst of states, the best of conditions, and it’s only natural to feel our mood, confidence, and psyche alter a bit with our physical state. As a strength and conditioning coach, if you don’t stay sensitive to this with each and every person you work with, you’ve no question begun losing sight of their goals. A good program will deliver exceptionally positive physique transformations, so if you have a client who needs to lose 50 lbs and you are doing bicep curls right off the bat, you need to reevaluate what the hell you are doing. “It should be your goal to keep the goal, the goal.” Dan John

2) We all want a program to be tough, rewarding, and attainable all at the same time – I think most coaches get 1 or 2 out of 3 when creating workouts for their clients. The great ones, however, deliver all three on a consistent basis, and therefore get their clients feeling and looking great in a time sensitive manner. It takes no thought and no care to make someone sweat or sore. These side effects can tell us we are doing our job in getting our client a training effect, but it by no means makes you a great coach. You must have a balance of an exciting training stimulus to go along with challenging, but achievable workouts. I make it a point to design our client’s programs with these characteristics in mind. The last thing you want is a frustrated, hurt, and disinterested person because of your lack of concern in program design efforts. If you are looking to start a new workout program, find someone who cares before worrying about how much they know. It’ll be win/win for both sides in the long run.

3) We want a program that won’t waste time on things we don’t care about – This is a big one for me even in my own training. In fitness, my own workouts have really evolved and taken new shapes in the past decade or so. I’ve gone from following bodybuilding workouts with my dad in my early teens, to receiving the best training programs in the world for my baseball career by Eric Cressey, to now working more with brutal pure strength and aesthetic programs from Jim Wendler. Each has been rewarding and beneficial in their own way, but most of all, with the more experience I’ve achieved, I waste less and less time on pointless bullshit. Whatever my goals are, everything I do in the gym is dedicated to those goals. Take a step back and make sure everything you do in your training truly aligns with how you want to look, feel, and move.

4) We want a proven, tested, and science supported program – Who doesn’t want to hear great feedback from a program or coach before you submit your body to torture and effort? It further increases the investment of time and sacrifice you are willing to make for your health, am I right? I’ve been lucky enough to play a professional sport for almost 10 seasons, and in the meantime, I was blessed by meeting and learning from the best fitness coaches in the world. One of the biggest lessons they taught me was to never stop learning. Always push to be the tip of the spear in the industry with the most relevant, up to date information in all things health, while keeping perspective on what has worked for many years. Learning and improving is something you owe your clients on a daily basis.

5) We want a program that will keep us interested and excited to train – It’s such a great feeling when you design a program that just flows with someone. They show up hungry for more each time, and they stay the course just as you had hoped. This doesn’t just happen by printing some trendy, thoughtless workout off the internet and mindlessly wandering the gym floor. It comes from a coach who has carefully constructed something for your needs and wants. As a coach, I make sure to remain selfless when writing programs. I make sure that I am creating the set, rep, and rest scheme of each exercise with total thought on the person training, not what I feel like coaching. Sure, I’d love to teach some diesel shit, but it might not fall in line with the path of my student.

These are some of the beliefs I create each program around. As you see, I didn’t delve into the physical aspects of my training and coaching yet. I’m only attempting to open the doors for learning and discussion in regards to making educated decisions, ensuring you continue to keep your health the highest priority, without getting discouraged along the way. The next article will cover the physical elements of great training programs.

On a similar note, Andrew and I are thrilled to announce that we have partnered with WeightTraining.Com, which we believe is the web’s leader in user friendly platforms for online training programs. It’s such a cool site. Check it out with the link above or below. Join up and get our programs for a very affordable price.

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5 Strategies for Winning the Minor League Nutrition Battle – Part 1

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I was fortunate to have the privilege of guest posting on my good friend Eric Cressey’s site.  As you can probably glean from the title, it’s all about overcoming the pitfalls and obstacles that come with being a minor league baseball player.

Unfortunately this is part of the norm

The short story is that just about every card in the deck is stacked against us but that doesn’t mean success isn’t an option.  A successful framework to work under is essential and my guest post is all about constructing a better model for minor leaguers.  Even if you aren’t a baseball player, the strategies I discuss can be easily be applied if you’re a road warrior traveling a lot for business.

5 Strategies for Winning the Minor League Nutrition Battle – Part 1

Look Better Naked This Summer: 9 Lessons in Body Composition Transformation

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You can catch updates about our training, and learn more on our philosophies on becoming awesome on the field and off at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  You can find the first three installments of “Look Better Naked This Summer,” here and here, and here (all about intermittent fasting).

Back in college, I remember having conversations with some of my meathead buddies about what our ideal body was. It usually went a little like this:

 Andy (me): “Hey guys if you could have one body, would you be Brad Pitt in Fight Club, Gerard Butler in 300, or Tom Hardy in Warrior?”

 Paul: “Well, seeing how Tyler Durden hasn’t eaten a carb since ‘Nam, I’m going to go with my man Leonidas.

Ethan: “Admirable choice, but come on Durden is the ALPHA if I’ve ever seen one. I’m buying the abs with the power. After all, you’re not you’re fucking muscles.”

 Andy: “Tom Hardy. Traps, ‘nough said.”

I’ve had this conversation probably way more often than I’m proud to admit. We’re all about a bit vain sometimes. After all, you’re the one reading an article about looking better naked you vain bastard.

Anyways, my point is that we all, whether we have consciously discussed it or not, have a picture of what our ideal body image is. Whether your subconscious aligns with the three choices above or you are more a Fat Bastard in Austin Powers type of person, the answer is irrelevant. I’m not going to give you some cliché garbage about chasing your own best body because that’s honestly not how any of us approach looking better naked. We all have an ideal we are chasing, whether or not it’s healthy psychologically.

That’s why I started to write this series. I want to help all of you look better naked and feel comfortable within your own skin. When you look better, you feel better. It’s science. Whether through intermittent fasting, meditation, or even how to drink alcohol with an ab-centric mentality, each of these tools was designed to get you closer to you goal. However, looking back, I suppose subconsciously I wrote these pieces under the assumption that you were close to reaching your desired destination. Sure, each of the tools I laid out will work regardless of your situation, but they formed better pieces to a puzzle that was almost completed.

What if you’re not close to reaching your body composition goals? Maybe, you are one hundred pieces deep into a 5,000 piece puzzle. The journey has just begun for you and instead of worrying about striations in your glutes, all you want to do is feel healthy again in the hopes of building an impressive body as an indirect result of creating a healthy lifestyle.

 Where should you start? Let’s begin

Lesson #1 Avoid Crazy Intense Crash Diets

Going on Amazon and searching for the latest diet best seller is not the answer you’re looking for. Sure, reading all the fantastic reviews and starting something new will give you that oh so addicting dopamine rush that we’re all addicted too. Initially, you will make all the crazy sacrifices that the author espouses because he or she promises you will lose 17 lbs in 6 hours.

You will lose weight. Guaranteed.

And then the novelty effect will wear off. You won’t be excited anymore to eat 500 calories a day and the realization that this protocol is absolutely miserable will set it. Adherence to the diet will slack and because the sacrifices were so extreme you will probably put the weight back and then some.

Avoid novelty seeking.

Lesson #2 Build Successful Habits Slowly

I’m not ashamed to admit that I stole this concept from Precision Nutrition because I think it’s absolutely brilliant and the key to sustainable body transformations.

Where do most diets fail?

They throw the kitchen sink on you and don’t teach you how to build any habits. When I used to get a new client, I used to give them a checklist of about 15-20 different things that they would have to implement in order to lose weight. Sure, some were successful because they could handle the information overload but so often many would fail and adherence to my coaching would be lackluster.

I failed because I never taught them how to build habits. I tried to change their body without first transforming their lifestyle.

So much of what we do everyday is habit based.

Who do you think will maintain a healthier body: the individual who wakes up in the morning, meditates, and then makes a spinach omelet or the individual who packs a heater and goes to Dunkin’ for coffee and donuts to start their day. Both are habits. Both will lead to far different health and body composition results over a long period of time.

I suggest you focus on building one habit at a time until it becomes second nature. Once it becomes second nature, add another. For some it may take a few days, others a month but you must begin any body transformation with successfully altering your habits.

Start with ones that will take the least psychological resistance for the most physiological benefit. Thanks John Berardi.

Here are some that I suggest you can begin to implement:

Habit #1 Start each morning with a tall glass of water with either Athletic Greens or Amazing Greens, healthy serving of Fish Oil, and a probiotic.

 

 

 

 

Habit #2 Eat real food 90% of the time. It’s nearly impossible to overeat on real food.
Habit #3 Intermittent Fasting is great, but start your morning with some derivative of a spinach omelet
Habit #4 Having a healthy serving of animal protein at every meal (40 grams for guys, 30 grams for girls)
Habit #5 Veggies are your new best friend. Have them at every meal
Habit #6 Earn your starchy carbs. Keep them limited to post training

These aren’t revolutionary concepts in the world of nutrition and body recomposition but if you begin implementing them one at time, you will see immediate improvements in not only your health but your physique as well.

Lesson #3 Prioritize nutrition

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Some wicked shamt dude (Einstein)

Bro-science will tell you that losing weight and subsequently fat is 94.3% nutrition and 5.7% training and 100% whether or not you’re ingesting the latest supplements proven to magically eradicate any fat cells forever and always. Despite the hyperbolic ads, the last statement is unfortunately false. The first notion by our broscientist, however, has some significant backing by science.

The exact numbers are neither able to be calculated nor are they relevant. What is important to note is that what you put in your body will 100% determine what you look like over the long-term. You could have a reverse pyramid training program designed from the man, the myth, the legend Martin Berkhan himself but if he forgets to attach his IF macro prescription, chances are you’re going to look exactly the same.

Dominating our nutrition is all about signaling to your body exactly what you want it to accomplish.

You see, your body is stupid. It’s an incredible survival machine that performs these outrageous unconscious homeostatic regulatory operations but it’s dumb as rocks at the same time.

It has no idea that you passed on the chocolate cake last night because you want to lose some of your spare tire. All it remembers is the pizza you housed right before you went all “Holier than Thou” on the chocolate cake and decided to abstain. What resulted was that your fat cells hypertrophied a bit while you slept like a baby from your sugar induced coma. Bastards.

For reasons I’ve discussed ad nauseam in my past blog posts (you should read them), your body doesn’t want to give up body fat. It doesn’t make evolutionary sense and quite frankly it won’t until you provide it with adequate reasoning (and appropriate stimuli) to facilitate such processes to occur.

You got to keep insulin low for long periods of time. More important than that is you have to maintain a caloric deficit. Just like your boss doesn’t care if you work 17 hours a week or 40 as long as his bottom line is green, your body doesn’t care if you ate organic, grass-fed, hormone-free, anti-biotic free, pesticide-free (is this obnoxious yet?) and you bought your beef from a hipster in Harvard Square. Surplus calories = weight gain, whether or not it’s the healthiest food ever created.

Want to build muscle?

Well, first make sure, your insulin actually cares about what you have to say before you try the latest bulking diet you get from your buddy. If you’re skinny fat, insulin cares for what you want as much as that hot girl in high school you were in love with who smiled at you because she felt bad.

Slowly warm insulin up to you. Buy her flowers. Tell her the guy she’s dating (fat) is an asshole and should break up with him immediately. You could even profess your love for insulin and tell her exactly what you want (which is to get her sensitive to you).

This is terrible dating advice by the way so forget about the girl you’re in love and simply focus on your less than ideal fat deposits for the time being.

How do you accomplish this?

Obviously get her to breakup with the asshole and start to submit to your wishes is step one. You do this by getting lean first and then trying to build the house when you already have a solid foundation. By getting lean, you give yourself the opportunity to make the same transformation Ryan Reynolds did in Just Friends. Insulin starts to recognize that you want to build muscle and boomshacalocka you take down your great white buffalo and start to build some pecs and fill out that reverse v-neck because you were able to partition nutrients into your muscles. Being able to tell insulin what to do allows you to lose fat, gain muscle, and build the body you desire. She’s gotta love you first though.

I wish I had some magic formula to jumpstart this whole process. The truth is the basics win.

Steve Jobs said, “Stay simple, stay stupid.” If that mindset could build my iPhone 17, it can certainly help you accomplish your body composition goals.

John Berardi has made a gazillion dollars teaching people how to do the basics very well. Stick to my nutrition habits above until you stop seeing progress. (Hint: you won’t ever stop). When you’re better than the 99% and want to join the elite, then complicating has it’s time and place.

Lesson #4 Kill Program ADD

I love me some dopamine.

You see, I’m still a professional pitcher working to make my dream come alive and make it to The Show. The difference between getting to the top echelon in anything and not making is so small that I look for any advantage or new tweak I can to propel me forward. Usually, this has something to do with mechanics and my ability to throw the ball where I want to better. Every time I struggle I look to find something new to help me improve. And you know what, once I convince my warped mind (you have to be mentally deranged to play baseball for a living) that it’s going to work, I’m walking on cloud 9. Why? Because my dopamine receptors just got high.

It’s a terrible approach and it’s exactly the opposite of what I should be doing with my mechanics and you with your training program. Trust me, I understand the mental challenges of sticking with one thing for an extended period of time. It’s monotonous and requires exertion of extreme mental energy to see it through.

It’s necessary, however, to see true progress.

You see, physiologically, again it all comes down to providing your body with adequate stimulus. You have to give your body time to adapt to each subsequent stimulus in order to achieve the desired result.

For example, say you were going to go on a ketogenic diet (not something I recommend with high intensity training but moving on). You’ve heard that it’s absolutely incredible for shedding fat quick and fast. Problem is, after say two weeks, you don’t see the desired result and give it up to try some other magical solution you just read about. Problem is, your body needs time to adjust to a ketogenic diet and to start utilizing ketones to fuel your body. If you transition out of this diet before your body has had a chance to adapt, you’ve actually never even given it a chance to fail.

The same goes with training program hopping. My good buddy Travis wrote a guest post about it here.

Say you start Show and Go by Eric Cressey and don’t feel like superhuman after week 6. I doubt it since I know first hand he’s a Jedi master when it comes to programming but let’s just roll with my thought experiment. Well of course, you haven’t achieved what you want to yet. Show and Go is a 16 week program and he wrote it so you could feel like Hercules after week 16, not 6. There are planned cycles of adaptation throughout the training program. Jump ship early and you will likely miss the super compensation that follows.

Find a training program that works. For a period of time, listen to one person and one person only in the industry and absorb and try everything that person has put out there. Whether that be EC, Jason Ferruggia, Chad Waterbury, Show Me Strength, etc, it doesn’t really matter. All are great options and all will work if you give them a chance to run its course. If you jump from Cressey to Bruno to Romaniello, then you’re probably shit out of luck and you’re only cheating yourself.

Un-dopamine yourself.

Lesson #5 Trust the process

I’m going to be completely honest, building successful healthy habits is not the quickest way to lose fat. Within the past year, a family member, much to my disdain, went to a local weight loss clinic run by a MD and dietician. For the moment, we’ll overlook the fact that most doctors get at most a month of nutrition education in medical school.

What was the brilliant advice she was given? Eat 500 calories a day. I’m not kidding. And you know what, it worked and truth be told she lost fat way faster than if I told said family member to focus on eating a fistful (PN’s term) of protein at each meal. But shitty science only wins in the short term. 500 calories a day is neither responsible advice nor can it be maintained over the long term. Metabolisms crash resulting in rebound weight gains far greater than what was lost initially.

There was no process. The mindset, forced presumably by the clinic’s business model, is a demand of overnight transformation. Damn you evolution for not letting people lose 27 lbs of fat in two weeks.

Overnight transformations don’t happen and if by some Dr. Oz miracle they do, they won’t be maintained.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his excellent book “Tipping Point,” often talks about moments where things suddenly explode and grow exponentially. If you look close enough, often times the boom isn’t random, rather set off by a singular or string of events. His tipping point doesn’t just apply to business and making tons of money or starting fashion trends.

There are tipping points in body transformations.

Take our individual who has struggled to lose and keep weight off for years. He finally ditches the old model of crash fad dieting and looks to a more sustainable solution. He starts to buy into the process. What results is that he starts to build successful healthy habits. Sure, at first it’s difficult to incorporate each new behavior and fat loss is slow initially. But then after a few months it all clicks.

These healthy habits suddenly become second nature.

Getting up and having a good breakfast full of healthy fats is no longer a chore. Instead of overloading his carbs throughout the day, he becomes keen on the idea of earning his starchy carbs and training hard to do so. Eventually, what started out as marginal incremental fat loss has turned into a pound a week because suddenly habits turned into behaviors prompting exponential increases in fat loss. The transition from conscious to subconscious incorporation of our healthy habits was the “tipping point” in this body transformation.

The best part in our hypothetical example? When he has finally reached his goal, it will be easily maintained because it was accomplished over a long period of time through creating lasting change in behaviors. He won’t have to consciously try and maintain his success because his success is now a product of who he is and what he does daily as an individual.

It is what happens when the process is trusted over immediate gratification.

Lesson #6 Set a big goal

Big goals require us to take big action.

 Who is going to push himself harder to run… the individual whose goal is to run a 3k or the individual whose goal is to eventually run a marathon?

 I think the answer is clear cut and obvious.

 When the novelty (there I go again with dopamine and novelty) wears off, setting a huge goal will keep you on the path through the monotonous grind that comes with it. If you stay small in your aspirations, blowing off what you have to do becomes a lot easier to justify in your mind.

 Only want to lose five pounds? Sure, “I can eat that large pizza and drink 13 Bud Heavys on a random Tuesday night, I’ll just be better next time.” Contrast that with a soon to be mother who wants to fit into the jeans she haven’t been able to since high school and it’s clear to see whose motivation will inspire long lasting action and eventually sacrifice to reach a goal.

 Start big and don’t you dare worry about being realistic. I’ve heard it said one to many times that being realistic is the quickest path to mediocrity. And to quote one of my favorite movies of all time, “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, moderation is for cowards.”

Lesson #7 Keep objective measurements to track progress

The truth is that measurements don’t lie.

Sure if you’re big goal is gigantic biceps, it’s ideal that you fill out your youth medium polo a bit better after finishing your 17th drop set of bicep curls with a 301 tempo. But actually measuring them from time to time will give you objective data from which you’ll know if your bicep specialization program is actually working. If they haven’t grown over a period of time, you know you have to change something up.

The same goes for fat loss. Which is a better means of finding out if your changed lifestyle habits are working: Hearing from your friend who is an absolute sweetheart (the kind who would tell you you looked hot after pillaging through a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts after hitting the elliptical for an hour sans shower) you look great these days, or keeping objective body caliper and girth measurements. Sure, getting and then tracking those measurements can be a pain in the ass but wouldn’t you want objective data telling you whether or not what you’re doing is working.

If, for example, the measurements haven’t changed in a few weeks, it could be time to decrease the calories slightly (if you track macros and calories) or really hone in on when you have starchy carbs.

Also, while very subjective, the mirror doesn’t lie. If you look better than you did a month ago, it’s because whatever you are doing is working so don’t change it. If you want to cheat the system, just make sure your girlfriend picks out the mirror you use so always look good with impeccable lighting. Just kidding ladies, I love you 🙂

Lesson #8 Hire a coach

There are people out there (like me) who get people to look better naked for a living. While you can learn just about anything from the internet, you’ll likely suffer from paralysis by analysis and end up having no idea what to do.

It happens to me all the time with subjects I don’t have much firsthand knowledge about. Google is the death of me.

Just the other day, I was about ten hours deep into research that started after simply googling, “How to Get a Smoking Hot Girlfriend?” My brain was awash with conflicting reports. Google told me to be nice but too nice. One guy told me to be a charming asshole. Others told me that if I stare intently, but not creepily, into a girls eyes for 89 seconds straight, she’ll be smitten. If my girlfriend is reading this, know that’s exactly how I won you over.

The point is if you want to make such long-lasting incredible transformations, get off google.

Like I said earlier, before listening to the resident bro-scientist in the gym, find a reputable source and see their training and nutritional philosophies through. What works even better is if you can hire that person to work with you individually. While there are many products out there that work great, they can’t be individually personalized to fit your unique needs. This is where a good coach comes into play.

A good coach can build you a solid nutritional foundation while accounting for the weekly business buffet meeting you have to attend each week. While a good training program can get your strong, they can’t necessarily fix your butt wink at the bottom of your squat while getting you strong simultaneously.

 Details matter. Don’t sell yourself short with a cookie cutter program and end up spinning your wheels for years on end. Save yourself time, frustration, and likely money by hiring someone who knows what they’re doing.

Lesson #9 Do it for yourself

At the end of the day, the only person that can usher in lasting transformative change is you.

Despite how well you want to look good for your significant other or impress at work, you should want to make lasting change for yourself first.

Cliché? Sure. Truth? Yes.

Make personal change because you want to enact a new life for yourself. That’s why I love the Scrawny to Brawny program. Sure, on the surface it’s about building muscle and getting jacked but it runs so much deeper than that. With muscle comes confidence and with confidence comes a desire to do big things in the world. Things that wouldn’t be possible if these men had remained scrawny (not in their body type but in their mindset).

Challenge yourself with how much you can improve. You are the hero of your quest. Don’t stop until you reach apotheosis.

Of all the lessons I just laid out, this is far and away the most important one. If you use all my lessons to transform yourself for someone else, when you reach the climax of your journey, you will be left empty and unsatisfied.

Do it for yourself. Be born again and the rest of your life as your own hero awaits you.

Where To Go From Here

Throughout the article, I’ve mentioned a number of great resources that you can use to catapult your on the path to success. Two in particular that I want to highlight are the Precision Nutrition program and Scrawny to Brawny. They just get it. I urge you to check them out and see what they have to offer to your own transformation.

Forgive the self-plug, but a lot of the principles here that I discuss here are what Chad and I are doing with our lifestyle coaching program. We’ve had great results so far and would love for you to join us. Check us out here.

Until next time,

A.F.

How to Build Your To Do List: Your Must List

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Show Me Strength updates and insight can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  < Click those links to check up to see what we are currently diving into. Also, Show Me Strength writer, Chad Rodgers and I released an E-book on how we’ve navigated and embraced our fears in life, training, and in sports. Check it out for FREE  > here <

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What “must” you do everyday?

It’s a tough question and it’s one that I don’t think many of us have ever taken the time to consider.  Sure, we all have had a litany of “to-do” lists that seemingly go uncompleted.

Hell, I just checked my iphone’s “to-do” list and found tasks that were years old that I never got around to.  We are all guilty of such transgressions.

How many times have we looked at what we should do and say to ourselves, “Oh, I’ll do that tomorrow”? And yet, tomorrow never comes.

Upon closer inspection, many of us do have “must” lists, which likely resembles your life routine.

Eat. Work. Sleep. Repeat. Maybe you throw the gym in there.

That’s 99% of people’s “must” lists.  It works and it’s steady and I’m sure it provides a comfortable lifestyle.  After all, routines are continually perpetuated because they are comfortable.

Yet, I don’t think many people’s “must” lists propel them on a path of self-improvement or serve to enrich their lives.

That’s why I found Nate Green’s article on his “must” list so compelling.  It was devoid of all the standard bullshit.  It seemed to add meaning and value to his day and I’m pissed that I hadn’t thought of the concept before he had.

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With that being said, Nate Green and I live two very different lifestyles.

He is a self-reported “recovering fitness addict” while I still would rather be nowhere else on a Friday night than pulling with my best friends.  Yes, best friends, because the Iron has a mystique that creates lasting relationships among those who continually fight the resistance.

Further, he is responsible for creating badass content for Precision Nutrition, while I am a professional athlete and my body is responsible for my livelihood.

Because of that, I found it prudent not only to create my own “must” list but also to share it with you in the hope that you will consider your own list to propel you forward and onward on the journey to cultivating your dream life.

My Must List:

1. Meditate

I think I blame my lovely mom for giving me the wonderful gift of acutely responding to stress in an over the top manner.  My dad could be the most carefree man in the world but I wasn’t fortunate enough to be blessed with such a laissez-faire attitude.

Because of that, I turn to meditation to reduce my physiological response to stress.  I typically wake up and transition immediately into meditation for 10-15 minutes.  My long-term goal is to work up to two sessions a day upwards of 30 minutes a session.

On the surface, an hour a day seems like a long time to dedicate to deep breathing and mindless wandering of the brain.  Yet, stress is the silent killer, accounting for too many health problems to recount.  Plus, you don’t get silverback testosterone levels being chronically stressed as cortisol (stress hormone) and testosterone maintain an antagonistic relationship.

It doesn’t hurt that I actually feel a tangible difference on mornings that I do meditate compared to mornings I don’t.  When I get my Zen on, I feel like I can conquer the world.  Seriously.

If you are interested, a good friend recommended, “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” to me as I delve deeper into the art of meditation.

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2. Adopt a power pose

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That’s a power pose.  It’s an expansive gesture that Amy Cuddy’s research has shown to increase testosterone levels and reduce cortisol levels simultaneously.

After I finish meditating, I’ll adopt one of these for two minutes.

Why?

Because I want to start a physiological cascade of fucking awesomeness at the beginning of my day.

3. Work on tissue quality

My strength coach Eric Cressey continually talks about elite-level pitchers having high levels of shoulder mobility and laxity.

Unfortunately, I am not one of these.  My tissue quality sucks and I have become accustomed to surprised looks when people find out that I’m not a fullback or a third baseman but a pitcher.

I need to hammer my soft tissue early and often.  In a recent post, Eric talks about the need to work on tissue intermittently throughout the day in short bursts in order to produce lasting changes.

It’s a pain in the ass but 4-6 times a day I’ll roll out my lats, trap, teres, infraspinatus, and pec using a lacrosse ball.  Probably a minute a piece and then follow it with some sort of mobility drill to reestablish motor patterning with the improved length.

I’ve also started to include the Defranco 8 into my morning routine.

Control the controllables.  Soft tissue quality is in your hands.

4. Food Prep

I loathe cooking with every bone in my body so the thought of preparing food 3-4 times throughout the day is absolutely sickening to me.

If I don’t food prep for the day in the morning, I’ll eat like an asshole the rest of the day.  Your body hates you when you eat like an asshole so I try and make a conscious effort of avoiding this and biting the bullet of cooking my meals in the morning.

For those of you wondering, food prepping for the week has never been my thing so there’s that.

5. Prioritize Gut Health

To piggy back off food prep, the first thing I consume is a big shake that I’ll either sip throughout the day or down right there on the spot.

I’ve been reading more and more about how important your gut health is to every physiological process and how most people in the 21st century treat it like shit.

My shake will typically consist of:

–       Fresh, organic berries of some sort

–       A mix of a variety of organic green vegetables (kale, spinach, etc)

–       A heaping teaspoon of my favorite supplement Athletic Greens

–       Probiotic

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Nothing sexy just giving the body what it needs.

6. Read something

My goal in 2014 (starting February 12th) is to read a book every two weeks.

When you consider the fact that my last year at Harvard, I didn’t buy one book for class, the goal is certainly ambitious.  That’s ok.  Large, seemingly crazy goals are good.  They make me take it seriously and prioritize the need.

To answer the question of why I am undertaking such an ambitious goal, my answer is threefold.

1)   There’s so much to learn about what it means to be human and I find no better medium than from reading.  My good friend said the other night that perspective should be ever-evolving.  I think he’s absolutely right.

2)   No one likes dumb.  People rarely ever have interesting conversations or talk about cool shit anymore.

Talking about girls and sports with your buddies is all well and good but at some point they tire and the circuitous cycle of “Yeah, I’d hit that” or “Tom Brady is better than Peyton Manning” gets old.

Having meaningful conversations are enjoyable.  Problem is, it’s tough to be interesting without some base of knowledge or perspective.

3)   I’m sure I’ll never work at Google but I want to absolutely dominate the airport test.

Basically, it’s a large criterion in which Google looks to hire individuals.  To put it as simply as possible,

“Your flight is cancelled and you are stuck at the airport with this guy for the next three hours.  How happy would you be about that? Would you look for the nearest way to escape? Or, would you look forward to a couple of hours of interesting conversation with him or her?”

Some subjects that interest me: theology (particularly process thought), philosophy, evolutionary biology (specifically evolutionary psychology), and social dynamics (with an emphasis on what constitutes power).

I’m going to be posting on the sidebar what I’m currently reading on the site.

Here’s my first book: “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” by Ishmael Beah

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Show Me Strength will be nationally recognized in due time.  That’s only going to happen if I continually win the War of Art everyday and fight against the resistance.

It’s the days when you don’t feel like it that matter.

8. Take my own advice

I often talk about grinding and the steps it takes to become great.

Yet, there are days when I don’t grind or work at my craft as diligently as I should because “I don’t feel like it.”

It’s easy to give advice, even good advice, but it’s a hell of a lot harder to take it to heart yourself.

I have been making a conscious effort to take my own advice, to blaze trails, and stay pissed off for greatness.

Find Your Must List

My list is different than Nate Greens as I’m sure your list is going to be quite different than mine.

It’s all about discovering what direction you want your life to take and what you must do to get there.  That should formulate a prominent part of your “must” list.

I’ve always thought that if you are the exact same person year to year then you are doing something wrong.  Just as perspective should be ever evolving, so should your growth as an individual.

What you do daily is largely determinant of how you progress over time.  Take it seriously and develop a routine that transcends the monotonous grind of the average life.

It starts with not what you should do but with what you must do today.

The Missing Link: How to Train for Life’s Battles

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What’s your training program look like?

Does it address your needs, by which I mean does it get you closer to your end goal and rid you of any current limitations you’re struggling with (i.e. mobility restrictions, lack of power in a plane of movement, etc)?

I’ll forget for a moment that whether or not a training program is “good” shouldn’t influence how much better you get because of it.

You’ve all heard the old adage; a mediocre program done to the T is far better than the best program in the world done sparingly.

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It’s true.

Even if a program sucks, you have no excuse not to still get better. The iron can move just as fast whether Eric Cressey (the guys wicked smaht) or some bro-scientist writes my program. It’s about intent, and it’s about training with a purpose as Greg Robins says.

But I digress.

You should for all intents and purposes try and get the best training program out there for you.  That means you were assessed, your weaknesses and limitations were exposed, and the program will create systems to not only address these weaknesses but to maximize the adaptations necessary to succeed in your sport or training goal.

If you want to throw a fastball 95 mph, your training should reflect this goal, and that doesn’t mean running miles with your cross-country brethren.  If you want to be the star running back on your high school team next fall, you and the squat rack should become best friends.

Adaptations need to be goal specific.

My job requires me to throw a baseball 60 feet 6 inches.  If I’m doing my job well, I don’t run.  If I’m doing my job terribly, I may run 120 feet at most.  Recovery between pitches isn’t an issue.  Even if I’m getting lit (baseball lingo for pitching very poorly) and I’m running all over the ballpark, the shortstop will notice I’m winded, come to the mound, and we’ll bullshit about the pretty girl in section 4 until I have my breath back.

My training program should address these needs.  You will NEVER EVER find me on the treadmill.  If you want a thorough explanation why, let EC slay some myths (here, and here).

Creating adequate systems for physical adaptations is great.  It’s important, it helps to build better athletes, but it won’t build complete athletes or individuals.

If you want to be complete, you need to train past your adaptation requirements.  You need to look beyond the physical and enter a realm of discomfort.

You need to start to train your mind and to do this you must sometimes put aside what is required of you in your sport.

I could come into spring training as the most physically prepared player and not suffer one time this off-season.  Sure, high rep squats are not enjoyable by any means, but it does not equate to suffering.  10 reps is brutal, I hate it, but I don’t care how heavy it is, it’s still not enough to push you past the brink of physical exhaustion.   It is not enough to start fatiguing the mind.  It does not coerce that little voice of resistance in your mind to start getting louder and louder until you are all but forced to quit.

Your mind is a different animal.

It will continually seek the path of least resistance.  It is evolutionarily programmed to seek comfort and to avoid pain, whether physical or mental, at all costs.

I’m telling you if you want to become complete, both in athletics and in life, you need to train your mind.  You need to override your instinct for comfort.  You must learn to thrive in discomfort.

How much you squat is relevant, but I want to know how strong your mind is.  What will it take to break you?  Are you willing to suffer in order to be great?

Again, I’m not just talking about the suffering that comes with straining under weight. I’m talking about the kind of suffering that causes every cell in your body to want to quit and give up and your mind is strong enough to tell your body to shut the f*** up, I’m not quitting.  I will die before I quit.

Because one day, whether it’s next week or five years from now, life is going to deliver a knockout blow.  In this instance,  whether or not you are still an athlete ceases to be relevant.

It’s an unfortunate reality of being human.  Yours may very well be something like a torn rotator cuff that threatens to end your career and sends you reeling, searching for another livelihood to support your family.  It may be a cancer diagnosis, or even a family member relapsing back into drugs.

If all you concern yourself with is how strong your physical body is, when these knockout blows come, you will fail.  The gravity of the situation will consume you.  You will get knocked down and you will stay there.

The little voice in your head, the resistance, which has told you your whole life to quit when you’re uncomfortable, is going to be loud.  It’s going to be uncontrollable.  You will listen to it, not because your body is not strong, but because your mind is weak.  It has no spine; it has no desire to traverse the rough seas ahead.

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So how do you forge an iron mind?

Start by being uncomfortable.  Mediocrity, the resistance, starts and end with comfort.  Acknowledge beforehand that training your mind will be excruciatingly miserable.  If it does not make you want to quit, you’re not doing it right.

Run 100 sprints on the beach in the dead heat.  See how long it takes you to do 1000 bodyweight squats.  Do hip thrusts with 225 pounds until your can’t feel your ass anymore and then do five more reps.

Do something in life that you are absolutely terrified of, whether it be public speaking, conquering your fear of heights, or whatever else you’ve been running from your whole life.  Start using fear as your guide, not of what to avoid, but of what you must start doing.

Your body can do a lot more than you think.  Push it to the point of failure.  Stop, not when your mind tells you to, because it will early and often, but when your body physically can do no more.

Train long enough and you will start to develop calluses on your hands.  Beautiful.  I’m after developing calluses on your mind.  I want you to suffer, to go through hell, and come out still standing.

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This type of training, if you choose to undergo it, will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.

If you’re only training the physical, then I honestly believe your training lacks substance.  It lives in the realm of the superficial.  It develops muscles, not strength.  Your back may be strong, but it lacks the spine to hold the weight of the world on your shoulders.  It can take a punch, but not a heavyweight blow.

Train your mind.

You will feel a new, bold, more alive even.  We are not really living when we hang out in the comfort of the status quo.  Embrace your fear and start to thrive being uncomfortable.

You won’t throw any harder or run any faster but I guarantee your performance improves.  Pressure will not faze you and adversity will be just another obstacle in your way.

You will have already voluntarily suffered beyond reprieve.  Your mind will be conditioned to handle whatever life could possibly throw at you.  You will still get knocked down.  Heavyweight blows knock down even the strongest of will.  But champions, those with a mind forged by iron, get up.

You will become unbreakable.  You will be complete.

 

P.S. I plan on doing a full review here soon but Mike Cernovich of Danger & Play wrote a game changing book that gives you plenty of tools to change your mindset and change your life.  Check out Gorilla Mindset.

P.P.S. Show Me Strength contributor Pat Davidson has created a monster of a program called MASS.  It embodies everything that I discuss in this post and will challenge you unlike ever before.  Designed for the 1% by the 1%.  Enter Operation Drago: MASS

Show Me Strength Reads of the Week (Miscellaneous Edition)

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Typically, we don’t have any themes running through our posts on a weekly basis.  We let each author use their voice to explore different themes in being a complete athlete and person.  It just so happened that each of our posts happened to align themselves with our mantra that we released this week.  Without further ado, here’s the recap of our posts and other great reads found through the internet.

Our Reads This Week

Hacking Your Offseason Volume 8: What You Must About Quitting by Chad Rodgers

We may not all quit, but we all have that little voice in our heads telling us too.  The resistance is all around us, pushing us away from what it hard, what is meaningful, and ushering us to the status quo.  The status quo is where mediocrity lives, it’s where quitters live.  Quitting is never an option.  Chad explores how this resistance starts, how to tame it, and why you must never quit if you’re pursuing something meaningful in life.  Ever.

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The Beauty of the Unknown by Andrew Ferreira

What’s it mean to be terrifyingly afraid of something and do it anyways?  To face the unknown and attack it with full force not knowing what will come of it?  I explore all themes in this piece.

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 Why I Failed Volume 4: How I Actually Succeeded by Travis Smith 

What’s it mean to be a True Alpha?  We talk about it on Show Me Strength all the time, but it is through this piece by Travis Smith that we see what being an alpha male is all about through a different perspective.  It’s about being a force of positivity, having teammates backs no matter, and being a good person. Always.

 Motivation Monday (Our Mantra Edition) by Chad Rodgers 

We released our mantra this week.  A set of values and principles that we here at Show Me Strength hope to embody.  In conjunction with that release, Chad put together 10 badass videos each highlighting an aspect of our mantra.

Great Reads Around the Internet

 How the Busy Trap is Sucking Your Soul & Ruining Your Life by Jason Ferruggia

You’re not busy, you’re just wildly unproductive and it’s ruining you.  Jason Ferruggia explains why in this great piece.

 Why You Struggle To Train Overhead and What To Do About It by Eric Cressey

There are so many factors why we struggle to train overhead or even throw overhead without any significant problems.  EC breaks down all you need to know in this great post and how to fix it.

 Grass-Fed Butter is a Superfood for the Heart by Kris Gunnars

Wait what?  Butter… good for you? Yes, Yes, Yes.  Read on friends and learn why.

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Show Me Strength Reads of the Week (High Performance Handbook Edition)

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Eric Cressey dominated this week.  DOMINATED. And for good reason.  He’s a functional anatomy ninja, literally can deadlift the house, and is one hell of a strength coach, as can be personally attested by Chad, Matt, and I.

There were some quality fitness reads throughout the week but “The High Performance Handbook,” though not a blog post, takes the cake for our read of the week.  This week marks the release of Eric’s new product which is sure to serve as an incredible resource for professional athletes and weekend warriors alike.  In addition to the release of his new book, EC put out some sweet content that is well worth our attention:

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So You Can’t Squat, Do This Instead by Eric Cressey:

I squatted 21 days in a row two summers ago.  Looking back it was absolutely one of the dumbest things I could have possibly done because up until about right now I couldn’t squat because my back was still angry at me for three weeks of hell.  Nevertheless, though my squatting was limited, my legs were still strong thanks to the variations found in this article.

Strength Matters, Ya Big Sissy by Eric Cressey

Strong wins.  Always.  Whether in injury prevention, on the field, and yes even when trying to build muscle.  Don’t believe me?  Learn from EC’s personal experience in his pursuit of muscle mass and what made the biggest difference in his training.

Show Me Strength Recap

It was a big week here at Show Me Strength, both in terms of content and in terms of sexifying our blog.  We like to consider ourselves handsome stallions so boom you get to look at our pretty faces in uniform front and center.  Harvard wlll probably come hunting me down for using their logo on our site but I’ll welcome it.  The best corporate lawyers in the world can’t handle the wit and guile of a Harvard dropout because who in their right mind would do that?  Only a lunatic….

Without further ado, check out how our author’s dominated this week:

Why I Failed Volume 2: Choosing Anger Over Reflection by Travis Smith

I found this piece to be incredibly insightful in that it dives headfirst into something that all of us, not just athletes, can relate to.  I get angry when I don’t succeed and that’s ok.  It becomes a problem when I let my anger prevent me from learning from the situation.  Instead of being pissed about giving up a home run, why did I fail in that situation?  Didn’t get the job you interviewed for?  Be pissed but then figure out where you went wrong so next time you can land it.

Hacking Your Offseason Volume 5: The Art of Meal Preparation by Chad Rodgers

Do you realize how hard it is to dominate your nutrition during the course of a professional baseball season?  Shitty food is everywhere you look, whether it’s the pre and post game spread of processed garbage or it’s your teammate teasing you everytime he jokingly offers you a McDonalds fry to try and crack your discipline.  I know from experience that Chad dominates his nutrition, both in season and out.  A big reason is his meal preparation.  We simply don’t have enough time in season to be cooking 24/7/.  You must prepare or prepare to fail.  Learn these lessons from Chad in the art of meal prep and take your nutrition to the next level.

Through Darkness I Forge My Light by Me

In this post, I explore the interplay of addiction, the certainty of death, and faith among other things that have made me the person I am today and forced me to consider what kind of legacy I seek to leave behind.

Last Great Read of the Week:

“My Only Wish is to Wish for Nothing” by Jason Ferruggia

I’ve always been a huge fan of Jason’s work.  It’s no nonsense, no bullshit, and most importantly he gets diesel results.  Aside from his insight into nutrition and strength training, I’ve always been inspired by posts of his like this.  Incredible insight and well worth your time.

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