Sports and Betting Blogs

Having a coach to see and guide you through a competition is not enough to be an ace athlete. Someone must coach you until you reach mastery. That someone ought to be a real athlete himself, coached or “fathered” through a long process by a qualified “father” in athletic training.

A “father” in training is a battle-hardened master armed with a wealth of experience in his chosen field. He is not only knowledgeable in it; he can be considered an epitome in the field. He has seen lots of actions and has been part of them, and he knows every nook and cranny of the arena. He is so familiar with the “feeling” of being out there…where the action is.

He knows that real sports encounters are alive, meaning anything can happen out there, and no pattern or formula can compare to live, on-the-spot events. It is only the accurate judgment and experience of the wise that can cope up with live events. He is also so sensitive to the right and wrong forms, including the executions of a technique, the timing, and the right effects. All these can only be available to a real “father” of sports training.

Some coaches are mere P.E. teachers, or at best, athletic players once upon a time. They can help some, but at times, they can be more of a hindrance than wise guides for trainees. They will tend to be bookish and stick to “what the book says” or to what they have learned in school, or to what they have experienced in amateur contests.

Without mastery (through real, professional sports encounters), they lack the sense to know that aside from mastering basic forms or moves, you have to be flexible and adaptable to unexpected things that are likely to happen out there in the actual arena. Only seasoned sports “fathers” will be able to divulge these details and wisdom to trainee-”sons”. (Remember, we are talking about becoming the best here.)

With his skills and experience, a “father” trainer patiently raises up “sons” to continue his calling, or pass down his mission to succeeding generations. He knows too well that champions come from a relay of skills and wisdom, or a technology transfer, and not from those who start out from scratch.

You cannot train yourself, or train alone, and come out the champion. You also cannot have amateur coaches train you to be champion. You have to feed from the experiences of those who had been there before, seen real tough actions, and really made it to the top. They may be likened to a lighthouse that points out what is right and what is wrong, separating fact from myth.

An athletic player acquires knowledge and skill mostly from his own experiences. He may upgrade that by joining competitions and by wearing colorful uniforms, and subjecting himself periodically to different coaches. He occasionally reads books about the game. He may even be awarded best player. However, he does not make a career out of it. Eventually, he drops out from the scene and the sport altogether. He will have good stories to tell about how he used to be this and that, but people may not be able to trace his stories because of his now bloated physique due to the absence of training.

An ace athlete, on the other hand, is a “son”. He has a “father” who raises him up, and this athlete is aware that he is not just being raised up to win an event or a couple of events; he is being raised up to be a father to raise up other sons someday. Unlike the athletic player who would point to dusty trophies and medals and photos of victories as his proof of being once in the sport, real athletes point to actual “fathers” who have trained them and from whom they have received “trade secrets” for success.

They also point to actual athletes and champions they have personally trained and “fathered” to pass on the heritage for generations to come.

An ace athlete not only aims to be a champion, but lives to develop other champions as well.

To Your Immediate and Lasting Athletic Domination!

Most men and women start resistance training and aerobic training because they want to change the way they look. They want to build muscle to change the shape of their body. They want to lose fat to reveal a tighter, harder physique. Normally, they want to do both to get the most physical changes for their efforts. So they go out and look for muscle building and fat loss workout programs.

And that’s their first mistake!

Bodybuilding programs combined with long, slow aerobic exercise has failed time and again to produce the strong, lean, athletic bodies most men and women are after. Don’t believe me? Just walk into any commercial gym and see how many people there have successfully reached their physique goals. I guarantee you it won’t be much, because they are using the bodybuilding and aerobic exercise duo.

To get a better understanding of what I mean, let’s reverse engineer your workout program. By that I mean, let’s look at the result you want first, and then figure out how to get it. This approach promises to be revealing.

Now, in order to make this process as simple as possible I’m going to use some generalizations. When I ask most people what they want to end up looking like as a result of their workout program, very few say bodybuilder or marathoner. And when I say very few, I mean almost NONE.

The fact is, most people want to look like some form of athlete. They want a strong, muscular, lean, athletic body. They want the kind of muscle and low body fat that exemplifies a high performance physique.

So, why are they training like a bodybuilder and marathoner? Good question!

I propose your train like an athlete to get the good looking body of an athlete. Sounds like a simple solution, but I can’t tell you how hard it is to get “regular” people to adopt athletic training. They would much rather focus their efforts on things they can see, like building muscle and reducing fat. And this ultimately leads to failure in reaching their physique goals.

Have you ever heard the expression, “A watched pot never boils”. If you’ve ever been in hurry and tried to cook pasta you know what I mean. If you stand over the pot waiting for the water to boil, it seems like it never boils. However, when you are busy doing other things, the next thing you know, the water is boiling.

The same thing happens when you are trying to transform your body. If you focus on the things you can see (building muscle and fat loss) it seems like you are not making any progress. However, if you concentrate on something else (performance), the next thing you know the physical changes you wanted are staring back at you from the mirror.

So, here’s what you need to do to finally reach your fitness, fat loss and physique goals: train like an athlete. And by that I mean, train for performance. Train to get stronger, more powerful, faster, more flexible, more agile and coordinated… and the next thing you know, you’ll have the body you want. athletic training is not just for athletes. It is for every man and women who what the physical attributes of an attractive athlete. (And in my experience, this is most of us!)

So, stop watching the pot by training like a bodybuilder and marathoner. Divert your attention to performance based training and focus on improving your athletic performance. You body will naturally make the physical changes you can see in order to improve performance. This means, building strong muscles and burning performance robbing fat. And that, my friends, is how you finally get the body you’ve always wanted.

Don’t you want the strong, lean body of a champion athlete?

Most exercisers confuse bodybuilding with athletic training. They want the body of an athlete, but they train like a bodybuilder. Unfortunately, they are wasting their time and will never reach their goal of building a lean, athletically muscular body.

You Are Still Training Like A Bodybuilder

Whether you know it or not, most workout programs are based on bodybuilding type training. If you can rattle off muscles, talk about split workout routines and think your training should only be about building muscle… you have a bodybuilder mentality. If you base your workout program on a bodybuilding program, you probably will fail to reach your athletic body goals.

First, a lot of bodybuilding workouts are very time consuming. And unless you have 2-3 hours to spend in the gym every day, you are not going to get the muscle building results like the pro bodybuilders do. And some of you might be think that since you are going to do a “similar” workout, but shorter, then you’ll get the “athletic” muscle you want and not the puffed up bodybuilder look. How has that thinking been working out for you so far?

Second, to build an athletic body you need to train more like an athlete, and less like a bodybuilder. Athletes are fit, and that’s why they look the way they do. So, you need to train to increase your overall fitness level. Plus, you need a nice balance between strong, athletic muscle and low fat. So, you need to build strength and size and lose those performance robbing pounds of fat.

You Need Multiple Workouts To Get The Athletic Body

I wish I could tell you there was one workout that could satisfy every goal. But honestly, some people need to work more on one area more than the others to start seeing results. For example, some people have a low level of fitness and need to work on that before they can be concerned about building muscle or losing fat. The just don’t have the physical capabilities to get through those type of workouts.

On the other hand, some people are fit and lean, but need to put on muscle. Or, they put on muscle easily, but need to shed a few pounds of fat to look more like an athlete. But no matter what angle you look at it from… you need to address fitness, fat loss and muscle building at some point to ultimately achieve the athletic look you desire.

You need to rotate between three different kinds of workout with different major goals… Fitness, Fat Loss and Strength

The Vertical Mastery training program is a customisable ?Vertical Jump’ program which concentrates athletes training on targeting the weak areas and consequently producing a great deal more observable and developed effects far quicker than focusing on simply everything at a time.

Vertical Mastery is a software system that produces customised ?Vertical Jump’ training programs which are suitable to an athletes strengths and weaknesses, therefore an athlete can make certain they’re undergoing the correct training program for their own individual training ends.

How the software system functions is to begin with an athletic assessment to ascertain an athletes strengths or weaknesses, practically like a personal trainer or strength coach would arrange before producing a training program to suit what that individual athlete requires. These pre-tests in truth are an necessary component to the success of executing the Vertical Mastery training program, and include good directions and videos demonstrating to athletes precisely how to execute them right.

When the athletic assessment is finished the software system creates a thorough analysis of the results displaying areas of weakness and what an athlete had better be focusing on whilst commencing the Vertical Mastery training program. The athlete will probably undergo this athletic assessment more than once since over time weaknesses will become strengths and then the training program will need to be altered and any other weaknesses the athlete might still hold will need to be targeted right.

After the analysis is all over the software system then produces an independent training plan which is specifically tailor-made for the involved athlete, and so the effects acquired by sticking with this proposed training plan will bring about a great deal more detectable and reassuring advances far faster than just pursuing a training plan that’s produced for everyone to abide by.

Overall the Vertical Mastery training program is genuinely a unequalled approach to assisting athletes to accomplish their full potential and with the completely free infinite e-mail support to assist with any nutritionary or coaching enquiries, athletes can in truth expect to increase the overall elevation of their ?Vertical Jump’ with comparative simplicity.

For more product information on improving your Basketball jumping ability, take a look at the Vertical Mastery website here.

The best way to increase your vertical leap seems to have become a sort of mystery these days; athletes wonder why the guy with really skinny legs can jump high, as well as the really muscular one with thick legs; they wonder why jumping off one leg is so much easier for some and more difficult for others; they wonder why so many workouts can yield so little results. Unknowing athletes are vulnerable to poor information supplied by the ease of publication on the internet. One kid had using a stairclimber as part of his jump training; another wanted to know how long it would be before he could dunk if he jumped rope every day; a 5’7″ 13 year old girl wanted to dunk before high school; the list of the poorly informed goes on and on.

This mystery status of vertical jump training has led to a tendency to seek out new, revolutionary exercises and products; a mystery has to have a crazy answer, right? Thus, we see bizarre products like calf isolators, jumpsoles, and vertimax, and there are plenty of programs offering “revolutionary training” from “vertical jump experts.” There is also a gravitation towards less familiar, less traditional exercises. Many athletes learn about plyometrics and think that this different type of training which is specific to jumping must be the answer. It makes so much sense when a person first hears about fast and slow muscle contraction to only train with plyometric drills. Or there is the opposite opinion that squats and power lifts are the only thing needed for an exceptional vertical. Supporters of this opinion base it on the fact that world class olympic lifters often have verticals of 36 inches or more. My goal is to eliminate the confusion with simple, factual information.

The truth is that every athlete is different and will need to do training that fits his or her individual abilities. Many people are looking for one magical workout or even one exercise that will make them a superstar. That’s not the way it works; things are a little more complicated than that. However, if you understand some things about the human body, it can be easy to create an intelligent and effective training plan. I began sharing what I’ve learned with whoever I can, because I am yet to find a complete, accurate source of information available for all. Everyone wants money for their “secret breakthrough formula.” Quality jump training is not a secret or a mystery, and I do not believe an athlete should have to pay $40 for a list of exercises and a chart of numbers. I hope to equip you with knowledge that will help you train intelligently for the rest of your life. Yes, I do have vertical jump training programs and exercise videos available for free, but I also want you to understand the science behind the training.

BASIC JUMP SCIENCE
The height a projectile flies is determined by the velocity of the center of mass as it leaves the ground. The faster the initial upward velocity, the longer it will take for gravity to decelerate the projectile, and the higher it will travel. In the case of a human jumping, the projectile is the body, and the initial velocity is determined by the acceleration of the center of mass due to the force generated by the body. If you want to increase your vertical leap, the goal is to increase the force that your body can generate. Simple enough right? Just lift weights, and your muscles will grow; your legs will be stronger, and you’ll jump higher. This is true to an extent, but you will likely discover at some point that jump training is not quite that easy.

The truth is that there are three different muscle, tendon, and nerve abilities that contribute to jumping, or most athletic movements for that matter. The first ability is maximum strength; this is the largest amount of force that a muscle can exert. This is the most familiar muscle quality and the most commonly trained. It is increased by common resistance training, which most people are familiar with. The back squat is an example of a resistance training exercise used in jump training. The second ability is rate of force development, more simply stated as explosiveness. Muscles cannot instantly exert their maximum force; it takes a little bit of time to activate all the muscle fibers. That time is small, just a fraction of a second, but it is still longer than the time it takes to jump, meaning that all the force a muscle can exert cannot be utilized in a jump. This is the reason for the gap between strength and jumping ability.

Consider this scenario… Let’s say Timmy weighs 150 pounds and can exert a maximum of 500 pounds of force on his center of mass (COM) in the range of the jumping motion. As Timmy begins the jumping motion, his body is not generating that 500 pounds of force yet. 2/100 of a second after his muscles began to develop force, he is putting out 150 pounds, and his COM begins to accelerate upwards. At 1/10 of a second, his legs are putting out 215 pounds of force, and his COM is accelerating faster. By 2/10 of a second, the force on his COM has grown to 350 pounds, but unfortunately his legs and back are fully extended; he’s done jumping. Timmy never got to use all his force. These force numbers are purely hypothetical, but 2/10 of a second is a common duration of the jumping motion. The maximum force an athlete’s muscles can exert cannot be generated in that time. The goal for athletes is to train to increase the percentage of their maximum force that can be generated quickly enough for use in jumping and all athletic maneuvers.

This ability is improved by exercises that require fast muscle contraction; Olympic lifts (clean, snatch, jerk) and plyometric drills are the most common. Note though, that exercises that use fast movement do very little to increase the maximum strength of the muscle. Rather it is the ability of the nervous system to quickly stimulate muscle fibers that is the focus of this training. The third ability that contributes to jumping is elastic strength. This is the ability of muscles and tendons to store energy in a stretch and utilize it in the following contraction. This process, called the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC), is what causes a higher jump from an approach than from a standstill. (Quick note: Lengthening muscle contraction is called eccentric, shortening is concentric, static is isometric. The SSC uses all three in quick succession) T

he human body naturally uses a countermovement before powerful motions in order to take advantage of this elastic strength. When you squat down to jump or pull your arm back to throw, you are using elastic strength to add force to the motion. The trick is that the desired motion must immediately follow the stretch to prevent the energy from dissipating. To demonstrate this, perform a natural jump from a standstill and take note of how high you get. Then do a jump but pause for a second in the crouched position before exploding upward. The second jump should not be as high, because the energy from the drop into the crouched position dissipates during the pause. The term for the muscle contraction involving a stretch followed by fast shortening is plyometric. Exercises that use this type of contraction have been labeled “plyometrics.” This type of training is what increases elastic strength.

Vertical jump training needs to be tailored to the individual strengths and weaknesses of an athlete in the areas that have been mentioned. Therefore, it is incorrect to offer a single program and guarantee a certain result to anybody who tries it. A basketball player who cannot squat his own bodyweight will hardly benefit from a plyometric program, and a bodybuilder who squats twice his bodyweight will experience little gain from adding 20 pounds to his max squat. An effective training plan must take into consideration all the facets of vertical jumping. That is why on my vertical jump training site I provide methods for evaluating yourself, so you know which areas you most need to work on. This is far superior to just giving you common exercises and assuming they will be effective.

STRENGTH TRAINING
Strength training has been dismissed by many when it comes to increasing jumping ability. Many people say that squats will only slow you down, weigh you down, and decrease your flexibility. This is simply wrong. How does one explain that Olympic sprinters can squat at least twice their own body weight? What most people do not realize is that there are different goals one can shoot for using different principles within strength training. There are lifters who can squat a ton but are not very good athletes, but this is because they do not train for athleticism. For athletes, especially those who wish to jump higher, the goal needs to be to get stronger and more explosive. The key to effective lifting is to apply that philosophy on every rep. This means applying as much force as possible from the beginning of your muscle contraction to the end, even if it is not at all necessary to move the weight. This will result in faster, more explosive movement.

On every rep you complete in a workout, you should focus on being explosive. Try to throw the weight through the ceiling. Slow movement in lifting is for bodybuilders. They train for size and definition. The strength that bodybuilders gain is far less employable in sports. Take a look at the World’s Strongest Man competitions. The guys who compete in those may be big, but they’re nowhere near as big or chiseled as some of the professional bodybuilders. They train for practical strength, because they are athletes, not just masses of muscle. In my training programs, you will do some reps that are slow, but they will be slow because you literally cannot move the weight any quicker. You should never choose to move slowly.

The smart first step in vertical training is to develop a base of strength. Squats and deadlift are the most fundamental lower body lifts. Strength training itself can yield wonderful results and will also maximize the effectiveness and safety of explosive and plyometric training.

THE TRUTH ABOUT PLYOMETRICS
Plyometrics are easily the most prescribed form of training for increasing jumping ability. They utilize the stored energy in an elastic stretch to add force to joint movement. This promotes increases in speed of force development and elasticity of the muscle-tendon complex, both of which are crucial to jumping. Therefore, plyometrics are excellent for increasing jumping ability.

So why is it that many athletes see little to no gains from performing this type of training? The answer is that both speed of force development and elastic strength are limited by maximum strength. Think about this… Let’s say Timmy’s muscles can utilize 70% of their maximum force in a jump. Timmy does a successful plyometric program and increases that number to 75%. If he can only squat 100 pounds, will he see much improvement in his jump? No; he is utilizing a larger portion of his max strength, but his max strength is too small for that additional portion to mean much. Now consider elasticity. Think about a rubber band. Is a stronger rubber band made of more highly elastic material, or is it just thicker? It’s thicker. In the same way, muscles and tendons cannot just keep growing more and more elastic. But if they get stronger, (just like a rubber band gets thicker) and the level of elasticity is maintained, their elastic strength will increase.

Therefore, developing maximum strength should be the first step in jump training. Almost all vertical programs available today focus on plyometrics; many completely eliminate strength training. A person who severely lacks speed of force development and elastic strength may see some results from this type of program, but you cannot reach your full potential without gaining strength. Also, it is far more common for young athletes to lack strength than lack plyometric ability. The muscle action used in sports and games during sprinting, cutting, and jumping is plyometric. Young athletes are constantly training elastic strength. On the other hand, how many middle school kids are in the weight room doing squats? A typical young athlete will see limited results from plyometric training, because there is very little strength reserve to draw from. The best approach to increasing vertical leap ability for a young athlete is to first develop maximum strength while continuing to engage in athletics to promote the transfer of strength to athletic performance. As a 13 year old, I added 12 inches to my vertical in about 7 months using only strength training. It’s possible that I could have also made gains using only plyometrics, but then I would have had no strength to use when I did more training in high school. Instead, I did have strength, and I increased my vertical another 8 inches when I was 15, with very little of the knowledge I have now.

Exercises of all levels of intensity have been thrown into the plyometric category with little explanation of their differences. There are lighter intensity exercises like ankle bounces and line hops. These are drills that most athletes can do effectively without risk of injury. Drills like jump squats and bounding are of medium intensity. The two original plyometric drills, depth jumps and depth drops, are of the highest intensity. These exercises and their variations utilize the stretch reflex. Built into human muscles are devices called muscle spindles that detect the rate of change in length of a muscle. The stretch reflex occurs when the muscle spindle triggers a contraction of the associated muscle in order to return it to a given length. This is an involuntary neurological function demonstrated by the familiar doctor’s office procedure of tapping the knee to invoke a kick. The tap on the patellar tendon stretches the quadriceps muscle fast enough to activate a contraction. The faster that muscle length is changed, the greater a contraction the stretch reflex will cause. High intensity plyometric drills involve rapid lengthening of muscles that provoke strong reflexive contractions. When this involuntary neurological action is combined with voluntary muscle contraction, the force output is extremely high. Also, tendons contain a built-in device called a golgi tendon organ, which senses tension and sends an inhibitory signal to the associated muscle and triggers a contraction in the antagonist muscle, reducing the net force in the direction of joint movement. This helps precise motor control and also protects the joint. High intensity plyometrics lower the sensitivity of the GTO to allow a larger net force in one direction.

It is common opinion that an athlete should be able to squat 1.5 times bodyweight before performing these high intensity exercises; muscles and tendons need to be well developed to support the extra force exertion. The key to a successful program is determining what combination of strength training and plyometric training will be the most effective. Again, this will vary between athletes, so it is necessary to evaluate strengths and weaknesses before creating a training program. Many products fall short in customization.

FLEXIBILITY
Flexibility is a crucial factor in developing jumping ability, specifically in the development of elastic strength. There are a couple reasons for this. First, jumping is reliant on the storage of energy in the muscle-tendon complex to add force to the various joint movements. If your muscle and tendons can’t stretch, they can’t store energy very well, and you will not get much from your stretch-shortening cycle. Increasing flexibility will allow for more energy to be stored in a stretch to be used in the following concentric contraction. Secondly, recall the golgi tendon organ mentioned earlier; it prevents high tension in the muscle-tendon complex that could cause injury. Obviously, you want to develop maximal tension for forceful movements. Muscles and tendons that are inflexible are more susceptible to injury, so the sensitivity of the GTO is higher. Increased flexibility leads to less interference in force development by the GTO.

It’s important to note that there is a difference between static flexibility and dynamic flexibility. There is a limit to the amount of static flexibility that you want, because you want your tendons to spring back from a stretch not hold there. Athletes want tendons that are stiff, or resistant to change in length. A stiffer tendon is like a stronger spring. Dynamic flexibility is what is used for jumping. I use both static and dynamic stretching to increase flexibility, but once a good level of flexibility is reached, you can stop all static stretching. That is covered more on my training site. Some of you may think you are flexible; just know that there is more to flexibility than the sit-and-reach test. My training programs include some exercises that will show you if you are really flexible.

WHAT ABOUT ABS?
What is the contribution of abdominal strength to jumping? Some would say there is none, and they we would be wrong. Since the jumping motion does not include flexion of the torso, your abdominal muscles do not actually contribute force to your jump. What they are important for is creating stability.

Stability a very important factor in jumping. You must have stability in your legs and torso for the purpose of transferring force. This is a hard concept to explain, because you can’t really picture force transfer, but I’ll do my best. When you jump, the force that sends your body upwards comes from the floor. This may sound incorrect. Your body generates force that pushes down on the floor. According to Newton’s 3rd law, the floor will push back with the exact same amount of force. Imagine if you ran up to jump, but the place where you planted your feet was a trap door. You would push down, but you would not go up because the trap door would collapse instead of pushing back like the floor would.

Now, knowing that the force that propels your body comes from the ground, it makes sense that the force has to be transferred through your legs to your center of mass, which is in your torso. For this to be done effectively, you have to joint and core stability. If your ankles, knees, or hips are wobbly, energy will be lost. This is why an ankle or knee sprain can continue to limit your athleticism even after the pain is gone, and your muscles are back to full strength. Some other examples… try to do a pushup with your hands planted on an exercise ball. The ball creates instability, your arms will wobble, and energy is lost making the pushup quite difficult. Or imagine trying to jump on ice. The ice creates instability, so your jumping ability is limited. If your core is unstable, you will not be able to apply force to it to propel it into the air. Imagine trying to throw a big cube of jello up into the air. You couldn’t get it very high, because the jello is unstable. Put that same cube of jello in a pan, and you will be able to throw it much higher despite the extra weight, because the pan makes it stable, allowing you to apply force to it. In the same way, your core must be solid for you to apply to it the high amount of force required to send it high into the air. Try feeling your abs while you jump; they naturally flex quite hard to make your torso rigid.

Most athletes will have enough core stability that it won’t limit them in a movement like a standing jump. But in sports, you are going to want to be able to maintain that core stability in all kinds of positions, moving in all directions, and with contact from other players. Therefore, it is wise to continue increasing core strength throughout your entire athletic career.

MUSCLE FIBER TYPES
You may have heard about fast and slow twitch muscle fiber. You may have read that only fast twitch fibers are used in jumping and sprinting; you may have read that getting faster or jumping higher is not very possible unless you are one of the people blessed with a high percentage of fast twitch fibers. Do these people have an advantage? Yes. Is that the primary factor affecting athleticism? Absolutely not. Those who are not as gifted genetically surely should not throw in the towel on jump training or becoming a great athlete in general.

There are three types of muscle fibers, type I slow twitch, type IIB fast twitch, and type IIA, which are fast but not as fast as type IIB. The common misconception is that type IIB fibers are the only ones that are used for explosive movements like jumping. What needs to be understood is that, although type I fibers are not as fast as type II, they still reach full contraction force in less time than it takes to jump and, thus, are fully utilized. The much larger factor in explosiveness is the speed at which groups of fibers called motor units are stimulated by the nervous system. The activation of the motor units is the process that takes longer than the jumping motion and limits the amount of force put into explosive movements. Therefore, it is far more important to train the nervous system to excite more motor units faster than to have those motor units be made of fast twitch fibers. Training explosively is what increases this ability of the nervous system. In addition, although muscle fibers to not completely transform from one type to another, your body does slightly alter the behavior of muscle fibers based on demands. If an athlete trains using slow movements, his or her fast twitch fibers will act more like slow twitch. Likewise, using maximum speed movements causes slow twitch fibers to act faster.
Therefore, please do not feel like you have no chance of becoming a great athlete because you are not as genetically gifted as some may be. Take it from me; genetically, I’m fairly average, but I am certainly an above average athlete. Effort and intelligence will get you far in sports training and in life.

I believe I have given you enough information to help you make effective training plans on your own. However, I realize that many readers are looking for actual jump workouts, and also many athletes need instruction in the correct execution of exercises. I created my own jump training site with multiple program options and exercise videos to try to meet this need. I recently decided to make this site free for everyone. I hope it is helpful to you.

If you are looking for a way to reduce the pain you feel from a sports injury when you are working out, consider investing in a TENS unit. These devices can help you control your pain so that you can get the most out of your workout. TENS units are widely used in the physical therapy field to help patients control their pain while they rehabilitate their muscles. With the proper training, you can benefit from this same technology at home or at your favorite gym.

What Is a TENS Unit?

TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. A TENS unit uses electrical shocks to block pain signals that are being sent to the brain. It can also stimulate the body to create endorphins, which can increase the body’s ability to perform physical exercise.

How TENS Units Work

TENS units come with small electrode pads that already have gel on them. These are placed on the area that is experiencing pain. The small electrical shock delivered by the device will trigger the nerves in the area. Most users will feel a tingling sensation when they turn the device on. This can block the signal of pain to the brain when used at high dosages. Lower dosages are what trigger endorphin creation.

Who Can Use TENS Units?

Anyone can use a TENS unit with the proper training. However, since these do involve the use of electrical current, you should not use them without medical oversight. If you are recovering from a sports related injury, however, consider asking your physical therapist if you can be trained to use a TENS unit as you return to your sports training program. The device is going to be the most effective for athletes who are suffering from pain due to nerve damage. The common aches and pains that come from a rigorous workout are not what this device is intended to help.

Some people should not use a TENS unit, however. Children should not use the device, as its safety on growing bodies has not yet been tested. Any people with pacemakers or other similar electrical devices inside their bodies should never use a TENS unit. It can interfere with the proper functioning of the device, which can be life threatening.

Safety Concerns When Using a TENS Unit

TENS units are considered safe when used properly. However, there are certain places on the body where they should not be used. The electrodes should never be placed near the eyes or mouth. They also should not be placed on the temples. In fact, it is best not to use them on the face at all, as they could easily be placed too close to one of these sensitive areas.

The front of the neck is another place that the device should not be used. If you have any open wounds, do not put the electrode on them. Never place the device over the belly of a pregnant woman. In fact, pregnant women should not use a TENS device without first consulting with their obstetrician.

Once you have been trained by your doctor or physical therapist as to the best way to use the TENS device in your training program, make sure you resist the temptation to turn the frequency up too high. Remember, there is a limit to the pain relief you can experience with at TENS unit. Putting the frequency too high will actually cause you to have more pain. If you notice your muscles contracting near the electrodes, it is set too high. Otherwise, as long as you are properly trained and have followed these safety rules, you can use a TENS unit to reduce the pain from a past injury as you continue your workout routine.

There is a big difference between owning a runners watch and making the best use of a running watch’s features as part of a structured training routine. Athletes who are transitioning from part-time joggers to participants of competitive events are often looking to upgrade to a better watch. Unfortunately most of this group, do not fully understand what to look for a good running watch and do not even comprehend what features can actually benefit their training.

Buying a running watch is a personal decision and there is no “best running watch” for everyone. If you known nothing about distance running watches, then your first step might be to purchase a basic runners watch that has some basic features and once you are comfortable using it, progress to a more advanced watch from there.

Three essentially “must have” features that are useful to athletes are:

• a stopwatch that can record split segments
• a history log that can record timed laps within training sessions; and
• a sequential interval timer or at least a countdown timer feature

It is safe to say that just about every distance running watch will feature a stopwatch timer of some description. While it is essential for a runner to view the duration of their runs in hours, minutes and seconds, the ability of a watch to record a segment of a run is also useful if not essential and most running watches feature a start/stop pusher to accomodate this. A chronograph that can also be stopped in the middle of the run is useful for sudden, unexpected disruptions such as traffic. Most stopwatches display two lines. A data line for the cummulative running time and another for the current segment time.

Arguably the most effective method a runner can do to enhance their performance is repetition training and a sports running watch that can keep track of individual lap times within a session can help a runner keep track of their workouts, so as to guage how much they are improving. Running watches are usually marketed by the total number of lap times that can be stored in their memory, for instance a 50-Lap watch can store 50 lap times in memory, but one thing you should note is that many watches marketed as “50-Lap” watches, only store laps for one session. When the session is cleared all the times are lost. A good basic running watch should at least have the capacity to store multiple sessions and as many lap times as you need per session.

A third useful function of a distance running watch is an interval timer that can accomodate a running timer sequence. Most running watches with interval timers have two timers, but others have many more. With two timers you can set up your interval timer for fixed time interval runs, with a fixed interval recovery time. You can set the total number of repetitions of the sequence on some interval timer watches too.

There is an abundance of features on offer by manufacturers of runners watches. If you are buying a runners watch for the first time and are unsure what to get, consider buying an inexpensive watch with at least a stopwatch with split segments, interval timer or countdowm timer and the ability to record sessions and lap times within sessions in memory. Once you are used to using a basic running watch, you can then move up to something with more sophisticated functions.

Many people are under the false impression that in order to build lean muscle mass, you just lift non stop. In reality, simply lifting weights is only half the battle; the other half consisting of concepts such as recovery, hydration, nutrition etc? This article will divulge the other half of weight training.

Like I said, the lifting is only half the battle, the reason being your body needs to properly be refueled and given the rest and recovery time it needs to properly perform. We are going to give a short summary to each commonly overlooked aspect of weight training.

Let’s start with sleep and recovery. Sleep is one of the most important functions of the body. We grow the most in our sleep and most of our important body maintenance and repair is performed while we are asleep. If we do not get the recovery time needed, our body cannot repair and rebuild our muscles stronger after weight training. This goes closely along with overtraining. Overtraining is basically working your body to hard and not giving it proper recovery time. This can actually be counterproductive in weight training.

Let’s move on to hydration and nutrition. When you weight train, your body is burning large amounts of energy and loosing significant amounts of water. Refueling your body with the proper fluids and energy is extremely important to the recovery process and the overall goal of gaining lean muscle.

Finally, one of the most important thing in training is properly warming up. If you train frequently, your body is usually in somewhat of a recovery state at almost all times. Even if you don’t train often, your muscles will be tight before starting a workout. Not stretching previous to workouts puts your body into a very susceptible state for injuries. For this reason, you must always warm up and get the blood moving through your muscles before you go into rigorous workouts. Forgetting to warm up can cause injuries which can be major setbacks to your athletic goals.

All the topics I have discussed today may seem very vague, and they are. More information on properly hydration and nutrition, proper sleep and recovery, proper warm ups, and even proper lifting technique can be found at Proper Weight Training.

Everyone’s body is different, I am sure you will agree. All bodies look different, smell different, work different, move different, etc… Why would you train like someone who is genetically gifted to be a bodybuilder, if you are genetically gifted to be a Kenyan endurance runner? It does not work. Let me explain how you can better target your daily routine to your body type.

What is a Body Type?

A body type describes how easily it is for you to gain and lose, fat and muscle. Some people are just predisposed to being large, like Ronnie Coleman for instance. While others tend to stay skinny no matter what they do. Let us get into the details. There are three kinds of body types; ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph.

Ectomorph Body Type

Ectomorphs usually refer to themselves as hard-gainers, which means that in order for Ectomorphs to gain muscle, it takes significant hard work, dedication, and lots of food. These folks usually carry very low levels of bodyfat, tend to have smaller muscles, and often have a smaller skeletal structure.

Training for Ectomorphic Body Type

Ectomorphs should be lifting heavy weights. That is all there is to it. These guys need to build a strong core, a strong foundation, upon which to build the physique they desire. Compound exercises with a rep range from 3-5 should be used to facilitate strength gains. After a stable base is built, Ectomorphs will want to incorporate hypertrophy training, which is about 8-10 reps of slightly more isolationist exercises, like seated dumbbell shoulder press, or dumbbell bench press, single arm triceps extensions, perhaps single-leg extensions, and maybe a few curls. Since maximal intensity is needed during sets, and since stored ATP should be replenished as much as possible, rest periods between exercises should last about 2 minutes.

Diet for Ectomorphic Body Type

You skinny bastards have metabolisms faster than a bullet. If you are not eating, you should be. When you are not hungry, eat. If you just ate and you are full, eat some more or drink some milk or a protein shake. Pick the high calorie, high protein, healthier foods, and constantly be eating. Foods that are highest in healthy fats should provide the biggest bang for the buck since the Omega 3′s and calories will go a long way to putting on some bulk. Try 95% fat free beef, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, and all-natural peanut better. Keep milk, yogurt, kidney beans, and fruit on hand for snacks. Protein bars are good too, if you can stomach them. I prefer Pure-Protein bars and Chef Jay’s Trioplex.

Mesomorph Body Type

Mesomorph bodies are more inclined to gaining muscle mass quite easily. These folks are considered the ‘genetically gifted’ when it comes to bodybuilding. They are not necessarily easy gainers, but they are definitely not hardgainers either. Mesomorph body types are very athletic looking and are aesthetically pleasing to the eye. These are the guys that people refer to as jacked, ripped, and cut; and they usually walk with good posture. Mesomorphs can build muscle faster than Ectomorphs and can also lose fat much faster than Endomorphs, as long as they eat and train properly.

Training for the Mesomorphic Body Type

The best form of training for a Mesomorph would be heavy weight lifting utilizing maximal force. This would include the kind of explosive training found in powerlifting and Olympic lifting. Different exercises should be utilized in each and every training session targeting every muscle in the body with heavy weights to increase size and strength. Full body training probably works best for Mesomorphs since they can recover quickly and adapt to traditional training programs easily. Cardio should still be performed, but kept to a maximum of 2 sessions a week. This will keep the heart and lungs healthy, and the fat at bay, while not impeding muscle growth. 30-40 minutes for each cardio session is ideal. Intensity should be kept at a high intensity to focus more on the fat burning process rather than the chance of minimizing muscle mass. Interval sprints and other explosive exercises should be mandatory.

Diet for the Mesomorphic Body Type

For the mesomorph, a balanced diet should be maintained. A 30/30/40 balance of protein/fat/carbs should be utilized. This will give the trainee a full supply of nutrients and enough diverse calories to facilitate muscle growth and to maintain a lean physique.

Endomorph Body Type

‘Hey fatty, having trouble getting lean?’ You don’t want to say this to an endomorph because most likely he is stronger than you and will either crush you with his fist or sit on you. This body type is more likely to gain fat but is also more likely to be big, strong, and large boned. Endomorphs usually have a soft and squashy appearance, and they have much tougher time losing fat than the other two body types. The most can be made of this body type with a dedicated workout routine, and a dedicated nutrition plan. It is not that bad to be a big fat guy, as long as you know how to turn it into a jacked, ripped, son of a bitch through diet and exercise.

Training for the Endomorphic Body Type

Weight training should be kept to a higher rep range for most workouts. I recommend 1-2 complexes per week with several exercises strung together and little rest between sets. An example of a complex might be a deadlift into a hang clean into a push press into a back squat into a rear push press, and back to the floor. This will train for endurance, strength, and will keep the metabolism elevated. Endomorphs will still want to dedicate one day a week, one week a month, or two months a year, to serious strength training. The majority of the training though, should focus on the 8-12 rep range. Cardio is a big plus for endomorphs. 3-4 sessions of cardio per week is recommended, for 40-50 minutes at a time. At each cardio session, different types of cardio exercises should be utilized. Sprints, complexes, jumping rope, cycling, and kickboxing classes are all examples of decent cardio exercise.

Diet for the Endomorphic Body Type

It is best to eat about 7 or 8 small meals through the day. The key phrase here is SMALL MEALS. I am talking like 300-400 calorie meals. This type of eating increases your metabolism and your body burns additional calories when it is digesting food, so keeping your body in a constant state of digestion is a bonus. Concentrate more on protein and carbs, and keep fat to a bare minimum, especially saturated fats. Fats are the higher calorie nutrient and should be kept to only 20% of your overall diet.

Now that you know where you stand and have a better idea of how to train for your body type, I expect that you will examine your current diet and exercise plan. Make the changes that you need to make in order to maximize your efficiency, and get back in the gym! Be sure to contact me with any questions.

There?s nothing like watching an athlete at the top of their game — the sprinter racing to the finish line, the star center sinking the game winning shot. They make it look absolutely effortless, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for them to perform that well.

Appearances can be deceiving. What you don?t see is the long, grueling hours of training and practice star athletes put in behind the scenes: the endless laps around the track with no one watching, the skill drills where that star player practices jump shot after jump shot after jump shot.

The same is true for exhibiting. The truly great exhibitors don?t just show up at the show and automatically know how to turn in a great performance. They?ve trained for the event, making sure that they?ve got a good grasp of the fundamental skills needed and the game-day strategy critical to ensure success.

What type of training routine does your exhibiting team have? Most companies, if they answered honestly, would have to say little to no time is devoted to practicing the skills needed to do a good job on the show floor. It?s assumed that the skills necessary to be a good salesman or manufacturer?s rep in the field will automatically transfer over into the show environment.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Someone who jogs everyday, even if they run for miles at a time, does not automatically turn into a top-notch marathon runner. You can work out in the weight room twice a week at the gym. That doesn?t mean you?re anywhere near ready to go compete in Olympic level power lifting!

There are some essential differences between the everyday routine your sales reps face and the high-pressure intense situation they encounter on the show floor. From the extremely limited amount of time your team has with each attendee to the length of the event to the sheer numbers of people one talks to in the course of the day, tradeshows are a demanding event. One needs to maintain lightning quick reflexes like a boxer while performing for hours on end like a marathon runner. The only way to combine these two seemingly disparate skill sets is by training.

If you want your team to break the ribbon, bring home the gold medal, claim the trophy, then you need to provide them with the training and practice opportunities they?ll need to succeed.

This training takes place ?behind the scenes? yet yields very visible results. Sharpening skills for tradeshows will also improve performance in the everyday sales environment: active listening, for example, will help your team focus on the customer, truly understand their needs, and deliver accordingly. This will deepen and reinforce existing relationships, as well as make establishing new relationships easier — after all, an existing customer will have no hesitation recommending a vendor who does so much for them!

For maximum results, training efforts should be consistent throughout the year, intensifying as major events draw closer. Consider having your own ?Spring Training Camp? sessions before the exhibiting season begins, to refresh booth skills, learn new information, and familiarize your team with the product lines and demonstrations you?ll be featuring.

Spring Training is mandatory for the baseball crowd, and it should be mandatory for your team too! Nobody is too experienced, too important or too busy to do what is, at the core, the most important aspect of everyone?s job: focus on the customer. Additionally, training together can help form valuable team bonds, a critical resource when you?re functioning in a high pressure environment.

Many times, training is viewed as a valuable perk. This is especially true as the pool of employees skews younger: the folks entering the job market today tend to place a higher premium on knowledge for knowledge?s sake than previous generations did. They?re savvy enough to realize training comes with expectations of enhanced performance — but they also continually cite chances for education and career skills development as one of the factors they consider critical when choosing employers. If retaining your most valuable asset — your employees — is important to you, that?s just one more reason to put training on the schedule.

To recap: training is essential to ensure top notch performance for your team. For maximum results, provide training that is relevant, consistent, and of high value. Everyone should participate, with a focus on educating your staffers and strengthening team bonds.

That way, when it?s time for your team to take to the field, they too will turn in a top notch performance — and make it look like it?s the most natural thing in the world!