Missouri Valley Conference

Being in the position I am at Wichita State University, I get to witness and work with some of the most tremendous athletes in our conference and the NCAA.  Being the associate strength and conditioning coach, I get to witness the full development of incoming freshman and help them mature and evolve to their peak athletic potential as they enter into the senior year of eligibility.  It’s a tremendous journey and a marvelous transformation to witness and be a part of.

The science of strength and conditioning is also experiencing maturation similar to an incoming recruit.  And again, I find myself involved with the transformation of the strength and conditioning field, in respect to the teachings and coaching of our Wichita State University Shocker Athletes.

The days of creating monstrously strong athletes with no regard of asymmetries, compensatory movement patterning, tissue extensibility, and joint mobility is over.  Strength and conditioning coaches need to focus on creating efficient athletes who possess all aspects of athleticism.

Grooving Movement Patterns over Muscles

Movement Based Approach to Preparing Athletes

It’s my belief that we need to focus on creating efficient and strong movement patterns over simply training isolated muscles.  We can argue semantics until we are both blue in the face but the principles I coach by is of those that create the most efficient athlete.  Can our Wichita State athletes perform a functional bodyweight squat, in-line lunge, or push-up variation? Absolutely.

Perhaps my philosophy has evolved to a more movement based approach over the course of utilizing the functional movement screen into our team testing.  We cannot rationally believe that training limbs in isolation will create an equally strong sum of the effects.  The human body does not work that way and we need to properly train the body as a whole.  This statement doesn’t mean that we don’t do some isolation; we do some isolated movement patterns adopted from physical therapy and preventive prehabilitation exercises for a number of our athletes.

With creating the most efficient athlete, we utilize a movement based approach that focuses on movement patterns that fall within a number of classifications.  We utilize vertical pressing movements, vertical pulling movements, horizontal pressing movements, horizontal pulling movements, hip dominant movements and knee dominant movements.  We focus on anti-rotational core exercises an arsenal of s stabilization focused bridging/plank core exercises.

We try to focus on developing the total package when we develop our athletes.  We train specifically to draw out the emphasis that each athlete needs individually, determined from their FMS, and needs assessments.  We train whole body movements so that we can focus on utilizing functional core strengthening through dynamic multi-joint, multi-planar and multi-mode exercises.  We spend a tremendous amount of time fixing asymmetries whether tissue extensibility or strength.

Programming Recovery

Adding Fuel to the Machine. Proper Nutrition Is Vitally Important for our Wichita State Athletes

Nutrition

One of the advantages at working at a larger university is the tremendous support we receive from boosters, administrators and people of the community.  I am truly blessed to be surrounded by great people who are looking to advance our athletic program.  One area that has a tendency to get neglected by a strength and conditioning department is the emphasis of nutritional strategies in relation to athletic recovery.

I pride our program on doing everything we can to educate our student-athletes about proper nutritional choices; be it before, during, or after practice, competition, and weight/conditioning sessions.  We take it upon ourselves to physically go out into the community with student-athletes and conduct grocery store tours in attempts to educate student-athletes about what foods are “performance foods” and which to avoid.  We do the same thing for our on-campus athletes by visiting dorm cafeterias and educating about nutritional choices and healthy food options.  We have athletes who request nutritional guidance to undergo a 3-day or weekly food log so we can help identify problematic trends and help offer recommendations to better fit their performance goals.

The reason I do this is simple, I believe nutrition absolutely plays a larger role in recovery than what most athletes think.  I also know that athletes retain healthier eating patterns and educational information when they “learn by doing” rather than a piece of paper with healthy information printed on it.  Proper nutrition provided the fuel for these incredible athletes and I need to make sure the fuel their using is of the best and highest grade.

Even today I found myself using the following analogy with one of my student-athletes.

“Picture the athlete as a shiny new 2011 amazing Ferrari (the Human Body); with the capability of reaching speeds of 150 MPH at a drop of a hat.  Simply put, this piece of metal and steal is an incredible machine with marvelous performance potential.  The Engine (the Human Mind) is even more pristine with the pistons and gears turning at all the right times to generate the power for this body to move.  The engine determines how much effort, and much muscle can be generated by the body of the car. If you swapped the Ferrari’s engine with that of a Ford Taurus, you would not expect the vehicle to performance at the same potential as a stock Ferrari.  The mind controls the body as the engine controls the car.  The Fuel (the Human Nutrition) provides the energy for the Engine & Car to use.  You would not expect a highly sophisticated piece of beauty like a Ferrari to run off of crude engine oil?  Why would we expect the same out of our athletes?  We don’t – so I take it upon myself to do everything in my power to educate our athletes about proper nutritional choices.

Foam Rolling

Soft Tissue Work is Programmed Into Every Workout

Another area we spend a lot of time focusing on is improving tissue quality by using foam rollers and soft tissue work.  Before our team lifts we have our teams roll out on a number of different foam rollers trying to improve tissue quality in areas like the their glutes, hamstrings, TFL, adductors, calves, upper back, lats, and pectorals.

I’m a firm believer that rolling should precede strengthening or stretching.  It also serves as a 5-minute window for our athletes to ‘prepare mentally’ for the challenges (the lifting session) that is ahead of them.  It is a great time to allow our men and women to bond as a team and also serves as a way for me to casually draw athletes into conversations.  I have found the more I listen to the athlete share details of practice, their day, and their stories that in return the athletes gives me more of their attention when I discuss details of the lift and directions.

Stretching

While at Wichita State University, I program a lot of stretching into post practice routines and lift sessions in order to regain loss length in otherwise tight muscles.  At the start of each semester, we utilize a functional movement screen with all of our teams to determine which areas or movement patterns we need to focus on strengthening, lengthening or both.

We try to target some problematic areas for a majority of our athletes.  We find that a large percentage of athletes have general hip-flexor tighteness that results in an anterior pelvic tilt.  This is problematic for our strength and conditioning department because this APT inhibits the glutes from properly firing.  Obviously, maximizing our gluteus functioning and firing is important during training and athletics, so we do everything we can from stretching, foam rolling, and hip mobility work in order for the glutes to function properly.  A large part of this is lower body stretching the target areas like the hip-flexors; hamstrings; long/short lever adductors; high hamstring/groin; IT-band; and glutes.

Conclusion

We try to do everything we can for our athletes to provide a scientific-based approach to training the human body for maximal athletic performance.  We’re not trying to create monsters that cannot move nor individuals who cannot push and move opponents around the court.  The Missouri Valley Conference is competitive and the athletes of the MVC will push and shove and it’s our job to prepare our athletes for the brutality of this conference.  We’re going to use everything in the current field of research from movement screening, movement based strengthening, muscle activation,  prehabilitation, soft tissue work, flexibility and mobility work to improve our athletes.  We will not be out worked nor out researched.

I cannot begin to express how important it is to measure food out. Maybe it’s the scientist in me, maybe it’s the geek, I don’t know. However, if your serious about getting nutrition in check, then I whole heartily believe that you must approach your nutrition with a rock solid plan.

Now if your looking to just drop a few pounds or try to muscle up, then I don’t always believe you have to follow any strict nutritional plan. However, if your looking to push your body to the extreme. If you strive to optimize your body’s ability to achieve muscle mass or lose rapid amounts of fat, then I feel a food scale is absolutely necessary.

I’m not a guy who counts every single calorie that I eat throughout the day. That’s just not my style. I however know how many calories I consume on training and non training days because I know my macronutrient breakdown. I also know what meals I intend on eating depending on the hour of the day. This comes with a proper planning and tailoring your nutrition to fit your fitness or performance goals.

I’ve always recommended going out to a local store and picking up a quality food scale. Nutrition is equally as important as the weight room and as the practice field. Nutrition can make or break you. If your doing everything right in the weight room, pushing heavy weight, progressive overload, proper recovery, proper nutrition, etc; you’ll obtain the results you want.

The best part about measuring your food is that numbers don’t lie. We’ve all been there at some point. It’s 8:00pm, your stressed, and your staring down the meal you need eat next, and you think “I’ve worked hard, maybe I’ll pour a few more “XYZ” on my plate because, I deserve it”. With a food scale, this never occurs. Sure maybe the thought of it crosses your mind, but once you have a habit to measure out your food, there is no excuses, no chance of doubt, and no measure of error in portion control.

There are a lot of foods out there on the market that are extremely deceptive. I say meaning that what you may THINK is 1 oz, is probably more like 2 to 3 oz when you don’t measure it. It’s so easy to fall into the pitfall of dieting and cutting calories only to spin your wheels in frustration because your not making progress. If this sounds familiar than you may want to take a long, hard look at what your doing and what your eating.

Here is my list of extremely deceptive foods that are an absolutely must for measuring out before consuming. Again, this is just my list. You may consume these without measuring them but if you feel like weight loss or gain is stalling, you might want to look what your putting on your plate.

1. Cereal
2. Peanut Butter
3. Ketchup
4. Salad Dressing
5. Coffee Creamers
6. Chips/Grains/Etc
7. Nuts

The Root Hog Sled - A Beast

I had a great workout today. Went into the gym and did a few movements that I haven’t done in quite awhile. The first being a seated leg curl using the Keiser Functional Trainer and a Valslide. That really hit the hamstrings great. I rest-paused all the reps and aimed to get 30 total across 3 attempts a leg. I fell a bit short, somewhere between 20-25 reps for each leg. This will allow me to attempt the same weight next time in aims of increasing repetitions. Remember, progression is key! If your using the same weight or getting the same amount of repetitions – that is not progression, that’s stagnation.

I then ended up doing some single leg stepup’s onto a high plyometric box. Ended up using 160lbs and scratched out around 6 reps per each leg, and then I dropped to 120lbs and aimed to get 20 each leg, but I actually only got around 9 each. I fell quite short and will drop the weight significantly next time around. I was just eye balling the weight since I haven’t done these movements since I started the “Shred Down”.

My last movement was a calf raise utilizing a leg press machine. I only aim for 12 repetitions for this movement but it’s really the TUT (Time Under Tension) that gets this workout. I perform a 1 sec concentric, a 5 second eccentric, and a 15 second stretch at the bottom of the movement with my foot in dorsiflexion. After 4 minutes (12 repetitions), your calves will be on fire.

It's a love/hate relationship

Finally, to finish the session with the cardiovascular component, I wanted to do something a bit different than my LSD (Long Slow Distance) runs lasting an hour. I set a goal to do 30 minutes of what I coined “Prowler Cardio”.

I set my watch to 30 seconds of “work time” and 15 seconds of “rest time”. I actually only loaded the horns with 45lb plates on each (totaling 90lbs) and it still is one hell of a workout. Truth me honest, I didn’t just do prowler the whole time, as I am fortunate to have a bunch of other tools at my reach.

I also ended up using the new sled, The Root Hog for a variety of pushes, pulls, and drags. I would alternate between either the prowler, or the root hog, or a kettlebell swing. None of this work was intended to “build muscle”, rather it was simply used in order for me to increase my heart rate, and keep me moving. It was one hell of a workout, let me tell you.

Cereal - The Whole Reason I Train

In the end, I reached 30 minutes of hard interval cardio and got to walk out the gym beat up from all the pushing, pulling, lifting, and swinging. If your looking to mix up your workout, start thinking about how you can use the weights around you (in a cardiovascular fashion). Don’t be so constraint to just running, or biking for your cardio. There is plenty of things a person could do to gain anaerobic/aerobic fitness. Sprinting, Hill Running, Tossing heavy objects. Who knows – Be Creative!

Lastly, a perfect post workout nutritional meal. 40 grams of whey isolate and 93 grams (75 grams of carbohydrates) of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I end up mixing my protein with water. I know a lot of people who complain about that and say water + protein is disgusting, but I’ve never drank my protein shakes with milk so I’m not missing out on anything. Until next time people!!

I’ve been getting hit with some questions via e-mail asking me about my nutrition. If you’ve read my blog well enough and know me personally, then you are probably aware of my weekly refeed meals with higher GI sugary carbohydrates. While  others might sit there and be envious of a stack of 10 waffles dripping with syrup, it would be unfair if you never knew the the flip side. The flip side of my nutrition?

I routinely cook up vegetables so I can garnish the chicken or eggs I eat frequently throughout the day.

6 out of 7 days I am operating within 100% of compliance of my meals, target macronutrients intake, frequency and hydration. I end up eating 7 meals a day, measuring every single thing I eat, and doing endless amounts of food preparation. That might be too much for some but to tell you the truth, I love every minute of it all. I love preparing the food I’m to eat for the day, I look cooking and I love taking care of numero uno.

I end up weighing out every single thing I eat. Serving sizes are too hard to guess and having a scale is the only valid way of measuring serving sizes

I wanted to give you a glimpse of some of the things I’ve been eating and doing around the house. Some of the pictures might be of food preparation or of randomness. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy some of the comments, pictures, or glimpses into what I do, and how I do.

Chicken & Vegetables

If you ever purchased a new powerlifting belt, you know that the thing is stiffer than a board. What you need to do for a few days is break the sucker in by bending it frequently in both directions. This is what I'm doing here.

This is one of my favorite meals. This is some Krusteez Waffle Mix I cooked up. Whats great about this is that it's low fat and high GI Carb (Perfect for a Skipload). While you may think that there is fat in the butter, rest assure that IT ISN'T BUTTER. That my friend, is Low-Fat Cake Batter Ice Cream. Nothing sounds better than Waffles Soaked in Syrup w/ Ice Cream on Top.

I’ve been getting hit with some questions via e-mail asking me about my nutrition. If you’ve read my blog well enough and know me personally, then you are probably aware of my weekly refeed meals with higher GI sugary carbohydrates. While  others might sit there and be envious of a stack of 10 waffles dripping with syrup, it would be unfair if you never knew the the flip side. The flip side of my nutrition?

I routinely cook up vegetables so I can garnish the chicken or eggs I eat frequently throughout the day.

6 out of 7 days I am operating within 100% of compliance of my meals, target macronutrients intake, frequency and hydration. I end up eating 7 meals a day, measuring every single thing I eat, and doing endless amounts of food preparation. That might be too much for some but to tell you the truth, I love every minute of it all. I love preparing the food I’m to eat for the day, I look cooking and I love taking care of numero uno.

I end up weighing out every single thing I eat. Serving sizes are too hard to guess and having a scale is the only valid way of measuring serving sizes

I wanted to give you a glimpse of some of the things I’ve been eating and doing around the house. Some of the pictures might be of food preparation or of randomness. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy some of the comments, pictures, or glimpses into what I do, and how I do.

Chicken & Vegetables

If you ever purchased a new powerlifting belt, you know that the thing is stiffer than a board. What you need to do for a few days is break the sucker in by bending it frequently in both directions. This is what I'm doing here.

This is one of my favorite meals. This is some Krusteez Waffle Mix I cooked up. Whats great about this is that it's low fat and high GI Carb (Perfect for a Skipload). While you may think that there is fat in the butter, rest assure that IT ISN'T BUTTER. That my friend, is Low-Fat Cake Batter Ice Cream. Nothing sounds better than Waffles Soaked in Syrup w/ Ice Cream on Top.

Well, apparently I did well enough in Graduate school to pass. Actually, I did phenomenal in graduate school – not to toot my own horn, but I’m just saying. Now that this chapter is finished, I am with a bit of free time to catch up on a few things. As you may or may not know, I have a wedding that we’re planning in July. I also have the process of finding a new strength & conditioning position across the US. Overall, I’m glad that I finished school and earned my Masters. It’s been a fun and great experience; I learned a ton – both in the class room and in the applied setting.

I don’t however want to take an entire blog post to write about Graduate school. I, however, would like to encourage anybody who is hesitant about it, – SIMPLY DO IT! I’m telling you, the two years time that it may take to complete is completely worth it. It all pays off in the end. I’ll now get off my soap box. Rather, I want to talk about some random stuff throughout my days – now that I have an opportunity to write a bit more frequently.

I am jonesing off some new coffee that I’ve been drinking lately. Dunkin Donuts “Turbo”. Let me tell you, if you haven’t tried their coffee, pick up a bag of their ground beans at your local grocery store. Literally, after a cup or two of their Turbo flavor, I’m ready to hit the treadmill, road or gym; hell… Maybe all three. There is actually quite a few research studies that have covered the effects of coffee before cardio in regards to weight loss.

I wanted to take a moment out of my post workout nutrition meal to educate you guys/gals on something that I’ve been doing lately. I will make no lie about it, there are particular reasons why I work out. One of those reasons, is my Cinnamon Toast Crunch and protein. I know there are drinks on the market that combine the exact ratios of protein to carbohydrates for “optimal” recovery… But I can tell you that those mass produced drinks taste nothing compared to the taste of both C.T.C., and my childhood. I have a deep love for cinnamon toast crunch and for me to indulge on cereal and protein right after a workout, and supply my body with carbohydrates and protein… I’m in heaven. For those of you who are hesitate, I swear it’s tasty. I use your run of the mill chocolate whey protein powder combined with water (as I’m not a fan of milk), and good old fashion CTC. I’ve done this will all sorts of kids cereals like Cookie Crisps, Chocolate Pebbles, etc. It’s good, trust me.

This picture represents, why I work out. You know I’m just kidding. Everybody wants to get bigger, stronger and faster in the gym. But don’t kid yourself, nutrition is absolutely vital for proper recovery. I end up eating this immediately after my workout w/ anywhere of 50g – 75g of carbohydrates. An hour after that meal I end up eating another meal with less carbohydrates but a similar amount of protein. This is my post workout strategy. If you have an opinions or want to share your methods, feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to hear how you guys are recovering immediately following your workouts.