ladperformance

Resistance Training or Bodyweight Training - Which is Better?

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 13:20:00 GMT

This age old question is still being asked by many parents and athletes. They see athletic heroes posting videos of maximal amount of pushups & sit-ups or only posting videos of heavy squatting & bench press. I’ll clear the confusion so you can train with confidence and not worry about what is “right” and what is “wrong.”

Let’s dive in…

First, you need to change the question you are asking. Rather than asking which is better, ask what each provides.

Here are some things resistance training provides:

1. Max muscle growth

2. Compression potential

3. Tissue stimulation

4. Neural output

5. “Bro culture”

Here are some things bodyweight training provides:

1. Utility to athletic movement

2. Proprioceptive demand

3. Reflexive potential

4. Degrees of freedom in movement

5. Reciprocal and alternating

Think of these as tools in your toolbox. Sometimes you need the wrench to get the job done other times you’ll need the power tool. Neither of these are “bad.” Each has a unique purpose - similar to bodyweight and resistance training.

After laying this out you can start to understand that these should not be polarized. There is carryover, there is tremendous value found in both. Ask yourself - What am I trying to develop? What athletic qualities am I aiming to improve upon? Maybe you need to get stronger, but you don’t want to feel overly compressed or weighed down… There could then be a blend that can be achieved. Most likely this blend is the key to success!

A mentor of mine brought this to my attention several years ago and it always resonated with me… He told me that good athletes can manage a ton of complexity (both internal and external). Therefore the performance training needs to include complexity - if it doesn’t, the stimulation isn’t matching up.

Sprinting faster (more complex) can improve your power clean max (less complex) - not guaranteed that the vice versa will work.

This doesn’t mean that bodyweight > strength training. I am simply pointing out that sprinting is the most complex neuromuscularly demanding thing you can do and if you improve in that the less complex tasks can very well improve.

As athletes we need a systematic approach that is more complex in nature and not so linear. This is something that I have learned over the years in this field. Earlier in my career I prioritized a lot more resistance training, leaving out a lot of bodyweight/human skills in my training. I figured since I was playing a sport I didn’t have to develop anything here. This was far from the truth. I then used this same approach with my athletes earlier on in my career. What I learned was that there was a ceiling. As the athletes lifted more weight the performance on the field or on the court wasn’t improving & even more so the reciprocal movement, the fluidity in the movement, had been lost.

I pivoted away from this to a more complex approach. Added more sprints, more human movements & reduced the volume of resistance training. I kept the strength component relatively simple and did not get too worried about the granular details… not saying the granular details are unimportant, but they take away from the main thing if an unproportional amount of time is spent on it

In the future I will discuss more about how I program this bodyweight & resistance training blend

If you are seeing athletes or coaches polarizing these, ignore it. They fail to understand the underlining question

I’ll leave you with 3 questions to continue asking yourself…

Is this training making me a more robust athlete?

Am I a better athlete in regards to understanding moving my body and objects in space?

Do I have more psychological confidence with lots of “information” in the training space?

Answer honestly. If you can’t answer these questions positively than you must re-evaluate your blend.

��️: If you are looking to take the guesswork out of your training and have athletic goals coming up in 2026 this I’d highly recommend our online program, The Foundational Athlete (TFA). This program was built from years of experience keeping concepts like what I have shared today in mind. No matter what sport or how old you are the program holds tremendous value ��

TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see (we are confident that will not be the case!) just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. Seriously, what’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

What I Learned from Achilles Tendinitis

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 17:42:13 GMT

5 Things I learned from dealing with chronic Achilles Tendinitis

Have you struggled with tendon pain? Does it always seem to come back no matter how many rest days or calf raises you do? If you are like me this has been a very frustrating problem to deal with. I’m going to give you 5 lasting takeaways from dealing with tendonitis. I hope this will help you or someone that you know get to the other side of pain. I know how debilitating it can be especially if you are a very active person like myself.

Please �� this because if you understand it and implement it will help you greatly.

First, the prolonged RICE protocol is very flawed - it’s terrible. If you are working with someone who is telling you to do this over a period of weeks please go somewhere else. I seriously mean that. There is truly no science behind it. Rest. Ice. Compression. Elevation. I know you’ve heard of it. You receive this from the Doctor whenever you get injured. I can tell you for the Achilles tendon or other tendinopathy this is not the protocol to use especially if you are playing a sport. Now let me stop and say this.. I am not referring to going back to what you were doing prior to injury. That does not constitute the “loading” I am referring to. There are very proven to work ways to load - we will talk about shortly.

For now, understand this simply point… when you un-load the achilles for periods of time you make the tendon worse. Tendons need load to recover, to improve. If you want to dive into science go check out Dr Keith Barr’s work. He’s been on quite a few podcasts over the years, you can’t miss him. He talks a ton about this.

Whenever I would return to playing basketball I would always get a flare up in the Achilles after weeks of “resting.” It became deconditioned, I would get extremely frustrated and wondered who I needed to see to get it “looked at”. Here’s what I know now - I needed more mechanical load. This mechanical load produces collagen and thus strengthens the tissue.

Second, exploring movement in my heel has been an absolute game changer. If you have high arches, are springy and reactive in your sports and you struggle with nagging Achilles tendon pain this point is really going to help you. From a function perspective there has been nothing that has moved the needle more for my Achilles. If your heels are “stuck” you need to provide them an opportunity to invert (move toward the midline) & evert (move away from the midline). I am not saying a lot of movement, it’s marginal. But for pain’s sake this marginal goes a long way!

I have talked about this before, but when we start to drive energy or force into the ground we require a coupling of joint actions to occur. Critical joint actions happen at the foot, one of which is the heel has to move in opposition to the forefoot. There has to be a twisting movement (think of a wet towel). This twisting helps to lengthen the foot, creating an increased surface area for you to produce force. When you have a heel that is stuck & can not evert when you begin to “push” into th e ground (mine still struggles) the achilles can’t leverage the reflex and there is too much strain.

Using the pipes & some of the odd novel objects in my gym like the rock bed, bricks & wedges has been crucial. I continue to do this weekly and it will stay in my program. I filmed myself to notice improvements made and noted what worked, what didn’t.

Third, the big three - intensity, time under tension & volume (sets and reps) - can not be approached in a wishy washy fashion. You need to stick to a plan - 3 months. When you scan the literature these three things are not disputed from the “experts”. In your training to health you need to focus on these variables more than anything else. The intensity has to be there, you have to go to the point where it gets difficult. From there you can progress over time. When you get to these points of discomfort you need to stay there, load it under a significant length of time. This is not a 1 set type of deal. This is more like 2-3 sets 2-3 times per week… in some cases this can be daily. The volume has to be there.

One thing I want to leave you with here on this point - a difference between stiffness and compliance. Think of pogo jumps where you are bouncing off the ground as stiff as possible vs. deep tier jumps where you are allowing yourself to yield or comply with the ground (you are working with it rather than against it). Both are important in your protocol, but note that early on in your program you need to work a lot more in the compliance realm. Exercises where you are not overcoming, but yielding. Slow eccentric calf raises, slow eccentric lunges, some deep tier plyometrics, etc..

Fourth, incorporating more delayed knee extension based exercises in my training improved my Achilles. One of my favorite ones that I do weekly - David Grey’s slouch (image above). Why does this matter. It matters because the delayed knee extension keeps loading on the Achilles. Remember what we said earlier… there needs to be load to make improvement. If you look at the image above you can see that the foot is in a dorsiflexed position. In this position the Achilles is stretched. When you plantar flex your foot (pointing the toe down) the Achilles is not stretched because the heel is coming up… no load there. Therefore not the most beneficial in your recovery especially in the early parts.

Achilles tendon relief can occur when the soleus is strengthened. The soleus is the deep calf muscle located underneath the gastroc, in connection with the gastroc connecting to form the Achilles. This muscle gets really stimulated with delayed knee extension.

Fifth, to fully get back to sport you need more than isometrics. This has been the last piece of the puzzle for me. Isometrics are great, but there needs to be some eccentric strengthening where you get to failure & plyometrics. It is really difficult to get to failure in an Achilles isometric. Compare that with slow eccentrics where you are getting a stretch- you can really load these up for 6-8 reps and the Achilles is on fire.

Athletes who are fast or “quick twitch” have Achilles that are super stiff, perhaps at more risk for problems. This is why before you go back to sport to your activity you really need to find ways to do these high load eccentrics as well as your field or court work! You can’t just go isometrics for a month or two and call it good. I know this because I did this protocol multiple times and I always came back to sport with a flare up in due time.

��️: If you are looking to take the guesswork out of your training and have athletic goals coming up in 2026 this I’d highly recommend my online program, The Foundational Athlete (TFA). This program was built from years of experience keeping concepts like what I have shared today in mind. No matter what sport or how old you are the program holds tremendous value ��

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

How Strong is Strong Enough

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:56:01 GMT

Gaining strength is multi-factorial and highly dependent on a disciplined approach toward this pursuit. Some may find this to be easier than others, id be lying if I said that genetics do not play a factor. What I have understood in my decade+ long journey of resistance training is that consistency is truly the most important thing. There are so many ways that people are selling strength. 1 by 20, slow eccentrics, wave sets, french contrast, tempo training, etc… Here’s the thing, they all work! The work does work. All of these examples are not equal & they do depend on the goal you are shooting for, but they can all get you stronger. The question becomes how strong do I need to get?

The majority of the sports I work with are team sports, fast paced, change of direction. A lot of my younger, immature athletes who come to me and talk about goals want to get stronger, yet the idea of this isn’t always understood. My perspective on strength has evolved over my time in the field. I don’t demonize strength training, I say my perspective has evolved, not changed. I love strength training, it’s needed. I have made mistakes with younger athletes on both sides of the spectrum… I have prioritized and carried strength in a disconnected proportion & on the flip side I have not done any strength training at all and saw some repeated soft tissue injuries creep into the mix.

I personally do what some would call strength training about 4 times per week. However, this looks very different than what you are used to seeing. I think of strength differently than most traditional strength and conditioning or sports performance coaches. Most coaches think and program strength in terms of compressing the body as hard as possible. I view strength as being more resilient, elastic and powerful. The former diminishes options & decreases problem solving capabilities.

There’s a great book on movement from Adarian Barr and Jenn Pilotti called, “Let me Introduce You…” This book talks about many interesting topics, but one chapter of the book highlights stress, strain and deformation of the body as you move through space. This really resonates with me.

Stress, as they put it, is a force that is imposed upon you. Gravity would be a stress. If you are squatting with a weight on your back the weight on your back is a stress. There are different degrees of this stress, some things provide more. Pretty easy to understand, right? For example, a barbell squat would be greater stress than a bodyweight squat. This stress creates an input within your system. This input determines how much output you provide. Makes sense. Think about that same squat example… you require much more input with a bar on your back than a bodyweight squat.

The stress creates a strain. Strain, as they put it, is the resistance to the imposed stress. This resistance can be high or it can be low. Going back to the barbell squat example the strain (resistance) needs to be high because if it wasn’t you would crumble underneath the bar like a house of cards. Strain would be low for someone who is trying to work with gravity to fall toward the ground or for a yogi who is trying to do a back bend. There isn’t much resistance, if there was the end ranges would look a lot different!

This interplay between the stress and the strain creates a deformity somewhere in the body. The amount of deformation depends on how much stress and how much strain. If the strain equals the amount of stress placed on the system then there isn’t that much deformation. Here’s the thing though… in movement something has to deform. There has to be some sort of yielding at the joints in order for you to move through space.

Cool. Soooo why am I bringing all of this up? To me if you know about how your body moves in space and where you want this deformation to happen then you can understand how to get strong. I really like how Jenn and Adarian highlight this in the book. It was a lightbulb moment for me and actually changed a lot about how I think about what needs to get strong.

Here’s a real example of something I see all the time with m y athletes @ LAD HQ… A lot of my high schoolers like your traditional upper body volume days. It gives them confidence, gives them a nice little pump to carry forward that day. They see this everywhere on social media feeds, they see the big muscles in the chest and back and they want that. I totally get it, I do too! Here’s the thing… though the “broness” is amazing for things such as improved body armor and horsepower, more confidence, more tissue resilience, etc.. it does come at a cost if done excessively. I see this a lot with a lot of high school kids who solely choose bodybuilding methods to get stronger. They start losing degrees of freedom in their movement, start moving more like a fridge. You know how difficult it is to turn a fridge, right? It’s all 90 degree turns. Our body is not designed to move this like! We are organized in spirals ( a helical design)

What is misunderstood is that too much compression can effect the signal, it can effe ct the timing and sequencing of joints as it pertains to when they are supposed to fire. Let’s take the back squat. Too much back squat can yield a poor transition to the speed position or “Class II Lever” as Adarian Barr puts it. Traditional squatting is done with the heel pressed into the ground and the weight behind your fulcrum or pivot point (which you can think of as the ankle complex in the squat). Though this does a lot for what we mentioned earlier it could very much produce a “mushy” or too muscular driven strategy for your sport. This is clearly evident when you accelerate in sport, you’ll see a heel that is pinned to the ground and an athlete who struggles to get to the ball of the foot quickly. I know this because I have been through it.

Okay, let’s come back to the beginning. How strong do we get?

Well, as strong as we need to be that doesn’t interfere with the coordination, sequencing and timing of our movement. Will squatting twice a week be bad for this? No, have at it. Change up the position of the load, change of the depth, do some single leg, etc.. Will a “bro day” or two effect how quickly I am changing direction in my sport? No. I am telling you to be cautious of your shape changes. Be cautious of your movement patterns and when you feel that those are being interfered with. You need to become a better sensor. Ask yourself better questions… how will this exercise transfer to athleticism?

At LAD Performance we incorporate strength in a mixture of ways. Your body responds well to complexity, but we don’t complicate strength. As we have talked about before, your body is a system of systems and everything is not linear. Here’s another way of saying this: sprinting a few times a week will most likely make you stronger in the weight room. Why would that happen? Well think about how fast you have to send neurological signals, think about how your systems have to coordinate and fire at precisely the right time. There is so much complexity there that it is nearly impossible to replicate in the weight room. Complimented, sure, but not replicated.

Make sure your strength training is not making you a worse athlete for your sport. Have measured tests to gauge yourself. In our program, The Foundational Athlete, you can see how we incorporate strength into our athletic development plan. You’ll quickly understand what I mean by carrying strength in a manageable ratio.

��️: If you are looking to take the guesswork out of your training and have athletic goals coming up this year I’d highly recommend my online program, The Foundational Athlete (TFA). This program was built from years of experience keeping concepts like what I have shared today in mind. No matter what sport or how old you are the program holds tremendous value ��

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liki ng what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Welcome Back!

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 18:59:00 GMT

We're So Back!

“Where have you been, man?!”

It’s one of those questions that I feel I don’t have the time to answer… nor necessarily have the right avenue to explain. Today I’ll use this come back post to give a little context, tell you a little bit about where we’ve been & what’s cookin’ @ LAD HQ.

First & most importantly the family is growing if you haven’t seen or heard yet. My beautiful wife and I are expecting baby Roman Anthony DeFino early August. All signs point to him being a big boy. Throughout these last 8 months I have been so incredibly impressed with my wife, what she has had to endure and the miracle that is this baby. I don’t think it will ever cease to amaze me. The ultrasounds and imaging just keep getting cooler and cooler. All the mothers out there, ya’ll are the rock, the miracle workers. Expect to see a a lot more of the boy with older brother Sully �� in the coming months ahead.

The LAD Performance family has stayed the course. Loads of training sessions, expansion conversations, continuing education, travel and more have shored up and refined a lot of our core principles. We have been fortunate to have some really great mentors in this field who have challenged us to expand our horizon and outlook this year. Leveling up is what my high school kids would say. We’re excited to share that we have a new hire! Izzy Garcia is our marketing strategist with a very unique & creative skillset. She has already made a noticeable impact in her first couple of months & we can’t wait to see what time will bring.

It is very easy to get caught up in the shiny new toy or trendy drill or exercise now a days, but we have kept it very simple this year… probably more simple than ever before. Our 30,000 foot view stays undefeated & we can’t wait to share what that looks like in the weeks ahead. We’re continuing to learn how to blend AI into our company (we’ll talk more about this shortly) . Sifting through the noise and the bs will be paramount as we commit to giving you the best information we possibly can.

We are incredibly proud of our incoming Freshman class of college athletes. Some of these kids we have been working with since they were in Middle School… to see the growth and the manifestation of the work they put in really fires me up. All the conversations about these moments will stay with me forever. This is a large part of the reason I am doing what I am doing. The relationships that we have built with them go far beyond the walls of our gym. They are family as are all our athletes. Our team is not made up of “Strength and Conditioning” coaches who operate in the parameters of a gym. I won’t go on a tangent here, but I actually hate that title. Back to the kids…We are so grateful to be a part of the athletic journey & know that the work is not done yet! We’re crushing this summer to get them ready to make an immediate impact as they head to college.

The major thing I want to share with you all in this post are 5 principles that we’ve been re-visiting this year with the team. We began the year talking through these in early January and now in July are doubling down on the value. We hope these can help you out in some way on your journey.

1. More depth, less breadth

Historically this has been a big struggle, something I have wrestled with a lot. I want to be the best in everything I do, this bleeds into the direction of the company. Welp it doesn’t quite work like that, bud. There are so many parts of this industry that we want to dive into. So many topics that are fascinating that we would love to spend time going deep into. Here’s the reality though… doing this will create average & we aren’t going for average. We want to stand out in a select few disciplines, keep it simple & execute well. There are some amazing experts in fields that fascinate us that we will continue to refer you all too going forward. An example of this would be sports nutrition. Obviously very important, but we have relied on other leaders in the field to help field common questions that we receive.

Does this mean we don’t educate ourselves on sports nutrition? NO, I am not saying that. We actually know quite a bit about this subject, but we don’t know it all! We are focusing on a smaller amount of passions at this time.

2. Find others who are smarter than you

I’ll be real with you… I have put off partnerships and conversations with people who had more experience or who were smarter than me. I was intimidated. Many reasons contributed to this, but nearly every time I have regretted these decisions. It probably boils down to an ego thing that I constantly battle. Deep in my being I know that if we are going to grow I need to surround myself with very smart individuals who possess skill sets and expertise that I don’t have. Collectively we become stronger & our athletes get better.

Something you may not know about me… I never went to school for exercise science , kinesiology or sports science. My degrees were in finance and accounting. Post college I spent all of my 20’s working in corporate finance at Boeing. All of what I am doing now I was doing on the side, before work, after work & on the weekends hesitant (for a few large reasons) to take it on full time. So as I fully transitioned to this career I felt so far behind despite the fact that I had this side hustle going for a few years prior. I didn’t want to sound dumb or look stupid, but I had to learn. At first it was easy to find these people, I was the sponge soaking up everything I could and then applying it on myself and then further down the road on my athletes.

Fast forward a couple of years… I stopped growing like I had planned. Back in the early days of covid I developed some really key mentors who have had such a profound impact on my philosophies. As I learned and developed I started to become too rigid, less inclusive of other (sometimes conflicting) points of view. There goes that ego again. I isolated myself and indirectly the direction of this company.

A focus has been to get more involved & feel a little, well… dumb? When I was “dumb” I listened more and asked more questions. So here’s to getting back to asking more questions. Stay tuned to what we continue to learn from future certifications, podcasts, seminars immersives.

I know that I can’t do this alone. Having a solid team will raise the bar and bring on more exciting things that we are eagerly anticipating.

3. Walk the walk

So pivotal. I get asked at least a couple times a week to compete against these young, spry athletes.

“Hey coach come toe the line against us!”

I don’t want to be the person who can’t perform the things they teach. I am not hating on those that can’t, but that is just not me. I fully understand (at least conceptually ��) that time will catch up with me, but I am working on delaying that as long as humanly possible. I am obsessed with training, learning more about how my body moves more efficiently, developing my athleticism, etc.. I am the weirdo who all the neighbors stare at in the street questioning. Great people though. I want to dunk a basketball when I have a kid, I want to run a 4.5 40 yard dash, I want to play in the city basketball leagues. I train for these things now and I will train for them in the future. I am not doing this for the validation from my athletes, but I do feel they need to see this to validate who they’re relying on.

4. Show up today

There can’t be zeros. I need to find ways to put points on the board, no matter how small it looks. I know that these compound into larger things, it’s not rocket science. This is not promoting the work until your dead culture. This is a momentum play knowing that I will improve and get better if I “grease the wheel”. In turn this will make my products and services better it’s this ever long pursuit. Some days I’m not feeling it & other days I feel great and time’s flying. GOOD. I commit to doing what I can regardless of the magnitude. Small wins day by day will add up to big achievements over time.

You’ll continue to see more of the LAD Performance team around. We’re committed to more education & more involvement in the local community amongst other things. Shorter form, longer form, interviews, etc.. This principle is one I am really thinking about as I start my journey as a dad… showing up for my son. Showing up when I am tired, when I am super busy, when I am “not feeling it”.

5. Adapt and evolve

AI, future tech & robotics are all playing a bigger part in this industry right now. If you want to receive a 6 week training program to improve your athleticism just head over to your favorite AI tool like ChatGPT and prompt it to create one. What once took hours and days will now take seconds. It will actually give you a pretty decent program, keep asking it questions to refine this program and you can really be on your way. If all we did here @ LAD Performance was create online workout programs for athletes we, very soon, will be out of a job. You see this, it’s happening in all industries. I don’t want to compete with these tools. I will not outsmart those tools. I want to utilize them as resources for growth.

We have integrated these quite a bit this year to help with frameworks, outlines and ideas. It has freed up time to spend on more important tasks. Relying completely on a ChatGPT could ruin the way we interact with our athletes. Why? Well for one it takes the human element away entirely. This is the most important part. Understanding the stressors, the humanity. Everyone is different. There is no one size fits all. Nobody responds to the same movement the same, people feel things differently. This is one of the ways we hold value, through the experienced coach’s eye.

Thinking about our value in this day and age is something I think about all the time.. it’s one of those that keeps me up at night. There is a lot of nuance that you pick up as you gain more experience in this industry, in any industry. Think about wine connoisseurs that can detect nuanced aromas that distinguish one vintage red from another. That connoisseur holds value from experience. The experience of the senses and the feelings. What we can spot in movement with our senses holds a lot of value… our tribe holds a lot of value… In future blog posts this year I will talk a lot about this and ways we as trainers or coaches can navigate this difficult time.

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

LAD Performance-The Weekly Dose

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 20:13:15 GMT

Welcome to The Weekly Dose!

Every week I set out to help educate you on movement practices and principles that will enable you to become a better athlete. Whether you are in High School or are a 75 year old grandparent trying to keep up with your grandkids this email will have value! Today I am going to share ways that you can build your athleticism from the ground up & why you should view your feet a little differently. I hope you enjoy!

I have to say that it is great to see the increased attention the foot is gaining in athletic training practices. Our feet hold over 25% of the bone structure, but yet hardly get appropriately “trained”. Today I want to talk about why you should care about improving the functionality of your feet & SIMPLE and EFFECTIVE ways you as an athlete can improve them.

First, let’s understand the geometry of your feet. Your foot is made up of a series of arches. We have three main arches in the foot: Medial, Lateral and Transverse. These three main arches of the foot play a crucial role in forming domes IF appropriately raised up and activated. This is important to understand in the context of what arches and domes provide.

Draw your attention to a bridge for a second. We know that a lot of the most popular bridges we see in the world use arches and the power of strong shapes to create a dome like structure. Why? This is because a dome can support an incredible amount of force and load. It provides a strong structure as millions of vehicles pass.

Now with this in mind examine your feet.

What do you notice about the shape of your foot (regardless of how “arched” it actually is)? Do you see how we too possess this same arch like structure? We need this as we hop, jump, run, change direction, etc.. as a way to dampen the force! If we do not have the ability to activate the main arches in our foot to form dome structures we will struggle to handle the force demands needed for sport. This is one of the leading reasons we are seeing so many lower leg injuries. I am sure you have been told, but when we sprint or jump we are exerting forces that are several multiples of bodyweight. How are we even able to do this? Think about that. If you were to go ahead and load up a barbell with 5 times your body weight to perform a single leg squat do you think you could do that?!

Now that I have drawn your attention to the structure of your foot let’s talk about how we can restore the functionality. Know this… IT CAN BE TRAINED & IMPROVED! I hate when people consistently talk about how they have injury prone ankles or feet & fail to expose themselves to any sort of barefoot stimulus. One simple solution for these people is to literally take off the shoes and perform any sort of freestyle textured training. This textured training can be over rocks, bricks, sticks or any other surface that heightens the sensation of your foot.

The foot and lower leg respond very well to sensory stimuli, proprioceptive challenge and high rep impulses. A way that we can do this is an adequate amount of repetition in hopping exercises. Insert the hyperarch hop. Hyperarch hops are simple and elastic hops that help load & activate the transverse arch. This will raise up the arch to form that dome like structure we talked about earlier.

A really quick thing I want to point out about the hyperarch hop… one of the main reasons why I love doing these is because it helps to build the aliveness of the tendons that sit atop the foot, the extensor digitorum. If you look at your own feet notice the difference between the top of them relative to your hands. You’ll probably find that your hands possess a more prominent structure. This is because they are far more active during the day than your feet are. Majority of us spend our day cramming our feet in shoes without experiencing any sensory input other than our foot against a shoe.

Our feet and body as a whole for that matter are not just made up of muscles that pull on bones to move. They are far more complex. We have a inner web of fascia (connective tissue) that runs throughout our body. This fascia forms the largest connected system of the body, it connects us like giant seran wrap.

A good illustration of this is a long neck dinosaur. Look at the neck relative to the center of the body. Do you think its neck could withstand itself solely from muscles pulling on bones to keep it upright.. not a chance, right?! There’s no difference with the human body (other than being a little less extreme). The human body uses this fascial system with the skeletal system to help absorb external forces that are far beyond the capability of the muscles.

The last exercise that I want to leave you with is the 3 Way Hip Circle. This is a great exercise to build a connection from the foot to the hip. It involves a series of rotations, clockwise and counterclockwise, that demand prominent activation in your three arches. This exercise is a favorite in my warm ups before hopping, jumping or sprinting.

I hope that you find value in today’s email. There is a ton of information in here to help you on your 2024 athletic journey.

If you have interest to go deeper & struggle with information overload or just can’t seem to get yourself started check us out on our website and utilize our online training plans. We’d truly love to assist you!

LAD Performance-The Weekly Dose

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 19:55:28 GMT

Understand leverage to become a better athlete

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Every week I set out to help educate you on movement practices and principles that will enable you to become a better athlete. Whether you are a high school athlete or a 75 year old grandparent trying to keep up with your grandkids, this email will have value!

Today I am going over the concept of leverage and how we can use our body as a system of levers to excel in our sport. I hope you enjoy!

Have you ever heard that someone has great leverage in sports?

This is commonly used for individuals who are able to maintain a positional advantage.

They have angles, body awareness & understand physics (most likely without even knowing it).

So what constitutes a lever?

A lever has three pieces. A fulcrum (pivot point), an effort or force and load or resistance. A lever is a simple machine that makes work easier. Our body is composed of all sorts of these simple machines.

Where the effort, load and fulcrum are positioned within a lever yield different results. This is important. Let’s briefly talk about how this plays out.

Our body is composed of 3 different kinds of these levers.

There are Class 1, Class 2 & Class 3 levers. Each of these are good at specific things. In today’s episode we are only going to highlight Class 1 and Class 2 levers.

Class 1 is designed for strength �� & to put on the brakes ��.

A simple class 1 example is a seesaw, like what you see in the green image above.

Imagine you’re performing a squat. You go down into the bottom of this movement with your heel down. Your center of mass travels straight down as far as your body allows.

In this movement the ankle joint serves as the fulcrum (pivot point), the load is the barbell weight that is resting on your back & the effort is coming from the quads, hamstrings & glutes (to name a few) as they fight the weight.

In movement and in sport we need this type of positioning.

A Class 2 lever is built for speed. This is your go lever. This lever helps you to get somewhere.

Think of the action of jumping out for distance or accelerating in a sprint.

The initial action of your body is to fall forward. You then complete a rolling action of the foot via a drop in the shin (shin angle change) with a forward projection of your center of mass.

The fulcrum is the ball of the foot or transverse arch, the load is the body & the effort can be found in the calf muscles. Your body weight with gravity is pulling you down and the action of the calf muscles are fighting against that. There is a standoff going on between the two.

The fulcrum is at one side, the effort is on the other and the load is in the middle.

Simple image would be a wheelbarrow

Here’s a video breakdown showing what I am talking about with a class 2 lever:

So here’s the deal...

In sport you need to be able to transition quickly from a Class 1 to a Class 2 lever. This is how you retain your leverage. If you remember anything from this email it should be that!

The best athletes in the world excel at this.

Our traditional “weight room” training that is so commonplace at our high schools, colleges and pro facilities has failed us when it comes to this.

Nearly everything being done in these facilities is Class 2 lever oriented. Athletes who spend a lot of time in the weight room are getting really good at building the brakes ��.

Don’t get me wrong, you do need this. Squatting is great for many reasons, but over-squatting can be detrimental for the simple reason of this… it doesn’t allow us to speed up the transition from Class 1 to Class 2.

Athletes who struggle with this are the ones who have a “mushy ankle” and who stay on their heel way too long.

Here are 5 exercises that you can perform to help you transition quicker to your go lever.

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

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LAD Performance- The Weekly Dose

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 19:26:46 GMT

A simple solution to getting stronger

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today I am breaking down a simple way anyone can get stronger regardless of age or ability.

How can I get strong if I don’t have any gym equipment?

What’s something I can do if I don’t have a lot of time that will get me strong?

I get questions like these a lot. Today’s email will provide simple solutions to getting you stronger at managing your own bodyweight.

One thing I have learned over my years is that strength comes in MANY forms. You can have weight room strength, sport strength, body mastery strength, etc..

In my opinion, strength is the easiest skill to train. It’s not rocket science, it just takes discipline, consistency and hard work. As I have detailed in earlier episodes, spending too much time in the weight room can have negative effects on your sport performance.

One non-negotiable that I have all my athletes, regardless of age, do in training are various forms of isometrics throughout the week.

What is an isometric?

Isometrics are simply a position without a change in muscle fiber length.

You have two opposing forces competing for space and something eventually has to give.

To understand more about isometrics we should cover the three phases of a muscle contraction: concentric, eccentric & isometric.

Concentric movements are when the muscle fibers shorten. Look at the above image. You curl up the weight from a straight arm position. This is concentrically contracting the biceps muscle. You can see that.

A lot of what we do in the weight room is concentric (you can think of it as output) focused. We have talked about an “output focused weight room” in prior emails and how this approach can be very flawed if it is all we focus on.

Eccentric movements are when the muscle fibers lengthen. Look at the same image. After the curl up you return the weight back down to an extended arm position. That action is the lengthening of the biceps muscle. As you return the weight there is still tension that exists on the muscle, but it is easier to handle.

You can oftentimes find that you could handle 150% of weight in the eccentric portion of a movement than the concentric portion. This should makes sense. The eccentric part of a movement is the easier portion.

After understanding those two you can probably guess what an isometric movement would look like…

Same example, the bicep curl. An isometric in that movement would be a hold without any change in muscle length. Your muscles are fighting to keep the weight in that same position while the weight and gravity are opposing that force. At some point you’ll have to succumb to the load + gravity weighing down on you.

In the isometric there is a tremendous amount of tension being recruited by the targeted musculature. This tension can exceed that of the concentric or eccentric movement. This is great to know if your goal is to get stronger!

The two types of isometrics that I love using with my athletes are stretch range isometrics and bodyweight isometrics . In today’s episode we will mainly focus on stretch range.

Stretch range isometrics are typically bodyweight movements where you are pulling yourself down into the “stretch range” position and holding for up to 5 minutes.

Stretch Range Isometric: Lunge Hold. I am actively pulling myself down. Front heel is pulling back and back forefoot is driving forward (even though I am not going anywhere). This is providing a max contraction

Bodyweight isometrics are holding basic bodyweight positions with good posture, but not in a generally stretch ranged position. An example of this would be a pull up dead hang

On the surface these probably seem easy, silly and questionable (I get it, I had these same thoughts), but what you need to understand is how to execute them properly.

I have seen so many athletes over the years treat the stretch range isometric as a regular isometric. There is no intentional approach to what they are doing. They are looking around the gym, putting their hands on the knees, contorting their body without any control. This is not the focus in a stretch range isometric

Stretch range isometrics are about pulling yourself into the range, controlling your breathing and owning the position .

When performing the long stretch range isometrics such as the ones shown in today’s episode you should control your breathing. I love using a box breathing approach where you are inhaling for 3-5 seconds. holding your breath for 3-5 seconds, exhaling for 3-5 seconds and then holding your breath for 3-5 seconds. This is great to not only make the time go by faster, but to practice an art of relaxation.

Here are 4 benefits that isometrics will provide:

1. Positive effect on the health of your tendons (especially when held for over 30 seconds)

2. Improves the muscular balance, neurological wiring and the proprioceptive element of your muscles (especially the stretch range isometrics)

3. Long bodyweight holds can help improve the energy system development

4. Improve joint stability and synergistic effects to the body (ex: a long dip hold can improve your bench press)

To prescribe the isometrics in training here is what I would recommend:

Low End: Accumulate 1-2 total minutes of the four exercises that you will find below at the end of the workout, taking breaks as needed

2 min lunge, 2 min pushup, 2 min push up, 2 min straight leg hold

Moderate Dose: Pick the four movements and go 10 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, etc.. up to 50 seconds.

Here are 4 common Isometric Holds that I like using in training:

The Iso Cross Connect Crawl is great at connecting the facial lining that runs like an x across your body. As mentioned in prior emails, our body is not just made up of muscles pulling on bones to move us. We have this deep tissue layer, fascia, that wraps around us like Saran Wrap. This is a great one for posture too!

The Iso Lunge is a great exercise to work on loading a leg effectively. Assessing this exercise can tell you a lot about the strength and coordination that you possess. I really like using these as an assessment tool with each of my athletes.

Athletes who aren’t comfortable maintaining their knee in line with the heel and “sneak” their knee back are generally weak and dis-coordinated. You really want to pull down with the hamstring if this is you.

The Iso Straight Leg Raise should be performed barefoot without gripping the toes. This hold is training your hip flexors in a very basic manor. Our hip flexors are often neglected in training and this is a very simple way to target in connection with the foot. Training the hip flexor will also train the glute to fire on that same side properly.

I love putting these in at the tail end of speed training days!

Another great assessment tool. Great for assessing the following:

Can you retract your shoulder blades?

Avoiding “T-Bone Elbows”?

Avoiding elbows on ribs

This is great for letting the chest lengthen as you are pulling down into the stretch range. Do not collapse with these

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

LAD Performance-The Weekly Dose

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 19:00:58 GMT

Keep the main thing the main thing

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today I am sharing or reminding you of a simple principle that I use with my athletes when developing a training plan

Keep the main thing the main thing

It sounds stupidly simple, right?

This maxim was popularized by Stephen Covey in his book, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

It’s used in all professions and across all industries as a way to help prioritize

I can’t tell you how many athletes, myself included, lose sight of this!

It’s not flashy or sexy. It feels more like a monotonous approach, “grindy” if you will… BUT IT WORKS!

So what exactly does this principle look like?

Whenever I set out to develop a training plan I go through a “Needs Analysis” with an athlete

What does this athlete do well, what sport are they playing and what is their position and positional requirements in terms of an athletic skillset?

We put together our athletic buckets and tackle them in an orderly fashion in terms of highest to lowest priority

In the Needs Analysis the key is to get specific, don’t bring in any self-bias. You don’t want to sugarcoat this. It oftentimes helps to work through this with someone else

This is our outline for where we want to go for the next season, next 3 years, 5 years, etc.. Singling out the top priorities and routinely attacking the priorities will keep you focused and on track

This applies to you no matter what sport, activity or endeavor you are participating in. Even if you aren’t playing a sport this still applies. That’s why Covey put it in his massively successful book

Keep the main thing the main thing.

Here’s an example: say your athletic skill set requires you to improve your change of direction & “shiftiness”… then make that your priority. Don’t waste time bodybuilding at the gym just because you see a bunch of your friends on social media doing it to get big. That will take you away from your main goal!

You don’t need to spend 2 hours everyday at the gym if you keep the main thing the main thing

Set up a specific plan, prioritize what you want to attack, then go through the list and knock the priorities down… one by one. Does it feel like I am being redundant? GOOD

What is really interesting that a lot of my athletes don’t understand is the residual effects of training athletic skills

We will get more into this in a later email, but know that if you don’t strength train in the gym for a week (example) you won’t lose your gains! There is a residual carryover for up to 5 weeks

I bring this up because when setting up a training plan it is important to understand that even though you aren’t prioritize strength in a specific phase you still may have the carryover effect working in your advantage

This same RTE (Residual Training Effect) works with other motor abilities other than strength (speed, repeatable power, fast twitch and slow twitch actives, etc..)

What does NOT keeping the main thing the main thing look like:

Hopping between workout programs, working out without any direction or plan, working on gaining muscle size/trying to lose weight/improve your 10k time all in the same week

It is very easy to get distracted and direct your attention toward the shiny new fad or phase of training. Follow the path of discipline

Get specific with your priorities, use some assistance from professionals who can help organize you & knock the items on your list off one by one

It isn’t always easy. That’s why everyone isn’t doing this

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

LAD Performance- The Weekly Dose

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 18:37:37 GMT

Here are 7 things that you should be doing weekly.. Part 1!

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today I am going to provide 7 simple things that you should be doing weekly to develop your athleticism. In today’s email we will talk about the first 3.

If you want to move better for general well being, movement efficiency and recovery you are in for a treat.

- Game play (could be your sport)

- Creative movement exploration

- Coiling work

Isometric holds

- Foot and pronation training

- Rolling &/or crawling

- Breath work

Of this list we have talked through isometric holds and foot pronation training so we won’t touch on them a whole lot. If you do want to find out more on these you can head on over to our website where we house all of the past TWD emails. Check that out here:

Game play is important for a few different reasons. One is motor learning. I love using these with our athletes because they help to develop skills faster. It requires fast and on the fly problem solving which you don’t get from other types of training. Particularly gamifying change of direction or sprints is something that I do almost daily. Another reason is that it restores the mental state of an athlete as well as their nervous system.

Here are 3 different games that we use:

Creative Movement Exploration is meant to enhance feeling and sensation rather than restricting athletes to a box of positions. We do this nearly every training session. I love using music with this. We perform a series of mixed movements that are completely indiviual to the athlete. It allows them to learn to sense and feel what they “have” rather than force predetermined positions.

Here are 3 examples that we use:

Coiling work is anything that causes a hip-shoulder twist and separation. When performing these we are looking at the “pressure canister” aka your lungs and lower abdomen. How can we load and unload this pressure canister. This is certainly an under-stated portion of movement. Learning to get more torque and load efficiently is a result of understanding this concept of coiling

Below you will find an example of this coil in movement. David Weck is a great resource if you want to dive deeper into this. More to come on coiling in the weeks to come…

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

LAD Performance-The Weekly Dose

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 18:22:55 GMT

Here are 7 things that you should be doing weekly… Part 2!

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today is a part 2. I am going to provide the back half of 7 simple things that you should be doing weekly to develop your athleticism. In today’s email we will talk about the highlighted below.

If you want to move better for general well being, movement efficiency and recovery you are in for a treat.

- Game play (could be your sport)

- Creative movement exploration

- Coiling work

Isometric holds

- Foot and pronation training

- Rolling &/or crawling

- Breath work

Isometric holds are staples in our training programs. Majority of the people think of doing these in an early stage rehab process for tendons and joint health. Today we are going to discuss another reason why we love these (we have talked about the former point in prior emails). Mental challenges. These isometric holds are great to see who has it and who doesn’t in terms of a mindset. Doing a 3 minute lunge hold who is fidgety, who can stay poised amidst the mind playing tricks to quit? Oftentimes we find a direct correlation between the best athletes and these isometric holds. I love putting these holds at the end of the workout when I have multiple athletes with me. It’s an easy way to bring in some competition and build the mental resilience without needing any equipment.

Here are some of our favorite holds that we use on a weekly basis:

Foot & pronation training are very neglected in athletic development especially in this age where we are accustomed to our cushioned footwear. In general we have a lack of connection from our foot to the hip. This disconnection is a a result of the inability to make proper shapes that we need in movement. We have talked about this in prior TWD emails, but today please know that simply exposing your foot to multiple surfaces barefoot can help build up this connection. Why is that important? Well simply, it may just be the biggest key to your athletic goal. Pronation in our foot is what allows us to accept force. This foot shape is a twisting action that allows our foot to lengthen which allows the force to dissipate over a wider surface area. Your heel is oftentimes the biggest limiter of this. If we don’t have this guess what happens.. hello achilles, hello knee.

Here are 3 simple exercises that you can do:

Rolling and crawling are ways that we can restore or maintain reflexive strength. I love using these in the warm up. You will see us do these type of exercises several times throughout the week. It is very similar to the coiling that we discussed in part 1’s email. These are great for building up the human capacity. These exercises should be the base of any sort of “sport specific” training plan. The human capacity is oftentimes the limiting factor in becoming a better performer. We spend a ton of time on the ground with these exercises.

Check out three below:

Breath work can be used effectively in many ways. First, it can be used to optimize the position of the pelvis and diaphragm. We often find ourselves in this “inhaled state” where our chest is puffed out our lower back is super tight, weight is on our toes and the butt is poking out. Simply centering ourselves to our breath, spending some time deeply exhaling for 5-7 seconds for 5-10 breath cycles will help get us back toward “neutral” (neutral being a neutral spine curve). Second, it can be used with the isometric holds. In our training we love pairing these up. Simply concentrating on the breath is an easy way to conquer the monkey mind when performing the holds. This is perhaps the single area that gets more over-looked than any other in terms of athletic development. There is gold found in working on controlling your breath.

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

LAD Performance- The Weekly Dose

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 18:05:07 GMT

Use more “right brain” in your training

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today we are going to discuss the differences between left and right brain thinking in your training and why you should care.

Creativity, Feeling, Sensation, Rhythm, Fluidity.

You can associa te these with right brain thinking.

Performance metrics, weights on the bar, periodization, movement assessments based on a score.

You can associate these with left brain thinking.

The right brain is more creative, intuitive… the left brain is more analytical, calculated.

You obviously need both.

But how often are we utilizing both. That’s the real question?

I’ve recently been coloring & drawing with my wife more. Trying to find more ways to invite creativity. It certainly helps that she is an amazing creator and teacher. Okay, cool…why does this matter?

I, like most of you, have over relied on my “left brain” for as long as I can remember. I was big into facts, stats, numbers, training plans that took me from A—>B—>C.

My right brain was underdeveloped.

As I got older and started working a corporate finance job everything was black and white, I didn’t have any flavor or color. Right brain thinking all day everyday.

When I think about that now it is pretty crazy to see how that showed up in my training. Everything I was doing in my 20’s was very similar. I did less and less of a variety of sports and games and more and more of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) & CrossFit. I am not saying either of these are bad, but for me they were not allowing me to express my athleticism.

In my 20’s I was very stiff, saw my speed deteriorate and definitely lost some inches on my vertical. I was focused on hitting performance metrics.

One of my biggest revelations I have had in my 30’s is this right brain thinking in my training and in my coaching style. I have worked hard over these last couple years to build a sensory awareness in my body.

I’ve been inviting more rhythm and feeling into the athletic equation

Using too much of our left brain can give us the following:

Higher rates of injury

Burn out

Rigid movement styles

Early performance ceilings

As I mentioned earlier, you need both! Using too much right brain is not ideal either. That may cause the following:

Lack of organization in the training plan

Lowered outputs

Not peaking at the right time

Lack of data to check program results

One of the simplest things you can do is start to use music to your advantage. Play your favorite song and get creative with your movement. Link up your running cadence with your favorite workout song. Perform different types of squats to your favorite beat. Get creative.

I think of the difference between right and left brain thinking like this:

Left brain thinking helps to set the training structure and know which exercises to select

Right brain thinking helps to carry this structure out, how do we allow the athlete to self organize to achieve their best technique

This is something that we @ LAD Performance provide. Our programs are the work of this blend between right brain and left brain thinking. A blend of outputs, sensation, athletic timing and movement fluidity.

So what’s your favorite sport… Basketball? Have you watched Kyrie Irving play? Soccer…? Have you watched Messi play? Golf…? Have you watched Tiger play?

These athletes are creators. It’s an art for them. They see the game in color. There is no black and white. They can adjust on the fly, create different angles and shots based on what the defense is providing them. They are masters of timing and movement fluidity.

Do you think you are creating in your training plan? What are some ways can you use right brain thinking to your advantage?

Fortunately for you WE CAN HELP ��!

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

LAD Performance-The Weekly Dose

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 17:45:41 GMT

�� What you need to know about The Achilles Tendon Pt. 1

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today is the start of a 4 part series on the Achilles Tendon. Part 1 is a level set, a set the stage. A lot of what you are going to read will be new to you so I am excited to hear what you think! In this series I will be busting myths, sharing what I have experienced coming back from tendonitis, share what I see with my athletes of all ages and some. I hope you enjoy!

First, let’s understand some basic anatomy. The achilles is located in the back of the leg and it connects the soleus and gastroc (calf muscles) to the heel bone. These are the two end points of this tendon. As we move, particularly run or jump, the achilles stores energy that allows us to propel through the air.

This energy comes from a twisting and winding of the tendon. The Achilles uses a twisting mechanism to maximize the effectiveness in order to help produce an output such as sprinting or jumping (as examples).

Take a look at the two example videos below. Watch the achilles tendon, what do you see?

Did you notice a twist or a winding?

This action is something that I have worked hard to bring out over the last few years.

I spent a large part of my 20’s NOT working this action and instead focusing a lot on squatting, deadlifting and other movement patterns that do not necessarily leverage the Achilles (which isn’t bad). These movement patterns, i’ll call them Class 1, where the heel is positioned on the ground. These are great positions to maximize strength ��, but not good if you are trying to prioritize speed and acceleration ��‍♀️‍➡️.

Movements like hopping, jumping, skipping, sprinting at scale are great to re-introduce if you are looking to maximize your achilles.

We can see flare ups through a lack of multi-sport play & excessive class 1 movements (squatting, deadlifting, etc..) followed by a spike in activity. Sometimes these flare ups can become chronic and result in full ruptures.

Below are 3 Achilles related things that we talk about with every athlete that works with us, whether it’d be in person or remote.

Each of these will have a separate e-mail. My goal with this series is to help you understand the importance of the achilles tendon in improving your athleticism regardless of your sport or age!

How active are the arches in the foot… can we create the necessary shapes?
Are you engaging in multi-planar movements or sports that challenge the lower leg complex?
Examine your heel eversion. Do you notice your heel bone moving away from the midline?

��️: If you are looking to take the guesswork out of your training and have athletic goals coming up this year I’d highly recommend my online progr am, The Foundational Athlete (TFA). This program was built from years of experience keeping concepts like what I have shared today in mind. No matter what sport or how old you are the program holds tremendous value

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

LAD Performance - The Weekly Dose

Fri, 17 May 2024 00:35:15 GMT

Over-Squatting may be hindering your athleticism, here’s why…

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Every week I set out to help educate you on movement practices and principles that will enable you to become a better athlete. Whether you are in High School or are a 75 year old grandparent trying to keep up with your grandkids this email will have value! Today I am going to share with you why over-squatting may be hindering your performance goals & how you can minimize over-use effects. I hope you enjoy!

As a global fitness community we have over-emphasized the need to excessively ��️“drive the knees out” for decades... to not let them come in over the inside edge of the foot. I know this because I lived in this world for nearly a decade as a coach and athlete. Repeated practice of this multiple times a week lead me down a road of injury and poor athletic performance. Maybe you too have experienced this.

Now let me stop right away and say this clearly… squatting IS NOT BAD. There are tremendous benefits that squatting yields. I won’t cover them in this email, but I am sure you know a fair bit of them. In this email I want to talk about simple squat mechanics and what actually needs to happen in the body if we want to bend and extend at the knee joint. You can simply think of squatting (even though it is a bit more complex) as a knee dominant movement.

First, it is important to pick up where we left off last week… at the foot of course ��. In movements such as running or jumping we have a series of joint actions that are needed to maximize the effectiveness, starting at the foot. I want to highlight these in a few images and then explain briefly…

In the image above I am showing an example of rotation that needs to happen as we start to yield or accept force into the ground. Think of the moment when you transition your weight over your foot when running, also known as mid stance, or when you are lowering in order to jump or squat. If you were to take a freeze frame image it would look a little like what we are seeing above. Notice the arrows of rotation on my leg. As I bend my knee and transition my weight forward my foot needs to lengthen and the medial arch needs to lower (the degree that this happens depends on how high of arches you have). This is called pronation. As this happens you should simultaneously see the ankle, tibia (shin bone) & femur (thigh bone) rotate internally (toward the midline). These joint actions help us accept load & yield into the ground. Recall from last week how much force is occurring with activities like running, sprinting or jumping. These are strategies that your body uses to dampen the force.

Image from Just Fly Sports

This image above highlights the action of the heel. This is a high level athlete at the bottom part of a jump. Notice the heel and the direction it is shifting… to the outside. This is called heel eversion and it is needed in athletic movement. I show this in the prior image as well. We don’t talk about the importance of this in our movement practices, why? Every time we see an image like this people cringe & they think this twisting and torsion may be fatal and catastrophic for an athlete. To a degree they have a point, BUT only if we are not able to reciprocate this yielding action that I talked about above. This twisting and torsion maximizes the power to store that energy in order for the reversal of the movement. In simple terms all of this needs to happen together in order to reap the full benefit of the athletic output (jump height, stride length, etc..)

Above is the reversal. This is highlighting what happens as you would “push off the earth” and extend. It is the exact inverse of everything that I highlighted earlier. I am showing the rotation that needs to happen. As mentioned, examples would include: late stance in running where you get ready to leave the ground and transition over to make contact on the other leg, extending out of a jump to leave the ground. Here we have the foot that needs to rise in terms of arch height, it needs to be rigid & the heel needs to rotate toward the inside (inversion). This would be supination. As this happens you should simultaneously see the ankle, tibia & femur rotate externally (away from the midline).

Image showing the reversal in a jump

Now let’s bring it all the way back to the crux of today’s email, the squat. Let’s dissect knees out in a squat. In the lowering recall what needs to happen in order to accept the load… think about what the cue of “knees out” may cause. See any problems with this?

Look at the arch in the video above. Do you see the arch flattening at all? No, right? It is raised the whole time. When you squat we really want to have the ability to pronate (lengthen) the foot also dropping the arch. We talked about this earlier. The knees out and thus hips back squat really pushes supination of the foot which we do need, but not when we are bending the knee. For some people this pronation may not be large. These would be people who are very springy & have high arches, but you should see a flattening and a heel that moves regardless.

Athletes who squat too much lose the ability to create that rotation, the twisting and the torsion that is needed to maximize power output. You may have even experienced things like running stride length decreasing, jump height decreasing, feeling more “robotic” in athletic activities. All outcomes of over-squatting! Once again, SQUATTING IS NOT BAD. It becomes a problem when we lose elasticity that we need to have as an athlete. It becomes a problem when we lose the shapes needed in our foot. It becomes a problem when we have a heel bone that works in an opposite way than it is intended to.

I have highlighted 3 easy exercises to help you re-create the proper patterning in your squat. I’d highly suggest performing 2-3 sets of these 5-10 repetitions 2 times a week. If these become easy and your body adapts to this stimulus you can begin to introduce weight. Don’t be surprised if you get sore in areas that you usually do not get sore in when you squat. Why? Well it’s probably because you have not been using the right muscle groups in your squat. Go give these a try & let me know how you feel!

Know someone else who would love this info?

Today on the Foundation Athlete

Fri, 17 May 2024 00:18:38 GMT

�� The one area where nearly all of us are limited

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Every week I set out to help educate you on movement practices and principles that will enable you to become a better athlete. Whether you are a high school athlete or a 75-year-old grandparent trying to keep up with your grandkids, this email will have value!

Today I am sharing insight into one of, if not, the biggest movement limitations that I see working with athletes of all ages. It’s something that I am sure you have heard of several times. I hope you enjoy!

Mobility is another hot topic in the fitness industry. Some say it promises longevity and injury prevention, some treat it like a magic potion. Understandably so. It’s great to be mobile, but we should understand where we have deficiencies first.

I’m discussing hip internal rotation today. Here is a simple active test you could perform on yourself to understand where yours is. A great goal would be to have 40 degrees here… yeah, I’m a work in progress!

In order to find more hip internal rotation our body uses a main strategy of extending (arching) the lower back. In the classic 90/90 hip positions (image below) that we all know and love I see tons of compensation like this. This is a great example of what not to do. However, a lot of us do this. Instead of this serving as a tool to help internal rotation it actually hurts it. It continues to feed into the problem!

A better solution would be to elevate your butt. This makes it easier for us to comfortably explore the end range of hip internal rotation instead of cranking up the lower back. Since I really do like what the 90/90 provides this is a modification I like using with a lot of my athletes.

If we want to work on increasing our hip internal rotation here is perhaps the most important thing to understand: We access the most internal rotation when we bias our hips @ a 90 degree position . This is basically a right angle between our thigh and our hip.

When we struggle to even get in this position of 90 degrees of hip flexion without compensation, one exercise we can do is this:

Another, more dynamic, exercise is one that we have talked about in past emails. A Front Foot Elevated Split Squat. This can be performed with or without weight. Goal with this is to get that front foot elevated so the hip starts in a near 90 degree position. As you lower I want the knee to track in line with the big toe. Example video below is one of several that you can do. I will share more in the weeks to come.

So why should you care about increasing your hip internal rotation?

Well first, if you want to get better at your sport this may be the gateway to improvement that your body needs.

We need hip internal rotation for a multitude of reasons. We need it in our mid stance of gait (running stride) when we transition over one foot to the next, we need it when we want to make a cut on a defender in sports (image below) or when we slide out for a ball (image below) & we also need it to do movements as basic as a squat or deadlift!

Unlocking the internal rotation capabilities at your hip may just be the magic area you need to focus on in your mobility routine.

Continue to work in the exercises that you see above and test (before the drills) and then re-test (after the drills) to see how much change you are making. Soon enough you will see lasting change to get to an optimal range of 40 degrees!

RIGHT NOW TFA is being offered with a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. If you sign up & aren’t liking what you see just cancel it before the week is over and you won’t be billed. What’s the harm in that? To learn more you can click below! I’d love for you to be a part of the LAD Performance team & hear more about your performance goals this year.

Do you know someone else who would love this email info?

LAD Performance - The Weekly Dose

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 20:03:14 GMT

��️You must know this to increase your jumping ability

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today I am going to share a simple concept to improve your jumping ability. I hope you enjoy!After reading the first few emails of the year I hope you now understand more about your feet and how they are a keystone in athletic performance. In continuation of that I want to talk about a very simple (on the surface) concept that gets very overlooked. Something that you can train without any equipment, gym membership fee or outside coaching.

�� please… PRESSURE

Yes, I know what you are thinking… pressure, are you serious?! YES. Let me riff…

First, a level set. Let’s define what pressure is. Pressure is the amount of force applied over a specific area. Should make sense, right? Think about a massage. You can probably recall differences in the way you felt when you received a deep tissue massage vs. a gentle spa massage. The high pressure from the deep tissue massage probably felt uncomfortable for you… because of the higher force that was applied.

Your brain detected that pressure unconsciously. The moment the pressure stopped the output stopped (the output being that pain cave face we all know and love �� ). The brain needs this pressure to recognize an input. This input creates the output (ability to jump)

To jump better or become a better athlete for that matter starts with detecting pressure!

When you jump (or insert other athletic activity like running) you generate an internal pressure and compression as your body travels down & anchors itself to the ground (once again, this is your input). When you start to extend out or to begin the reversal there is a tension that occurs from expanding. The interplay between this compression and expansion happens all the time in movement. They complement each other. The compression allows you to create contact while the expansion generates the movement. We will talk more about the expansion in later weeks.

I want to bring your attention to the video below. This is a very short YouTube clip of a professional dunker performing a standing vertical jump. I want you to focus on what we have talked about so far.

What do you notice? Do you see the position of his feet right before he leaves the ground… do you see how he’s off his heels? Do you see how much downward force is being placed… not only from the feet, but from the whole body? Do you see all the rotation he is able to get within his feet without hurting himself?

I bet you can guess at this poin t what is largely contributing to this. Pressure, BOOM. Again, this is what allows for his explosion. Yes, he is a physical freak, but you can learn a lot from watching videos like this.

I’m sure you are wondering how you can get better at learning to create internal pressure so that you can experience the result of a greater output (higher jump, faster speed, etc..)?

Remem ber when we talked about proprioception?

To refresh your memory… your brain is constantly getting information from your body regarding its location in space. That’s because of specialized cells called mechanoreceptors that detect pressure, touch, vibration and sound from internal and external environment (French & Torkkeli, 2009)

The profess ional dunker that you saw excels at this.

Working on pressurizing your transverse arch to give your brain and body an anchor to launch off of will be a huge difference maker for you.

I have created this video with a few suggestions for you to help build up this input. It may just be the simplest thing you can start immediately to improve your jumping ability.

Keep working hard. �� by ��

LAD Performance - The Weekly Dose

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 19:41:32 GMT

�� Emphasize Quality in Training, More is Not Always Better

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today I am going to provide unique & novel ways to think about how you are completing your sets and reps in the gym. I hope you enjoy!

I’m exploring something different in today’s email. Less about the body, human anatomy & biomechanics and more about the way I think about programming. I want to share stuff like this about once per month. The goal today would be for you to take away a simple nugget or two to enhance the way you train. As mentioned, I am going to break down the concept of quality and its importance in the training realm.

I’m writing this at a time where I personally need this message... perhaps more so than I have over the last few years. If you are like me, over the years you have fallen victim to the more is better craze. Treating the time logged in the gym as a badge of honor. I’d be willing to bet the concept of quality, for the most part, has gotten overlooked... I know I can say that for myself. We often look at volume in our workouts to assess a “good workout”. You see this with all kinds of trainers & strength and conditioning coaches. I am writing today to tell (or remind) you that quantity should not be your barometer for how effective your workout is.

Here’s a reframe that I like using with my athletes. It’s an acronym, RIR (Reps In Reserve). RIR is a way to protect against this more, more, more craze. Let’s use a practical example to break this down, the squat. One way you may often see the squat prescribed in a training plan is by completing 5 sets of 5 reps (aka 5x5). One approach, the traditional approach, would prescribe for the athlete to work up to the heaviest set of 5 they can over the duration of the 5 sets. Another & arguably better approach would be to keep the same amount of volume, that’s 5 sets of 5 reps, but use a different intention . This is where the RIR comes into play. You could instead intentionally choose a weight that you know you could perform 6,7,8 times if you needed to. This is your reserve. The way I would write this in my programming would be 5x5 (RIR 2). This means perform the same total volume, 25 repetitions, but on the heaviest set choose a weight that could be lifted 7 times (even though you are only performing 5 reps). This is a simple way to keep the quality in focus.

I am not saying that the traditional 5x5 is bad! I still use it, but this RIR doesn’t constantly break your athletes. Remember, if you are training in the weightroom you most likely have a goal that falls outside of the weightroom. Maybe it’s to compete in a half marathon or to receive a Division I scholarship offer or to be able to play sports recreationally with your friends. With that in mind your training should be a complement and not a detriment. This is something I constantly have to remind myself of as I fall victim to this quite often. Those small decisions day after day in your training to not constantly max out will add up to big differences in performance for your end goal as an athlete.

Let’s take an athlete whose ultimate goal is to be more powerful in sport. For these individuals quality is extremely important. One thing that I like using for my athletes who want to develop power is a wave set . A wave set is just as you would imagine it to be. These are sets where you fluctuate the amount of repetitions every set, mimicking a wave pattern. The wave-loading allows athletes to use the potentiation ability of their nervous system to make each set “feel” easier . This is because of the alternation of heavier low rep sets and faster lighter higher rep sets. With these sets, using percentages of your perceived max (the amount of weight you think you could lift 1 time) will help prioritize the quality. Each of these sets potentiate the next set . For a set of 5, maybe you use 55% of your max, for a set of 3 you could use 70% and for a set of 1 you could use 85%. Do you see how you can get a little creative and keep it fresh and fun? Going back to intention, this is a way to make your training environment more applicable to sport.

Above is an example of a wave set. Each number represents a set of the amount of repetitions you would complete. The faster lighter sets would have the higher reps and the heavier sets would have the lower reps. Heavier sets would potentiate the lighter faster sets and vice versa.

The book Easy Strength by Dan John & Pavel is a great read if you are interested in further understanding the importance of not over-prioritizing the weightroom for athletes. Dan John mentions a ratio that he uses where 80% of an athletes time is devoted to sport skill, 10% to strength training and 10% to recovery modalities. Simply, he talks about keeping the main thing THE MAIN THING. A problem that happens when we swing the ratio to 30% of strength training is that excess energy is now sent to something that is not the athlete’s sport. The strength training workouts get too expansive and complex. You can see this all the time on social media. There are various powerlifiting derived training options and all sorts of barbell based movements that do not contribute to the athlete’s sport.

Here is something worth mentioning. Great athletes will usually carry big squats and deadlifts, BUT they probably didn’t obsess over them! It wasn’t the number one priority. I have seen some of my high school athletes with very little to no experience deep squat double bodyweight within a few months of being exposed to squats. Athletes like this have big outputs. The athletes with the smaller outputs will not find a large advantage by straining to lift what the gifted ones can achieve with relative ease. “Correlation does not imply causation.”

Again, I want to re-iterate what I said earlier… you most likely have a goal that falls outside of the training walls. You do not need to obsess about training strength. Your strength training should be done to keep your tissues resilient, it’s your body armor. Yes, it is great and wonderful and it’s easy to glorify it. I totally get that! However, know this… basic strength training doesn’t mean as much as skill training, as well as exercises that very specifically enhance those skills. A college or a professional athlete who has been lifting for years and is reaching high performance levels in their sport does not need more volume of strength training to sprint or jump better. In fact it could be detrimental to their field or court performance. Be conscious of how much time you are spending in the weightroom

LAD Performance - The Weekly Dose

leonard@ladperformance.com (Leonard DeFino) — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 19:25:02 GMT

�� What ACTUALLY is "Functional Training" and how can we think about it differently?

Another Episode of The Weekly Dose!

Today I am going over another way to think about functional training and how we can view it differently… and in my eyes more appropriately. I hope you enjoy!

Machines or Dumbbells…? TRX or Wall-Assisted…? Smith Machine or Barbell…?

Functional this, Functional that. What even is “Functional” anymore? PSA: I’m done using this term (just wait until i’m done with this email ��) . If you hear me using it just go ahead and call me out. It is quite possibly the most misunderstood word in the industry. I’m sure I have played a part in the misunderstanding! So how about you follow a long with me… let’s swap this out for a different and more appropriate word.

First, let’s break down the definition of functional: “Of or having a special activity, purpose or task : relating to the way in which something works or operates … designed to be practical and useful , rather than attractive.”

The highlighted part is the most important to me when I think about this. It means that it is subject dependent. What are your goals? What is your sport?

Those questions matter!!

If you haven’t even started there you are missing the point of what we are calling “Functional Training.”

Ohh no... Please don't let this be you

One of my mentor’s Pat Davidson uses a concept that I really like. It’s called “Ground”. I believe this is a much better approach to describe what we have been calling functional for so many years.

Ground, as Pat D explains it, is a spectrum. Certain sports and positions require high ground or low ground based on the needs and demands . “Ground is anything external to your body that you are able to push against. Ground itself can go from a very easily deformable object (air or water) to a very high deformable object (heavy barbell or 350 lb lineman).”

On one end of the spectrum you have a high ground athlete, a power lifter or bodybuilder. These athletes are constantly pushing against another large object (heavy barbell, heavy machines). These athletes prioritize muscle mass and hypertrophy

On the other end of the spectrum you have a halfpipe snowboarder or a diver. These athletes spend a lot of time in the air rotating and freestyling. These athletes are very good at tumbling in space & don’t require a lot of muscle mass and hypertrophy (in fact these attributes could be detrimental to their sport).

Note I’m highlighting two complete opposite sides of the spectrum to make the concept easy to understand. Nearly all of us fall somewhere within this spectrum & we can use knowledge to put more or less ground into our training system. Knowing our goals, demands of sport, physical gifts (superpowers you could call them) are all determining factors as to where we fall on the spectrum.

Think about being a sprinter for a second. Put yourself in the blocks. The gun goes off and you begin your fall into the first few acceleration strides. There is a fair bit of time on the ground here. Longer ground contact times & greater impulses relative to when you hit your top speed, right? When you hit your top speed you have much less time on the ground. To develop these unique phases in your sprint you would think about training them differently. Sports have a lot of this…mixtures of higher and lower ground throughout positions, parts in the play, etc…

I hope this is starting to get the gears turning in your mind for your own training. I really think this concept works well to determine how to categorize exercises and athletes.

For people who are getting exposed to a new training stimulus or maybe haven’t worked out in a while you can use ground to determine where to start. High ground in exercise selection would be using more constraints. Examples of this would be using a wall for proper movement patterning, bands for RNT (Reactive Neuromuscular Training), machines, etc.. High ground would be the best way to maximize the outcome of what you are trying to do. Once the highest ground is mastered you would progress by removing ground (taking away a constraint in this case).

Here’s an example of RNT in a split squat. This could be used to really emphasize the proper pattern that the hip and knee would take as you bend and yield into the ground. This is a tool to build the neuromuscular connection needed (brain to muscle).

Athletes have their own super power. Take a football running back. You could have a running back who EXCELS at high ground. This athlete is begging the coach to run you over, they want to hit hard… vs. a lower ground individual who is very shifty, quick, illusive, who doesn’t prefer a lot of contact, but knows they can’t be touched.

Thinking about your own abilities as an athlete and what sport you are playing will make a big difference in the way you do your “functional training”.

If you have aesthetic goals & you want to look good naked then perhaps a great choice for you would be high ground exercises that build hypertrophy (mass to your muscle tissue). An example would be bodybuilding.

You need to understand what it is you are going after… what are your goals? You can align this concept of ground in exercise selection based on the needs and demands.

Here’s a simple example of a squat. In this video I break down different ways you can differentiate high vs. low ground in the squat and how to progress. I walk you through 4 different squat exercises. You can use this in your own training or with your clients.

Speed Kills

leonard@ladperformance.com (Leonard DeFino) — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 18:15:08 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

Speed is the most sought after attribute in athletics. It doesn’t matter at what level or age, amateur or professional. Everyone seeks out speed because of what it represents. Simply, speed is the ratio between distance and time. Therefore to increase our speed or become faster we would either a) decrease the time it takes to travel a fixed distance fixed time or b) travel farther in a fixed period of time. Pretty self-explanatory, right? You know, if you have spent any time trying to become faster, how challenging this journey can be. It's just as much mental as it is physical. The further a long on this journey you go the tougher it becomes to see results, the law of diminishing returns. Olympians spend a decade working to shave off hundredths of a second. If you haven’t been gifted with upper echelon genetics you will find yourself putting in piles of work to try and improve fractions. All this being said, I'm here to remind you that it's worth the journey. A journey that is reserved for those who show up day in and day out to train with intent and purpose.

The advantages of speed are quite literally shown in wins and losses (track). Outside of track, improving your speed will allow you to get to a ball more quickly, chase down an offensive player or outrun a pursuer. Each of these are vital to become more successful athletically. I want to break down speed into unique categories or buckets. Some common ones that we break down with our athletes include: reaction time, acceleration & deceleration, max speed & speed endurance. All of these are coveted in their own respect & in unique sporting requirements. You can probably picture each of these in their own respect shown across various sports. Think about reacting to a basketball defender, a tennis ball or a thrown football or running down an offensive player on a soccer field to prevent them from getting a shot on goal. These examples are just a few of many. I would like to briefly discuss each of these buckets, examples of how they show up and the importance.

Human Kinetics, amongst others, has published a few articles related to each of these four buckets that I think are worth a read if you have the time and interest. The first, reaction time, is the ability of the athlete to react to an external stimuli whether it be visually or auditory. The greater processing ability the individual has, the faster the motor neurons can be recruited and fired to the necessary muscles. This is neuromuscular. Reaction time is always first. Think of the sports you play... it could be the sound of the starters gun, a ball thrown or body moving. I'm sure you can come up with several examples on your own. Acceleration & Deceleration (change of direction), the second bucket, are measures of the rate of change in speed. The faster you can change your velocity (speed with direction) the more equipped you will be to excel at virtually all sports. This bucket may be the most important speed attribute and my personal favorite. The ability to change direction is absolutely crucial. This is what helps to free up space to make a shot or what prevents an opponent from scoring. If you want to examine this in a real life setting then go observe any team sport and watch players who excel the most. More often then not they are ones who excel at changing velocity the fastest.

The third bucket is max speed. I bet when you think of max speed you think of Usain Bolt who famously topped out at a max speed of nearly 28 mph (which in some residential areas could be pulled over for speeding). Research has shown that it takes ~3-5 seconds or roughly 30-40 meters to hit top speed. This being said, a lot of time in our time sports is not spent at max speed. More often than not we aren't playing on a field or court that allows us to even hit 40 meters straightaway. There truly aren't a ton of sports that are played where you see top speed displayed. However, including training at top speed is awesome because it displays your greatest RFD (Rate of Force Development). Don't forget this. I see so many times the failure of youth athletes to hit sprints ranging between 30-50 meters in team sports. I'd prioritize this over throwing them under a barbell. An average sprinter can produce 500-600 pounds of force when he/she sprints. Now compare that to a squat or deadlift... there is NO WAY that same average person is producing that on a squat or a deadlift. Plus there is no axial compression from maintaining proper positioning like there is in a barbell back squat, as an example. I am certainly not saying that a barbell back squat is bad, but what I am saying is understand the options that you have to develop force and which is better suited for you to get the intended result (in this case our measure is speed). Finally we have speed endurance. This is the ability to withstand speed without fatigue. How crucial is this, well, think about your sports.. How long are they played? What is most often the limiting factor for you toward the end of quarters, halves, matches or games? The ability one has to hold speed is not sexy or flashy, but more about the will (oftentimes the will of the mind). You can't cheat the grind especially when it comes to speed endurance.

So after knowing all this how can you implement? Well, with any new skill there takes a certain level of practice. You need to get in the trenches. Head to a field or a court and practice each of these phases on your own. Have a friend point or yell or chase you down to mimic reaction time, set up cones or different objects to work change of direction, carve out the necessary space to be able to sprint for 50 yards+ or perform a beep test or a test of speed endurance for an elongated period of time. As mentioned in the beginning, this skill takes time. You may not see results as quickly as you would with an increase in your squat, press or deadlift. Start with training 1-2 times per week for 30 minutes each session after a proper dynamic warm up. Film yourself, study yourself and always log your results. What gets measured gets managed!

Down & Out... Stressed Out?

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 20:56:15 GMT

Check in with yourself to help manage your stress

So you've got a tight deadline, a long home to-do list, kids screaming & dinner to make. This lay-out sounds familiar, right? I bet. It seems like The New American Way. Well, what if we could use mindfulness, breathing or a cold shower to help us re-connect? What if we didn't need to spend any money on the latest supplement or waste an hour driving to take some class? Spoiler alert... we don't. This power is more of an ability that each of us possess & it's free. So go ahead and close out of that checkout window and read below for some simple reminders that will be sure to save you a couple bucks if practiced routinely.

I'm someone who constantly has an ever growing to-do list & find myself always on the go. Historically I have really struggled to check in with myself to understand what I can do to help free up space & time. Over the last few years I have focused a lot more of my attention internally instead of always outsourcing this to a supplement or a workout (not to say that either of those are bad... obviously). I've used meditation, breath work and cold submersions in my routine as a way to re-connect with myself. When more and more research continued to prove the benefits on connecting both in a daily practice I knew I had to give it a try for myself. I know you've probably heard of & performed each one of these respectively... but have you performed these consecutively? Maybe not. If not, I highly encourage you to look into some of the practices of Wim Hof (if you don't know the Ice Man, please go take some time to Google him). Wim uses a three pronged approach: Breath, Mind & Cold to help thousands and thousands of people deal with life-threatening circumstances. Here is a simple breathing and mindfulness exercise that I've learned from him and one that I practice nearly every day:

BREATH

While sitting or lying down, take 30 full conscious breaths. Breathe fully in to the belly and chest, then without force, let the breath

go. I like to imagine my brain is in a balloon, inflating with oxygen and deflating CO2

2. On the 30th exhale hold at the bottom for as long as you can without any discomfort. Don't force it!

3. When you feel the urge to breathe again, take a deep breath in and hold for 10-15 seconds. Then relax

4. Repeat these first three steps two more times

MIND

5. Before you get up from breathing, bring up a positive thought in your mind. It could be a thought of gratitude (which is always my

go-to ) or maybe a confident thought

6. Now notice how your body feels reflecting on this thought

7. If you have any inner mental resistance, continue breathing until you re-connect your mind and body

This exercise is perfect to start the day on the right foot. I like doing this to help set myself up for all the "stressors" that are sure to come. It allows me to process tasks more clearly and intentionally than I would if I started the day aimlessly in front of the coffee. Now if you really want to feel supercharged, like a cup of coffee on steroids, give cold exposure a shot. You don't need cryotherapy, an ice barrel (although I do have one of these and I absolutely love it!) or the next ice-bucket challenge. At the end of your next shower just simply turn your water to cold. That's it. Start with 10 seconds & gradually extend your exposure every day until you can handle two minutes in the cold. This cold exposure has been scientifically proven to improve your metabolic efficiency, regulate your hormones, reduce inflammation & increase the release of endorphins and endocannabinoids. As an added bonus you may receive some compliments on the vitality of your skin. Ahhhh yes, the ageless wonder.

It's pretty easy when you think about it, don't wait until you are sick to get healthy. Connecting with yourself using these tactics is to empower yourself. Even though you more than likely have heard of each of these tactics, you probably aren't utilizing them to the fullest. I'm here for that reminder. So go ahead and implement these in your daily life and let me know how you're feeling! I'd love to know.

Focus on Your Systems

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 20:01:49 GMT

Three Tactics to Transform Your Habits

If you've read The Atomic Habits by James Clear you probably know a good bit about systems, but if you haven't I'd HIGHLY recommend checking this book out. It's suitable for YOU no matter what your profession is. I absolutely love how simple the messages are in this book. One of the key messages that I want to focus on surrounds around the concept of building systems through our habits. Clear defines a system as a "process that leads to a result." When we think about our day to day processes we start to understand that we have daily habits, both good and bad. These habits are "behaviors that have been repeated enough times to become automatic." The major secret behind adding good habits and mitigating bad habits is really no secret at all... in fact, it's extremely simple and straightforward. This book packs in simple tactics such as The Habit Scorecard, Implementation Intention & Habit Stacking. In this post I want to touch on each of these three briefly and provide insight into how you can implement them in your daily life. Furthermore, I'll provide some firsthand examples as to what I have done to include these tactics to help me.

The first tactic, The Habits Scorecard, centers on bringing awareness to your daily habits. If we aren't aware of what are habits look like, both good and bad, we won't see the need to change. Simple, right? With The Habits Scorecard you will create a list of all of your daily habits that you can think of. Here's a sample of part of my morning:

Wake up =
Check my phone -
Ice Bath +
Hot Shower +
Walk Sully +
Make cup of coffee +/-
Journal +
Client Sessions +
Breakfast +

Once you form your list, ask if each of these habits are a good (+), bad (-) or neutral (=) habit for you. These are subjective, not everyone will value "check my phone" (as an example) the same way. It's based on what you want to get out of your optimal morning. Clear invites us to think about these "good" or "bad" habits with these questions: "Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be?" or "Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?" When you go through your day using The Habits Scorecard you will have better awareness of everything you are doing day in and day out. This self awareness piece is the KEY. It is the first part to identifying where there is waste in your systems.

The second tactic, Implementation Intention, is a plan that you create before you build a new habit. These intentions have two main features: time and location. Clear cites a formula that you can use: "I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]. When determining your Implementation Intention you must provide detail. If your intention is too vague you will invite wiggle room to weasel your way on out of a habit that you are trying to build! This is crucial. I have tried on several occasions to set up habits with intentions that were far too vague. As the day went on I would put off my intentions until the end of the day and would try and cram everything in before bedtime.

Here is a good example from my life: I will check in with all my clients @ 8:00 am in my office.

I have set up this intention for myself at a specific time and location. On the contrary, a poor Implementation Intention would be: I'm going to check in with my clients. Notice the difference? Do you see how the second example leaves out key details? This isn't rocket science, folks. This is so simple, but so effective! When you multiply these across many areas in your life like exercise, finances, social skills, mood, etc.. you can literally build out your entire day. Sure, there will always be adjustments that need to be made, but laying the framework down first gives you a plan of attack!

The final tactic I want to talk about is Habit Stacking. To perform Habit Stacking effectively, you identify a current habit that you already do each day and then stack a new behavior on top of it. The formula that Clear uses is: "After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]." An example of this for me would be: After I check in with my clients each morning, I will record and share the highlights from our conversation. The real magic in Habit Stacking is when you can build or "stack" these small habits together to shape your day. Like the previous two tactics, make these crystal clear and not vague.

Using these three tactics on a daily basis has helped me set up the infrastructure to maximize my day. In the past I would find myself getting interrupted so many times throughout the day... then forgetting what it was I had to do. Starting to make small adjustments using these tactics helped to limit my distractions and game plan my working days for maximum efficiency. I want to encourage each one of you to use these tactics and read this book! Beyond these points there are so many useful tips that James Clear lays out. It's one of those books you just can't put down.

If you have enjoyed this blog post or have any comments or questions I'd love to see them! I welcome you to share what has and hasn't worked for you.

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