Pre-Race Carbs Predict Marathon Performance
Welcome back from a long weekend! SweatScience has an interesting post up about carbohydrate intake and marathon performance. Marathoners aren't exactly SAPT's specialty, but I think there are lessons here for power athletes, too. Check out SAPT's newest hat and our newest hat model. Warning: this falls into the categories of gratuitous cuteness and random family update.
Weight Training & Golf
Okay, I have to fess-up: I'm sick. At this point, coming up with something new and creative is pretty much beyond me. I feel accomplished to have simply gotten off the couch this morning and made it into work. Below is an article I wrote about 4 years ago. Enjoy! Recently, I was speaking with a colleague about the elusive "magic bullet" golfers are always trying to find. This behavior pattern is similar to the overweight person who refuses to buckle down and do actual work to lose the extra inches and pounds. They would rather spend money on ineffective supplements and As-Seen-on-TV merchandise that promises a quick fix to 5 years of poor eating and exercise habits. Somehow it never quite works out the way the box says it will.
Golfers tend to have a similar disorder driven by products on the Golf Channel that point them towards virtually everything except the only proven method to improving golf specific performance: integrated weight lifting and flexibility training. There’s nothing new or sexy about the following notes, but if you are dedicated to seeing your accuracy and distance improve, then give these tips a try: 1. A thorough dynamic warm-up will dramatically improve static and dynamic flexibility. Spend about 15-25 minutes to get a sufficient warm-up prior to weight training. Standard dynamic movements for the SAPT golfer include: prisoner squats, over speed good mornings, knee hugs, Frankenstein kicks, walking lunge with twist, lying reach-backs, hip bridge, bent knee twist, active “t” stretch, plus many, many more.
2. Prehab everyday to keep the pain away. Prehabilitation exercises are special movements designed to help prevent injury in specific high-risk muscles or joints. Terminal knee extensions, rotator cuff movements, and grip strength/mobility movements are great places to start.
3. Golf, like most power sports, relies heavily on the strength of the posterior chain. Your posterior is comprised of all the muscles on your backside, so get these areas as strong as possible. You will see improvement in drive length and golf posture.
4. Instead of traditional supersets, take an integrated approach to flexibility training by coupling a strength exercise with a dynamic flexibility exercise. For example, couple a squat with a movement geared towards improving T-spine mobility (like lying reachbacks). This approach increases workout efficiency, allows for rest between sets, and places a greater priority on active flexibility training.
5. Stance is best trained through traditional strength movements: squat variations, good mornings, rows, hang clean, etc. Powerful hip rotation is driven by a strong posterior.
6. Backswing, downswing, and follow-through are best trained through a series of special exercises and flexibility movements. If you are a right-handed player, part of the goal here is to help achieve greater stance specific strength in left arm abduction and right arm adduction (if you swing left-handed the goal is left arm adduction and right arm abduction strength).
7. Be smart and train all aspects of muscular contraction: concentric, isometric, and eccentric. Examine all parts of the swing and stance to determine what types of strength are needed throughout. For example, a great deal of isometric strength is needed in the adductors and lower back to maintain proper golf posture.
Make It Effective Understand that there is a right and wrong way to do everything and everyone will have a different starting point. Because serious golfers have a heightened ability to perceive changes in their body, they are extremely sensitive to any new demands imposed on their bodies. Be conservative in your approach to starting a strength training program – remember we’re after long-term consistency. To improve new program effectiveness, several factors need to be taken into consideration: • Training age
• Chronological age (this is important as golf is one of the few sports where it is possible for a 57 year old to consistently beat a 20 year old)
• Stance
• Backswing
• Downswing
• Follow-through
• Flexibility through all stages of swing and standard flexibility
Look at each of these variables independently to identify strengths and weaknesses. Then take a step back and look at the whole picture to determine training priority. For example, if you have a difficult time maintaining a flexed and stable posture during the downswing, then there may be a problem with calf flexibility – notes like this will help inform exercise priority.
A carefully planned and consistent program that includes weight training and flexibility will provide huge returns and lower scores.
What tha... it's Monday already?!?
It literally just registered on my drive in this morning that Steve is officially out-of-town and I am officially in charge of all but the Thursday post. Yikes! Okay, here's what I've got for today and I promise I'll get myself together for the rest of the week: 1. We were out finishing our Christmas shopping yesterday and ventured into the American Girl store in Tysons. Our neices are into these dolls. Ummmm, so I'd heard about the long lines, the in-house cafe, the crazy expensive outfits, etc. What I had NOT heard about is this:
I feel like this could potentially be the picture that accompanies the definition of opulence. Well, I will not be surprised when Arabella requests an American Girl doll in the future, but I'll be damned if I pay a grown woman to style that doll's hair. I wasn't into dolls growing up (I know, shocker), but isn't learning how to dress and style your doll supposed to be part of the whole idea?
2. Teens, Sugary Drinks, and Exercise: Scare Tactic Works - This is an interesting post from Fooducate citing the behavorial changes that occur in teenagers while they considered which beverage to purchase.
3. An Ode to Training Partners - from Ryan Wood
I began powerlifting about a year ago and have been completely addicted ever since. People enjoy many things as hobbies; some knit, some read novels, some collect stamps, and some play in adult sports leagues. Me on the other hand; what do I do for fun? I pick up heavy things off the floor, I press heavy things off my chest, and I put heavy things on my back and squat them; all on a platform in front of people. Am I crazy? Most certainly. Luckily I have found people equally as crazy (maybe more so). These insane young men are my training partners and I wouldn’t have made near the gains that I have without them.
As far as I’m concerned training partners are almost a necessity unless you have a coach. I don’t care if you’re just training for the sake of training, training to be a strongman, for athletics, or for powerlifting; training partners and coaches should be with you. There’s no way you will make the same gains solo as you would with people training right alongside you. They will provide you with an array of ways to make improvements that you otherwise wouldn’t know. They will give you feedback and cues at every step of the way, they will be there as a support system on your good days and bad, and lastly they will be there to motivate you; inspiring and encouraging feats you didn’t think were possible.
If any of you have trained, and I mean seriously trained you know that you will have good days, bad days, and downright depressing days; it’s just the way it is. I’ll tell you one thing though, if I didn’t have my training partners as a support system my good days wouldn’t be nearly as good, my bad days would be worse, and my depressing days would probably have made me quit powerlifting by now. Finally, my training partners are my motivators. I have tried things because of them that have led me to succeed where I thought I would have failed; and I am very grateful and a lot stronger for that. On the other side of the coin, I have tried things because of them that have led me to fail BUT at least they encouraged me to do something I wouldn’t normally have had the guts to do and I am grateful for that as well.
To end this sappy rant about how awesome training partners are (hopefully my training partner’s heads’ aren’t too swelled after this), I’ll end with my boy Sean’s epic 500lbs rack pull that he wouldn’t even have tried by that point in his training without myself and John. NICE PULL HEALY!!!
Pomegranate Juice Reduces Muscle Soreness?
The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research published a paper entitled "The effect of pomegranate juice supplementation on strength and soreness after eccentric exercise" in July of 2011. Here is the abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine if pomegranate juice supplementation improved the recovery of skeletal muscle strength after eccentric exercise in subjects who routinely performed resistance training. Resistance trained men (n = 17) were randomized into a crossover design with either pomegranate juice or placebo. To produce delayed onset muscle soreness, the subjects performed 3 sets of 20 unilateral eccentric elbow flexion and 6 sets of 10 unilateral eccentric knee extension exercises. Maximal isometric elbow flexion and knee extension strength and muscle soreness measurements were made at baseline and 2, 24, 48, 72, 96, and 168 hours postexercise. Elbow flexion strength was significantly higher during the 2- to 168-hour period postexercise with pomegranate juice compared with that of placebo (main treatment effect; p = 0.031). Elbow flexor muscle soreness was also significantly reduced with pomegranate juice compared with that of placebo (main treatment effect; p = 0.006) and at 48 and 72 hours postexercise (p = 0.003 and p = 0.038, respectively). Isometric strength and muscle soreness in the knee extensors were not significantly different with pomegranate juice compared with those using placebo. Supplementation with pomegranate juice attenuates weakness and reduces soreness of the elbow flexor but not of knee extensor muscles. These results indicate a mild, acute ergogenic effect of pomegranate juice in the elbow flexor muscles of resistance trained individuals after eccentric exercise.
Sometimes... okay, lots of times... I find strength and conditioning research to be quite limiting and, in the end, not that helpful. It's been well accepted and practiced for years that the best post-training meal to consume is a liquid meal with roughly a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of carbs:protein.
Pomegranate juice really has nothing more substantial in it (for exercise recovery) than any other fruit juice or a sports drink. It's ALL sugar.
Take this study for what it's worth: further proof that something is better that nothing after you train. I'm sure the study participants would have been better served and demonstrated recovery in the "knee extensor muscles" if they'd been given a pomegranate drink that also included the proper ratio of carbs:protein.
Here's a SUPER simple recipe for a recovery drink I make for myself:
3-4 tbsp Nestle Quick powder
1/2 scoop protein powder
Water
Dunzo.
Squat vs. Box Squat (+ Personal Update)
I just stumbled upon a study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research in December 2010 titled: “Comparison of kinetic variables and muscle activity during a squat vs. a box squat.” Basically, what the study found is that box squatting was measured to produce both more force and more power than a traditional squat at certain working percentages!
I’m sure many people assume the box’s only value is to ensure depth, but those of us who are familiar with old articles from Westside Barbell or EliteFTS know better:
- A pause on the box – with or without relaxation – takes away the stretch-shortening cycle and forces the athlete to generate all that speed and power from the bottom position. No relying on stored energy, this pays huge dividends when you finally get the opportunity to use a “bounce” out of the hole.
- The same pause that removes the stretch-shortening cycle is also the responsible factor for why box squatting or dynamic effort box squatting can be considered valuable supplemental deadlift work, too. Why? In the deadlift you start from the bottom with virtually no stored energy.
- A bigger squat and a bigger deadlift?!? Sign me up!
Below I’ve put in a repost of mine from last May. Maybe the big gains were due to the BOX? Eh, it was still the dynamic effort work, I’m certain. But, I've now found real science backing up that decision to use a box:
Dynamic Effort Training to Fuel Huge Strength Gains (from May 2011)
I had something wonderful happen last week: the George Mason Throwers – who just came off the season – retested in the squat and everyone PR’d. I’m not talking 5lb PR’s, we had HUGE PR’s of 55lb and even 60lb (that’s a 365lb squat moving up to 425lb and a 455lb squat moving up to 510lb)! The lowest PR was 20lb. This progress occurred over about 16-weeks. By the way, I called the depth on each attempt myself, anyone who knows me personally knows I’m a stickler for proper squat depth.
I will be (and that day I was) the first to admit how shocked I was at our new numbers. You see, we were retesting so everyone could be sure they are working off the correct percentages for their summer training program. Coming off the season, I figured everyone would be down around their old max (if we’re lucky) or even below… that’s how it works, right? Maybe not…In hindsight, my approach to this team (much like the sprinters and jumpers I wrote about last week) has been extremely conservative. So what was the catalyst for all these great PR’s? Dynamic Effort Squats (or Speed Squats as they’re sometimes called) are the key to their success.
What are they? Dynamic Effort squatting is a squat that is performed using relatively low percentages and performed as fast as possible through the concentric portion.
Why did we use them?The Throws’ coach communicated to me at some point in December or January that the group, generally speaking, needed to learn to accelerate through to the “block” portion of the throw. I suggested Speed Squats.
How do you use them? Don’t mess with success: There is a pretty tried and true method to speed squat success and you can work off of these parameters for YEARS. If you are new to speed squatting try this wave over a three-week period: Week 1 10x2@50% - Week 2 10x2@55% - Week 3 8x2@60% - stay strict with a maximum of 60 seconds rest between sets.
Can Olympic lifts take the place of Dynamic Effort Squats? Theoretically, yes. In practice, absolutely not! The problem with the Olympic lifts and their variations is the complexity of the movement – it is, after all, its own sport. You are better off taking a simple movement that an athlete is familiar with and squeezing out every drop of progress (which will last through 4-5 years of a college career, I promise).
It blows my mind how relatively unknown Dynamic Effort lifting remains to many coaches. But, then again, the only reason I know the ins and outs of the method is via my colleagues over the years. Okay, I NEVER do this, so since you’re probably already sitting down – stay there! I don’t want anyone injured… Below are a full 4 waves of lower body lifting I wrote for the throwers this past semester. You’ll see that we did a lot of speed squatting and very little heavy accessory work. Really take a close look at the last few weeks. Oh, and a note about Wave 3, the team’s CNS was trashed so I took the DE squats out to let the team recoup. Finally, in addition to this mandatory team session lower body training day, we had an additional Saturday lift that was to be completed on their own. It consisted of very basic movements to “clean up” what we couldn’t get to during the two days they see me.
Wave 1: Weeks 1-3
A1 High Pull
6x3@65%
5x2@75%
4x1@85%+
A2 Rocking Ankle Mob
2x10
2x10
2x10
Banded DE Box Squat
10x2@40-50%
9x2@45-55%
8x2@50-60%
B1 Band Pistol Sq
2x5
3x5
3x6
B2 Pallof Press
2x6
2x7
2x8
C1 DB Swing
2x12
3x10
3x12
C2 Plate Pinch
2x:15
2x:20
3x:15
Wave 2: Weeks 4-6
DE Box Squat
10x2@50%
9x2@55%
8x2@60%
A1 Oblique Deadlift
6x3
6x2
4x1
A2 Body Saw
3x10
3x10
3x10
B1 Bulgarian Split Sq
2x5
3x5
3x6
B2 St. Arm Walkout
2x6
2x7
2x8
C1 OH Plate Squat
3x6
3x8
4x6
C2 Plate Pinch Driver
2x10
3x8
3x10
Week 7: Deload Week – light DB and bodyweight work… step away from the barbell!Wave 3: Weeks 8-10 – Taper Begins
“Low” Bar Squat (1/4 Squat depth)
4x3@75%
3x2@80%
3x1@85%+
A1 Oblique Deadlift
4x3
3x2
skip
A2 Partner Plank
4x:15
3x:20
2x:10
B1 SL DB RDL
3x6
2x8
2x5
B2 MB Side Throw
3x6
3x7
2x5
C1 OH Plate Squat
2x10
3x8
3x6
C2 Hex Hold
2xFAIL!
2xFAIL!
2xFAIL!
Wave 4: Weeks 11-13 – Taper Continues to Conference
DE Box Squat
5x2@50%
4x2@55%
n/a
“Low” Bar Squat
3x1
3x1
n/a
A1 SL ¼ Squat
2x5
2x5
2x5
A2 MB OH Throw
2x5
2x5
2x5
DB OH Squat
2x6
2x5
3x6
Lastly, here's a personal update from the weekend: Arabella "successfully completed" her first 1K race - I believe it was with a blazing fast time of 17:25. She made it on her own for a little less than half the race and I carried her the rest of the way.
In all honestly, the "Fun" Run was anything but fun. 1. It was super cold outside which wouldn't have been so much of a problem if they had started the race on time, not made everyone stand there for an extra 25 minutes. 2. Number 1 led to a fairly uncomfortable and cranky Arabella (finely tuned athletes can not be kept waiting!). 3. There was ice all over the place! Arabella slipped several times as she pushed for a PR.
The Goblin Gallop was well run, as always, and they certainly didn't have control over the weather. Regardless, I think this will be a wonderful memory for my family in the future!
Friday Distractions
I don't know if we have any hard-core running sock wearers reading our site, but if we do, then THIS is the post for you: Running Sock Reviews from Runblogger!! From Sweat Science: Higher carb intake = faster Ironman finish
The fiance of a coach I worked with at VCU has a food blog with, what look to be, some pretty good recipes. Check out White Truffle Turnip "Risotto." I've never tried any of the recipes, but again, they look pretty good and tend to be based around Paleo style rules.
Lastly, if you're pretty much spent from the week and trying to get in the Halloween spirit, take a look at these photos of pets dressed up in Halloween costumes. It might be just what you need. HAAAAAA!
As for my family, we'll be participating in the Goblin Gallop 1k Fun Run on Sunday at Fairfax Corner. And, yes, Arabella will be getting her first race medal!
