Fitness

Practicing Extreme Ownership and Finding Your “Why”: The Key to Long-term Success

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By Tim Hanway MS CSCS ACSM
 
In today’s day and age, most people have become familiar with the ‘SMART’ goal system. This stands for
  • Specific,
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Realistic
  • Time based
The common knowledge shared is that as long as an individual’s goals are sSMART, success is virtually guaranteed!
 
However, the truth of the matter is not so simple. How come so many people continue to “fall off the wagon”? They experience short-term success before succumbing to their previous habits.
When it comes to successfully modifying lifestyle behavior and achieving both the results and sustainable change they so desire!

Emotion versus logic in behavior

The answer to this paradox may surprise you. So much of what drives behavior and behavior change comes not from the logical, rational part of our brains, but rather, the emotional centers of our minds. The parts that effectively govern all aspects of how we experience the world.
 
So why then is this fact so important?
 
Simple.
 
If you can hack the emotional centers of your brain, you can create compelling goals that are deeply tied to your own values, thoughts, feelings and emotions.
 
You will be able to create powerful goals that can be further refined using the ‘SMART’ acronym. This results in the perfect combination of clear, strategic goal-setting combined with emotional driving forces.
 

Responsibility for behavior

As a consequence, the first-step to attaining success in every aspect of your life by cultivating these newfound goals comes down to one simple rule or principle. That is accepting 100% responsibility for your life.
 
Yes, you heard me right: As soon as you accept 100% responsibility for every aspect of your life you will be amazed at the things you accomplish.
 
However, ignore this vital step and it is virtually impossible to enact the lasting change that leads to truly great things.
 

Principle One: Practice Extreme Ownership –

Two people that embody this principle are world-renown author and entrepreneur, Jack Canfield, and world-famous Navy Seal Commander, Jaco Willink.
 
What sets aside both men apart from others is their acceptance of taking 100% responsibility for their lives and the effect that this has on goal achievement.
 
To understand the concept of extreme ownership, you must first acknowledge your behaviors all come down to choice. Virtually every decision you make in your daily life (i.e. from the company you keep to the habits you enact daily) come down to choices you make.
 
Yes, that’s right; choice.
 
Everything from the friends you surround yourself with to the foods you eat, the job you keep and spouse you share a life with all come down to choice.
 
Now, isn’t this a simplistic and naïve viewpoint of the world you might ask?
 
The answer however is a resounding “no” when you really take a moment to pause and think about it.
 
For example, you can choose whether or not to organize your shopping. Then, you can have a greater likelihood of purchasing and preparing healthier foods. You choose whether or not you set aside money to hire a trainer.
 
Have a problem sleeping? You can set your alarm clock under your gym bag to reduce the likelihood of sleeping in.
 
Now are all these choices obvious?
 
Of course not, but that is not the point. By simply accepting 100% percent responsibility you know that the answers are out there. Finding the right people and systems to help and support you are likewise within your control. This creates a liberating sense of possibility and empowerment.
 
Yes, just like so many others, you can cultivate change too. It is going to take work. It is going to be hard and it may mean putting yourself in uncomfortable situations.
 
You might upset people (i.e. like telling your friends that you won’t be joining them for your usual Thursday ‘Happy Hour’ for the forseeable future).
 
The fact remains however that the choice is fundamentally yours. Once you accept this, it is possible to realize how much is within your control. This results in plans and action.
 
Get the ball rolling and it is much easier to move! However, you need to realize first that the ‘ball’ really is in your court…
 

Principle Two: Get to “Why” –

Once you take extreme ownership and acknowledge the way to get over the ‘finish line’ is to find your “Why.” This concept was originally popularized by the famed author and speaker, Simon Sinek.
 
The “Why” paradigm is one that acknowledges the power of emotion in shaping behavior change. By tapping into emotion and the limbic system of the brain it is possible to create compelling goals. Goals that truly pave the way for everlasting change.
 
For example, in the health and fitness world, a popular goal is to simply “lose weight.” You can attempt to add some substance to this goal via the SMART system.
 
The goal is repurposed into something such as:
“my goal is to lose 10 lbs. by March 1, 2019 by strength training and performing interval training an average of 3x per week for the next 3 months.” 

Emotion & Logic in Goal Setting

However, although the latter has much more substance, there is still a key component missing. Namely the driving emotion behind it.
 
Why do you want to lose 10 lbs. by March 1st?
 
If the answer is something vague like “to look better” than the likelihood of sticking to this goal (no matter how concrete) becomes diminished. To fix this, your driving emotion needs to be unveiled.
 
A better goal that addresses your “Why” might instead be;
 
“In order for me to feel as confident, energetic and handsome as I did my senior year of high school when I was the Varsity football captain, as well as improve the quality of my married life by fitting into the suit I wore to my wedding five years ago, my goal is to lose 10 lbs. By March 1, 2019 which I will do by strength training and performing interval training an average of 3x per week for the next 3 months…” 
What does the above accomplish? Simple! By providing a story, a narrative and a visual focus, the goal now becomes something that is rooted in emotion and value. Losing weight in this case represents confidence, energy and vitality. It is no longer simply a ‘means to an end’ which is what categorizes so many goals.

Practice Extreme Ownership & Find Your Why

In summary, by practicing extreme ownership and reframing your goals to always encompass a ‘why’ statement, you too will be able to unlock latent potential in your abilities, commitment and purpose.
 
So, keep the SMART acronym, but tell your story and review it constantly. This is how the most successful people in world enact lasting change and the beauty is that this is entirely within your control.

Meditation to optimize your life and performance

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meditation to optimize performance

Around the globe, in every religion, spiritual tradition, and culture, we find some form of meditation. Breathing practices, purposeful reflection, chanting, mantras, singing, and prayer are some of the oldest forms of improving mindset, wellness, and performance through meditation.

Whether your goal is to achieve calm, a sense of gratitude, or feeling connected to people and nature, these disciplines can help us live a more centered life. In the world of human performance, when someone is really “in the zone,” we like to call it a “flow state.” When we are there, we perceive things differently actually process information in a different way.

In order to avail yourself of the many benefits of meditation, we believe it’s important to remain intellectually and emotionally open. Open-minded, to the wide variety of meditative practices found throughout our world’s cultures, religions, and philosophies. What is important is that the methods you choose work for you.

Whether or not you consider yourself spiritual or religious, improving your meditative skills teaches you how to control your brain and mindset to reach a state of higher performance.

How does one begin?

This is a beginner’s guide to practical ways for accessing a better state of mind and will highlight some of the benefits they offer.

Your Analytical vs. Intuitive Mind

Once people become adults, they spend a lot of time walking around with their brains in an analytical mode: making choices, solving problems, working, thinking about the future, and analyzing the past.

This is an incredible gift that has helped our species thrive and discover amazing things, but it is not the entire picture of ourselves. Our mind is also capable of incredible creativity, empathy, and connection to purpose and other people. This is also a skill we need to build and use daily.

Analytical thinking blocks emotion and empathy and vice versa, according to some recent studies [1,2]. You can think of your brain as having two modes: the rational, analytical mind, and the creative, intuitive one. When we function optimally, we are able to switch back and forth between them.

Rational thinking is necessary. We accomplish a lot of things in our lives through it. However, we can lose balance when it’s the only mode we are using.

In modern society, we subject ourselves to an increasing level of information input. News, social media, texts, streaming shows, and the web provide a constant stream of input for our analytical mind to process.

Because this endless stream of stimuli is always available for our mind to analyze, it’s essential to actively practice turning off our analytical processes. Quieting your analytical mind opens you up to a performance-enhancing mindset. Here are a few ways to do that.

Reset Switch

Being able to alter your state of mind is an immensely powerful skill. As an athlete, performing artist, executive, or anyone who has to perform under pressure, you need to be able to reset occasionally.

When the stress builds, when the conditions change, or when things go wrong, being able to step back and out of the chaos is critical for good decision making. Retaining a sense of calm allows you to tap into your strengths, instincts, and training.

It’s also a valuable switch when the game is over when you’re done with work, or after practice. We all need to go into recovery mode.

Just as you don’t want the engine on your high-performance sports car revving at 5,000 rpm when you put it in the garage at night, you don’t want your brain stuck in analytical mode or your emotions on high when it’s time to relax and rest.

Meditation

Meditation may be the most well-known way to silence the mind. It doesn’t require a special place or any equipment other than your own time and mind. It doesn’t even have in any particular manner.

Meditation allows you to tap into a state of calm. Turning off (or just down) the thoughts running through your head increases creativity [3], reduces stress and anxiety, and increases one’s sense of happiness [4].

These effects are magnified with practice, and you can practice any time, anywhere, for free.

Here are two simple ways to meditate:

Breath

Sit, close your eyes, and inhale deeply into your belly for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, slowly exhale for a count of 4, hold for a count of four. Repeat. Focus on the sensation of your breath filling your body and then emptying out.
Observation. Sit in a quiet place, close your eyes, take a step back from your mind, and watch your thoughts. Don’t judge them or pursue them; simply let them come and go as you watch. There are two distinct entities here: you, the calm watcher, and your mind, the source of your thoughts.

Try these, or do whatever gives you that inner sense of calm. When you notice your mind wandering, simply return to your mind to the meditation. You might do just 2-5 minutes to start. You might build to longer stretches. Most importantly, do it consistently and you’ll strengthen your meditation muscles.

You must resist the temptation to do it the “right way.” This idea deters many beginners because they aren’t sure if they are doing it “right.” Meditation is challenging in that sense because it’s not the type of activity that provides immediate, concrete feedback. Getting guidance from a coach or in performing a specific form of the practice can help. So can some modern technologies.

Muse

If you go a traditional route to master meditation, you might spend hour after hour, month after month, year after year, sitting at a monastery meditating. You can take a long, meandering path, meditating daily for 20 to 40 years, finally becoming a Zen master. It’s a long, slow process that demands extraordinary dedication.

Whether this would be beneficial is beyond the point; it is neither feasible or desirable for most of us. Still, many people are looking for a way to incorporate meditation into their lives and want to get feedback along the way.

This is where modern technology like Muse can come in. The system measures your brainwaves while you meditate and provides feedback in real-time through the sounds you hear. This feedback teaches you to rewire your brain faster because you are learning when your brain is actually in the right state.

It also “gamifies” the process. At the end of each session, you get scores on how well you did and points for having a calm mind. You get credit for “recoveries” when your mind started to wander and think but you brought it back to calm.

It also can help you keep on track session to session. Goals, recommendations to increase time, rewards for consistency and daily streaks, and the tracking functions all can help you state motivated to practice.

Other Way To Develop Your Skills

As you try to build your skills and use meditation to improve performance, here are a few more Methods that can help.

Heart Rate Variability Training

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a method of measuring and analyzing beat-to-beat changes in your heart rate that gives us insight into the state of your autonomic nervous system. This feedback can be used when learning how to use meditation for your performance.

The autonomic nervous system is important to understand because it is one of the bridges between body and mind. It has two parts: the parasympathetic and sympathetic branches, which are essentially opposites.

The sympathetic nervous system is often described as the “fight or flight” system. It activates our body, mind, and the resources to act quickly when needed. The parasympathetic nervous system handles the opposite functions of rest, digest, and recovery: the functions that help restore and sustain our bodies.

HRV feedback teaches you to consciously synchronize your brainwaves and heartbeat, which puts you into a parasympathetic (recovery) dominant state. This is a state of calm focus. It’s the same benefit you get from meditation, but HRV training gives you real-time feedback, so you know when you’re improving.

You can train your heart rate variability and track your results with an HRV sensor like the Inner Balance or Em Wave2 from HeartMath. This feedback helps you to recognize that feeling of inner calm and achieve that state of mind more quickly than you would with normal meditation.

Sensory Deprivation

Sensory deprivation tanks also called float tanks, eliminate nearly all sensory input to your brain. Suspended in water with more than 1000 lbs. of dissolved magnesium salt, you float without any pressure on your body. You’re in a light- and sound-proof chamber. The water and air are both maintained at your body temperature.

When you lay still, you don’t see, hear, or feel anything. You lose the sense of time. Deprived of any sensory input, you are presented with an opportunity to be one with one’s mind that is difficult to find elsewhere.

A typical float session is 60 – 90 minutes long. For many people that sounds like an eternity to just lay there, floating in the dark. It typically takes three sessions to really get “good” at floating, but the results are usually enjoyed immediately the first time.

This doesn’t mean it is always easy. Often your mind wanders at first. You may have thoughts like: This is boring. This is stupid. Get out. You feel claustrophobic. But if you stick it out, eventually your mind lets go.

This lets us experience a state of calm, of relaxation. For some people, they experience a state of creativity or hover somewhere between wake and sleep. Not only will you reap the rewards after the float, but most people also find that they sleep better afterward and the state of calmness is easier to reach in the following days.

Next to time you want to accelerate your mindfulness practice, or need to reduce stress and anxiety, try a float. In most major cities you can find a float center near you.

Try something and practice it

When it comes to meditation for performance improvement; try something.

Whether you’re meditating, praying, chanting, getting feedback or floating in salt water, it’s worth it to learn how to quiet your mind. It only takes a few minutes a day and the benefits to your health, wellness, and performance are huge.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811912010646?np=yhttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161416.htmhttp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400410902858691http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1809754https://www.heartmath.org/research/research-library/energetics/electricity-of-touch/

Want to train your core? Ditch the Sit ups!

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One of my favorite core exercises for training adults and athletes is the stability ball stir the pot. Most people make the mistake of doing a ton sit ups, leg raises, and side bends. The abs are meant to create stability of the spine and help transfer force during dynamic activity.
For this exercise, assume a front plank position with your arms on the ball and your feet out wider than normal to create a stable base. When performing this, draw small clockwise circles with the ball, as you maintain a flat back and squared up hips. Repeat on the other side once completed.
This may look easy, but if you have never done this before, I guarantee you your abs will be feeling this one!

8 Kettlebell exercises that will make you fit for life

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KettlebellKettlebells are great for building fitness.

If you’ve spent any time around a gym, reading fitness blogs, or even scrolling through your friends’ Instagram posts, you’ve probably seen a kettlebell. You’ve also probably heard people say it is a great tool to make you strong, lean, and fit.

This is true, but how does this cannonball-looking thing work? What do you do with it? Do you just buy one watch the fat magically melt away? Most definitely not.

There is no magic shortcut to the results you want. A kettlebell is a great tool to help you reach your fitness goals, but like any good tool, it must be used correctly to be effective.

Kettlebell Warm-Up

Our kettlebell warm-up moves from simple to more complex exercises will help you master some of the fundamental KB movements. While you might not be able to get into some of the advanced exercises, like the KB snatch right away, with dedication and practice you will quickly feel comfortable performing them.

This is what the Velocity kettlebell warm-up looks like:

  • 20 KB Swings (American)
  • 5 Single Leg RDL (each leg)
  • 10 Goblet Squats
  • 5 Presses (each arm)
  • 8 Thrusters (each arm)
  • 8 Clean & Jerks (each arm)
  • 5 Snatches (each arm)
  • 1 Turkish Get Up (each arm)
  • 20 Swings (American)

So why should you bother to learn how to do all of these exercises? The rumors about the KB are true: with a very short workout you can get incredible results. It can help you lose weight, gain weight, add strength, or just be more active, depending on how you use it.

Buy A Kettlebell

For you to reap these benefits, you must commit. Get your own KB or go to a gym that has some. Even though we coach at a gym with a complete kettlebell setup, many of our coaches like to keep some at home so there’s no excuse not to use one every day.

None of us will get any better if we are not committed to our goals. Part of that commitment is planning around what works for you, and even the coaching staff and Velocity doesn’t always have time to make it to the gym. If you can keep even one kettlebell at home and learn to use it, you have a cheap an effective home gym in your garage or back yard.

Master the Kettlebell Movements

Owning a KB is the first step. The next is learning how to use it properly so you don’t hurt yourself and have a longer list of exercises from which to choose; our kettlebell warm-up is a simple and effective place to start.

kettlebell swings for fitness

The focus is not just learning the movements, but mastering them. As you get good at these basic exercises and understand how best to use the kettlebell, you can begin to create your own workouts. You can combine exercises in any way you like; you can add other exercise elements in like running, jumping rope, push-ups, or anything that excites you.

The possibilities are endless, but you have to earn this this freedom of movement by first learning the basic exercises. Do this, and you will always have a way to strong and fit – with just one piece of equipment.

MORE ON KETTLEBELLS: Coaches Favorite Kettlebell Drills

4 Important Things You Need to Know Before You Do High-Intensity Workouts

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hIIT training

High intensity interval training, CrossFit, and bootcamps are all popular and effective ways to exercise. While they are great methods to improve your fitness and performance, there is also a risk of injury if you don’t approach it intelligently.

Results and Risk

These programs often include skilled movements and explosive exercises like plyometrics and other high-intensity movements. Olympic lifts, sprints, power lifts, and variations on gymnastics are also common.

The benefits of these types of exercises are that they stimulate maximal muscle engagement and quickly take joints through their full range of motion. However, the same qualities that make these movements so effective also makes them very challenging if you haven’t been doing much fitness training.

“They are great exercises to get results because they are ground-based, engage multiple joints and muscles groups, and have high intensity” says Coach Ken Vick, High Performance Director for Velocity Sports Performance.

“They are more athletic, but with that comes some risk of injury just as in sport. The key is to know your limits and follow good coaching.”

HIIT Keys to Success

Vick says for those who are interested in training this way, there are Four Steps for Success:

Assess your own readiness

Have you done these types of workouts in the past? Do you have past injuries? Are there limitations in your joint range of motion? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need to get some guidance before you start.

A qualified coach can help assess if you’re ready, and a sports medicine professional can help identify any injury risks and how to alleviate them.

You don’t have to be in great shape before you can start taking these kinds of classes, but you do need to realistically assess your readiness with the help of professionals. They can give you a roadmap to a safe starting point.

Check your ego at the door

One of the benefits of these programs is the energy and intensity that comes from training with a group of people all pushing through a challenging workout together. Be wary that you don’t let pride and ego tell you to push yourself farther than you should, lest you pay some painful consequences.“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard someone say: I knew I was pushing myself too far,” says Coach Vick. “There will always be others better than you at any given exercise or workout. They may be younger or older, male or female.”

The key is to change your focus from competing with others to competing with yourself. Focus on improving your skills, technique, results, and your own PRs and you will not only get better, but you will stay safe.

Find an on-boarding class 

Find a class that on boards you with a coach who can get you involved safely rather than joining an advanced, competitive class. A good coach teaches you the correct mechanics and form for exercises and has variations to adapt them to your needs and skill level.

Know when to stop

Severe pain is always a red flag. While soreness is normal, the amount of soreness you experience with workouts should decrease as your body adapts over the first few weeks.If you experience joint pain, swelling or instability, stop. See a sports medicine specialist for evaluation. They can figure out how to eliminate the pain and how you can correct the underlying causes. They should work with you and your coach to adapt your training so you can keep building fitness while fixing your injury.

Research has shown that when an experienced coach or trainer is involved, the rate of any kind of injury decreases dramatically.

To prevent injury from happening in the first place, it’s very important to perform an active or dynamic warm-up to prepare the muscles to work at high speeds or under heavy loads. Some programs incorporate a warm-up into the workout, while others will show you what to do and give you time to do it beforehand.

Train Harder, and Smarter

High intensity interval training adds the intensity, motivation, and fun of these kinds of programs can inject new energy into your fitness regimen. All of these elements can help you work harder and push your fitness to a higher level than ever before. If you’re smart and follow these four keys, you can reap all the benefits and avoid injury.

Discover 4 Types of Sports Recovery You Need To Know

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sports recovery

Athletes from pros through weekend warriors have recognized the importance of using different types of sports recovery techniques to recover faster, feel better, and train harder. However, with all the different options to choose from, it’s hard to know which one works best.

The first thing to remember is that everything isn’t for everyone all of the time. So, when someone asks “what kind of recovery tool is best?” the answer is, it depends.

Here’s what you need to understand to get more benefit from your recovery strategies.

Recovery works by helping your body through it’s natural processes of returning to a state of internal balance. Training, competition, injury, and even life, are all stresses that add up and push your systems out of balance. Recovery means something to help bring you back into balance.

Returning the body to a state of equilibrium after stress requires you to address the specific type of stress you just endured. This is where a lot of recovery plans and techniques fall apart. If you don’t target the right type of stress or systems in the body, the recovery you try won’t make a difference. It’s like putting more insulation on a house when the real problem is a hole in the roof.

The Velocity sports recovery methodology was developed for the world’s elite athletes – to keep them at their best under enormous pressure. One of the foundations of is that there are 4 big categories of stress. We classify them as:

• Tissue
• Physiological
• Mindset
• Neuromuscular

Tissue

This is physical damage to your tendons, muscles, bones, and joints caused from contact, pressure, and tension in sports. It might be microscopic, but it takes a toll.

Repeated foot strikes while running, repetitive tendon stress on a pitcher’s elbow, or contusions and damage from collisions in rugby, football, or MMA are exactly the kinds of things that add up to potential or actual injury. Tissues need to heal properly on the microscopic level after each practice or competition.

Physiological

This is probably the area people think of most when talking about sports recovery. When you are putting in long hours of training, doing high intensity MetCons, or logging long distances, there’s a large metabolic and biochemical demand on your system. The numerous physiological elements all need to be returned to normal and metabolic wastes need to be removed.

Mindset

Whether it comes from sport or life, mental and emotional stresses have an impact on both mind and body. It can come from from emotional challenges, learning new tasks, or just intense focus for practice and competition. Our bodies’ physical recovery mechanisms are tied to our mental state.

States of mental stress and anxiety trigger particular functions of our nervous system and release stress hormones. While these can be useful during competition or training, they inhibit or even completely block natural recovery mechanisms. Therefore, in order to achieve physical recovery, the mind must be in a state of relaxation.

Neuromuscular

Often overlooked, neuromuscular fatigue doesn’t necessarily make you feel tired in the way you might think. Instead of feeling stiff, sore, or a generally fatigued, you just might lose that “snap” in your movement.

When you perform high power exercises like sprinting, jumping, and weightlifting, you stress the nervous system as well as your muscles. Until you recover, you won’t be able to fire them at full speed or intensity.

Make your recovery specific

Knowing that all regeneration methods aren’t the same or equal is the first step towards getting it right. Make sure you know the specific type of sports recovery you need at different stages of training and even different days of the week to make to make your recovery process better.

At Velocity, our coaching and sports medicine staff can help you decide which combination of regen and recovery tools you need to help you stay at your best.

RELATED CONTENT FOR YOU:

How To Recover Faster Between Soccer Games

Sleep Is the Most Important Recovery Strategy for Athletes

Athletes have the hardest time with this one exercise.

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velocity performance center

 

HOW TO DO A PULL-UP

PULL-UPS ARE LIFE SAVERS

Pull-ups are a survival skill. Pulling strength is extremely important for all athletes. We need to be able to hang and support our own body weight, and if we need to pull or climb ourselves to safety. For survival and of course for performance. Having strong pulling muscles helps stabilize the shoulder and can help generate much more power for our athletes.
So how do I go about getting my first pull-up?

Let’s be honest. As an athlete we want efficiency. We want more bang for our buck. Being an efficient athlete, means being a lean athlete. In general the more mass an athlete has the more work it is to move it. The same is true for pull-ups the more mass we have, the more mass we have to pull-up. Our long armed athletes can understand this problem because they have much farther to go. Everyone has their own problems, but the fact remains they must find a way to get their chin over that bar. No excuses!
Best way to start is by ditching the bands. In our many years of experience coaching athletes and adults the band never really helps anyone. It just gives them the illusion that they are doing work. When in fact they are pulling only part of the time and bouncing around the rest of the time.
Isometric holds, and eccentrics are the best way for everyone to start. Climbing a rope is also a great way, but not everyone has that and we want to do a pull-up. So your best bet is to start with Isometric holds. This could be even just hanging on the bar. If you have never done this before this a great place to start. We need to see if we are able to hold just our own bodyweight.

To start try and hold for :20. Try and achieve this 8x. :20 hang, :20 rest.
If you can’t hang from the bar you need to get horizontal. When we lack the strength to do a pull-up we only try practicing vertical pulling, and don’t just pull vertically. We can strengthen our pulling muscles by lowering down, and pulling horizontally like a ring row or horizontal row.

Isometrics are a great way to help develop the strength to start doing pull-ups. At some point doing your hangs you are going to realize that you need more core strength. When you are hanging there you notice that when you keep your core tight it is much less taxing on the grip as you hang. When you get tired or forget to keep your core tight it becomes much more taxing on the grip, and you slide your hands on the bar making callouses or blisters. Don’t wreck your hands! If you’re slipping don’t fight, fall get back up in a better position.

Best drill to understand this tight core position would be hollow bodies and superman rocks. Transitioning from one to the other is also really good helping to understand keeping your core tight. If your core is tight it’s going to be easier to pull-up.
Eccentric work is where the strength is going to come from. This time instead of holding isometrically now we want to lower eccentrically. Fight gravity as long as we can. Best to start with horizontal row first. Start with chest to bar and lower down as slow and controlled as possible.

If that was easy jump up onto the pullup bar. Try to get chest to bar and then lower as slow as possible.
When working on doing pull-ups it is best to focus on it for 10 min at a time. We do not want to over train. 3x a week is best and give a rest day between to give your body a chance to get stronger. Another thing to keep in mind is to make sure to even yourself out. With all of this pulling work we want to make sure we balance it out with some pressing movements. Overdeveloping in certain areas can lead to overuse or cause imbalances and effect efficiency.
These exercises are basic, but stick with them. We need to develop a strong base to pull from first, and this is a way to do it.

What do you know about Weightlifting?

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weightlifting

 

Weightlifting

Weightlifting (one word) is an internationally recognized sport. The sport of weightlifting literally transforms its athletes in a way in which no other sport does or can. Weightlifters are the strongest and most powerful athletes in the world, but they didn’t start that way! They started like everyone else from humble beginnings and found their success through careful training with free weights that deliver results no other sports can do.

Weightlifting helps athletes develop: strength and explosive power, body control that produces lean functional bodies, increased speed, flexibility, balance, and coordination.
The results of an athlete who trains seriously and regularly can be truly spectacular. Weightlifting has the power to build up a body that is weak and undersized, to helping someone lose weight and get in shape, to rehabilitate injured and ill bodies, nothing else we have seen comes even close.

If you want to get stronger, become more explosive, get faster, grow bigger, lose weight, become more flexible, improve your balance and coordination or just live a healthy lifestyle then weightlifting is for you!

It doesn’t matter if you are young, old, boy or girl. Weightlifting is a community that welcomes all individuals as long as you are willing to work hard and try to improve yourself. Everyone can enjoy the benefits of weightlifting. Results can appear quickly, and although major changes require work and persistence, improvements are guaranteed.

For all of the great reasons listed above, this is why we teach our athletes at Velocity Sports Performance Weightlifting. Now we do not teach them the sport of Weightlifting. We teach them the same lifts that weightlifters do: the snatch, the clean and jerk. We teach them these lifts not because we want them to be weightlifters and compete in the sport, but we want all our athletes to be more explosive, faster, more flexible, stronger, and much more. We use weightlifting as a tool to give athletes numerous amounts of benefits that they can use in their given sport!

Don’t be afraid of Weightlifting. We teach all athletes proper form first, and will not let them add weight until they are comfortable with the movement. Safety is always on our minds in the weight room, but we are also striving to help your athlete improve!

Those interesting looking tools & Graston Technique

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graston technique

Graston Technique

Ever Wonder What the Graston Technique is?

The Graston Technique® is an innovative, evidence-based form of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization that enables clinicians to detect and effectively break down scar tissue and fascial restrictions, as well as maintain optimal range of motion.

The unique protocol uses specially designed stainless steel instruments, along with appropriate therapeutic exercise, to specifically detect and effectively treat areas exhibiting soft tissue fibrosis or chronic inflammation. The instruments also are used diagnostically to follow the kinetic chain, to locate and treat the cause of the symptom as well as the specific area of pain. Graston Technique® is also frequently used as an effective protocol to maintain range of motion.

Graston Technique® does not need to be considered “painful” to be effective. Please inform your clinician if you are experiencing discomfort anytime during treatment. Patients usually receive two treatments per week during a four-to-five-week period. Most patients have a positive response by the third to fourth treatment. Graston Technique® is accepted nationwide by elite athletes and everyday patients, as one of the most effective treatments for rehabilitation and range of motion maintenance, especially when combined with other treatment modalities such as exercise.

Graston is just another effective way for athletes to recover faster. Combined with other recovery techniques, athletes can return to play much quicker than with traditional rest and icing techniques. If you are interested in Graston contact your nearest Velocity Sports Performance.