Sports Performance

People do thousands of sit-ups without every getting the strength or definition they are looking for. You’ll never get the abs you want without learning and practicing great posture. That is because having great abs has a lot to do with the way you stand, walk and run. Real core strength comes from your lower abs and all the muscles around your hips.

The easiest way to understand what we are talking about is to study the Speed and Agility exercises practiced by professional track athletes. There you will find a huge variety of exercises that focus on all these muscles at once. You will also come to understand the specific posture these athletes practice. It is their attention to posture that activates deep core muscles and conditions the athlete to achieve greater power and speed. They also get the fringe benefit of great looking abs and less risk of injury by improving core strength.

These are some of the most rewarding exercises you have never heard of and you can learn more about them here. Posture, Speed & Agility for Great Abs

You can spend all day reading about different styles of running. The literature generally falls into two camps. Either you are a heel striker meaning you first land on your heel then role off the toe or you are a chi/pose runner meaning you land on your mid-foot. Many will argue the pros and cons of both. Landing on your heels creates more breaking and impact forces to be transferred up your knee and into your hips. Landing on your mid-foot with your foot more directly beneath puts more stress on the bones of the foot and ankle and creates more vertical movement in your stride.

Which is correct? Who cares? Try both. Running is more than just a journey across the pavement. We all have a lot to learn about our best running form. Running is also a journey of personal experience and growth. Get to know your own body and try both techniques. Learn what both feel like. Run a mile one way then switch to the other. If you are considering changing running styles altogether you’ll have to do this anyways, building up new strengths over time. You may find that spending a little time landing on your mid foot as opposed to rolling from heels to toe will give you insight into your dominate stride style and vice versa.

Whichever style you choose, know that both styles will benefit from effective arm action, a strong core and hip stabilization. Exercises like Standing Arm Action, Hip Abductions and Hip Extensions will promote these qualities.

Many top athletes with the best footwork in the world train using a jump rope. Why is that and what sets them apart? The reason so many athletes train with the jump rope is because it physically conditions your body to be quick and explosive off the ground. Jumping rope can also train your mind to control your footwork in a very precise way that allows your body to generate extremely rapid movement. However, this mental conditioning will not happen unless you know how to practice it. The mental conditioning has to do with the specific way athletes use their jump rope.

There are three things you are probably not aware of about jumping rope that helps boxers and soccer players and other athletes achieve amazing foot speed. Those things are rhythm, counting and foot patterns. Counting out various foot patterns while jumping creates a rhythm. The foot patterns require you to move from one foot to the other at different intervals and in different directions. While practicing these patterns the sound your feet and the rope make hitting the ground takes on a syncopated quality.

A unique feature of jumping rope in this way is that it combines two of the highest forms of human performances; sports and music. In music, you practice a pattern until it goes from awkward and difficult to natural and effortless. This can also be done with a jump rope. Work on different foot patterns, left, left, right, right. Jump twice between turns or jump once. Lunge forward, lunge back, switch feet, one footed, move to the left, move to the right, heel –toe, high knees etc. See what you can come up with. You will literally stumble upon new foot pattern all the time. It is challenging and fun.

Just like practicing music, you will be working on some pattern for a while, maybe 1-2 minutes then you mess up mostly because of either mental or physical fatigue. Take a breather for a minute then start back again. Do that for 20-30 minutes every other day and you will find your footwork and speed improving rapidly. You will also experience the fringe benefit of weight loss and you might even learn a new dance step or two. Not bad for a $10 kid’s toy.

If you are designing your new home gym, make sure that music is part of the equation. Listening to music while you workout adds a little extra entertainment and the great thing about working out at home is you get to pick what plays. Just make sure that something, anything is playing. You will work out longer and with more intensity if there is music playing.

According to recent study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine you may also want to turn the music up louder for even better results. The study compared the exercise output of individuals listening to music at various volumes. The individuals were tested during strength training and cardio exercise. The researchers found that when music was present at any volume the subjects performed better at cardio. The research also suggests that for strength training there is a distinct advantage to playing the music at a louder volume. The study found that the individuals listening to louder music could perform more repetitions than those listening at lower volumes. Those listening to louder music did an average of 29 leg presses while those listening at a lower volume only averaged 26.

Simply put, music is fun. When you’re having fun you will perform better. So next time you workout make sure you have some music playing. Put on your head phones. Drag the computer into your workout room. Crank up the satellite radio. Let the music take control and your workouts will improve because you will feel less fatigue and build more muscle without even knowing it. Sounds good doesn’t it?

I just took my new goggles for a test swim in the open waters of Wrightsville Beach and I could not be happier with their performance.  I don’t think I’ll be using my old racing goggles for open water swimming again. I’ll probably never use normal goggles in the pool either. The Aqua Sphere goggles made my swim much more enjoyable for two reasons, but before I tell you why,  I’d like to say a little bit about open water swimming in general.

Aqua Sphere Goggles

For those of you who have never done any serious open water swimming, understand that swimming in a pool is much easier because the water is clear and there are lane lines to keep you going straight. You also get a little mini-break every time you turn at the wall. Swimming in open water is a whole different ball game. The murky water and lack of visual cues makes it more difficult to swim straight to your target. Combine that with the added burden of not having a wall to push off of every 25 yards and the occasioinal cusious thought about what little critters might be swimming underneath you and this can add up to more than a little anxiety in the water. On the other hand, open water swimming is fun and kind of adverterous so I am always lured back in.

The Aqua Spheres are a one piece mask that is like a hybrid between racing goggles and a snorkeling mask. They solve the visibility problem by increasing the distance between your eye and the murky water so you don’t have to lift your head nearly as far out of the water to see where you are going. With racing goggles your eye balls are encapsulated in a murky pod of water. The second any part of your eye goes below sea level all you see is inky water that might as well go on forever down there and who know what what else could be swimming in it, right? All kidding aside, it not cool. With the Aqua Spheres there is no water between your eyes or on your eye brows so your field of view is increased drastically. The second reason why they are better and why I’ll probably use them in the pool from now on is because the larger pocket of air around your eyes makes you head more buoyant. Image having little pillow to rest your head on while you swim… It’s nice.

My thanks goes out to TriathlonSports.com for their great selection of Triathlon gear and their great prices. “Them’s good peoples” www.triathletesports.com/

A new study covered in the New York Times concludes that athletes will sustain less injuries by improving their balance. The article sites a study initiated by the Harkness Center that studied dancers and compared their workouts to athletes in sports. The researchers concluded that dancers sustain fewer ACL injuries because they practice movement and balance more precisely during their workouts resulting in better biomechanics and less risk of injury.

Ultimate Body Press wants to help everyone lower their risk of injury by including Speed and Agility exercises in all our workouts. These exercises focus specifically on good biomechanics, posture and balance. Not only are they great for boosting the fat burning potential of all your workouts, Speed and Agility exercises also reduce your risk of injury and improve your overall well being and athletic performance. Give one of our workouts a try for just a few weeks and you will notice the difference. You will look different, move differently and feel great.

Which would you rather do? Listen to the same song over and over again or take several songs and mix them up. In the fitness world, taking several exercises and mixing them up, one after the other is called circuit training. It is a very effective way to exercise and it’s more fun because you are constantly changing exercises and movements. While one muscle group works the others rest until they get their turn again. This style workout maximizes rest time between sets which increases your body’s output on each set for a more effective workout.

A very easy and fun way to make you own circuit routine is to think, “Push, Pull, Plyo”. This means one push exercise like push-ups or dips, followed by a pull exercise like pull ups or body-weight rows and finally a plyometric exercise like jumping jacks, squat thrusts or jumping rope. Do as many repetitions as you can until you think you will give out in the next couple repetitions. You don’t even have to keep track of how many you do, just move on to the next exercise and let those muscles take a nice break until the next circuit.

For a basic circuit workout you should go through each phase 2-4 times. That’s “Push, Pull, Plyo“, then repeat 2-4 times and you never have to do the same exercise twice! Even if you repeat one, you always have the option of changing your grip or the angle of resistance to work keep your body guessing. You can do push-ups on the ground or you can raise your feet on a chair to focus on your upper chest and shoulders. Pull-ups can be done with a wide grip or narrow.

If you are a modest fitness enthusiast you probably already have all the equipment you need to build your own custom circuit routine, so dust off all your old gear and get to work. Do you have a pull up bar, a wall, the floor, resistance bands? Get creative. If you don’t have this stuff, don’t worry you don’t need much. Just a few of the basics will go a long way like a pull up bar or some push up stands. If you don’t already have them, it’s a small hurdle because you can get these items for very little cash.

Even if you have no intention of ever running a 100 meter dash, you stand to gain a great deal by trying some of the exercises of world class sprinters. You might think track exercises would be strenuous, but they’re not. Many of the exercises require no running at all. Instead, they focus on refining the way the athlete moves. They are repetitive exercises that emphasize posture, body control and core strength. It’s like finishing school for athletes.

First off let’s be clear that contrary to what you might think, keeping your shoulders back is not the most important part of good posture for sports or any other application. The most important thing you need to understand is that perfect posture actually begins at the base of your spine. There between your hips is the largest of all the bones in your spine. It is actually 4 bones fused together and contrary to what you might think, this bone actually curves forward. It is called the sacrum and by using the muscles surrounding your hips you can adjust its angle to set the pitch and balance of your entire body.

To correctly position this primary posture bone all you need to remember is “Suck and Tuck”. Suck in your stomach and tuck your rear end in underneath your hips. Next are your shoulders. Keep your shoulders back, but also in a low and relaxed position. You don’t want your shoulders up around your ears. You want them to be back and relaxed. Always remember “Back and Relaxed”. It’s kind of like getting ready to have your picture in your bathing suit. You want to look good so you “Suck and Tuck” through your lower abdomen, then shoulders are “Back and Relaxed and there you go, Bob’s your uncle Fanny’s your aunt, you look 10 pounds lighter and 5 years younger. Always remember before and most importantly during track exercises, “Suck and Tuck” and “Back and Relaxed”.

The next thing to understand is that practicing entry level track exercise can even be done inside your house and they give you a dynamic way to develop great posture and core strength. Whether you are an elite athlete or just someone interested in good health, practicing these type of simple speed and agility exercises consistently over time will lead to better results.

Please check back for new posts descibing the beginner track exercises, but for now, give the “Suck and Tuck”, “Back and Relaxed” posture a try next time your go for a run or pose for a picture and let me know how it goes.

While strength training can be a great exercise method for anyone, most people don’t recognize that different types of strength training can affect and benefit the body in different ways. Depending on your unique build and body composition, strength training may have different affects on various muscle groups. The changes will be both in appearance and performance, but just be prepared for varied results.

One of the most dominant forms of strength training is that of body building. Using specific workouts and dieting, this fitness regimen can yield big gains in physique, yet can leave the body without the agility, balance, and coordination shared by those who use an all over approach to strength training, another popular style of exercise. While muscles may not get as large with this method, using total-body, multi-joint exercises can help you build your entire system and gain the other fitness skills you need to be a formidable athlete.

Dips, squats, the snatch, the clean and jerk, and deadlifts are popular strength training exercises that will work your entire body, including your hormonal, nervous, and skeletal systems. Coupled with a healthy lifestyle and a good diet, you can see great improvements in your ability to not only have power behind your exercise, but also skill. Train your body correctly and get the healthy, lean muscle you want. Remember, it’s not about muscle size. It’s about performance.

I just completed my first run in the new Nike Voremo 4 running shoes and all I have to say is, “BOING!”  These shoes are set up with Nike’s top of the line cushioning material and you can feel the difference.  Having just retired my 2008 Air Pegasus, I noticed a difference immediately.  Now that may just be the sensation of going from older shoes to new ones, but the improvements that I can feel are a nice snug fit through the midsole, a more roomy toe box and better cushioning,  all things I really value. 

I am a neutral runner and I don’t really use a heel to toe running mechanic so whatever kind of technology Nike is putting in the heel of the shoe does not much concern me.  However, I did tried on another brand shoes that are designed specifically for my running style and although I appreciate the more durable tread in the midsole, they still did not match up to the fit and cushioning of the Voremos.  I also tried on the newest Air Pegasus model which were also nice but the sales people at Jus Running in Asheville, NC made a great point by distinguishing between the materials and the length of time that the shoes will hold up.  So I shelled out the extra $50 for the premium model. What the heck, you only go around some many times so you might as well get the best while you can. 

I also run in a pair of Brooks racing shoes, just for fun.  Racing shoes in general have less cushioning and are more flexible so your foot can really feel the ground.  The added feedback from a racing shoe is nice for shorter runs and speed work because you get a better sense of how your foot is contacting the ground and you can fine tune your running technique.  That being said, when it’s time to log some higher miles, I have not found a better shoe than Nike Voremo 4.