I hope everyone had a great week, I'm sure we are all happy that Friday is here once again. Time flies - I can't believe we have already gone through the first month of 2011. The Super Bowl is about a week away which means football season officially comes to an end. Pretty depressing.
I really had some good things going through my brain this week, maybe because I actually got some sleep last weekend. Some of my "thoughts" have triggered some events that occurred in my past, which really made me look back at some of the mistakes I've made with my own training and health.
Without further ado here are some random thoughts and events that will hopefully inform or entertain you.....
-Gloves, weight lifting belt, and fanny pack while doing cardio.
-Dude flex off in the Men's locker room.
-Jumping back and fourth on Bosu balls then performing 1/2 rep leg press.
Those were just some things that I saw at my gym this week that almost made me regurgitate my lunch. I don't know why it seems that the gym is a breeding ground for mental midgets. When I see things like this I want to give some friendly advice regarding gym attire, etiquette, and training- but in South Florida I'd come off like an A-Hole, because everyone thinks they are the guru of fitness. Newsflash, you look like a moron!
I'm sure people see me doing exercises like good mornings and probably thinking I'm trying to do squats, or when I do a reverse lunge I can just hear Mr. 35 sets of triceps say "You're stepping in the wrong direction". I have actually had someone ask me "What are you doing that for?" after a heavy set of deadlifts- My silent response, "To avoid being someone like you"!
-Blame it on the girl scouts. Those boxes of cookies were just forced upon you by a 10 year old girl and you just couldn't refuse. I know the story, but just because you buy 'em doesn't mean you have to eat the whole damn box in one sitting. Actually, that's why I don't buy them- sometimes I just don't know what moderation means.....
I would like a Somoa or two, but of course that would cost me a $10 dollar fine according to my 6 weeks til marriage penalty plan.
-Football players hospitalized. Okay, I feel this is a big topic in the Strength and Conditioning community because once everything is all said and done the responsibility is going to fall back on the Strength Coach. 12 or 13 (depending what article you read) University of Iowa football players were hospitalized after going through a series of intense workouts. The condition was called rhabdomyolysis, it is the breakdown of muscle fibers resulting in the release of myoglobin in the blood stream. I'm sure Creatine will be mentioned somewhere along the lines, and one of my clients said to me half joking, "It was probably steroids".
The human body can take a lot of abuse, but once our physical threshold has been surpassed we breakdown. A summary of the workouts was posted on various websites and it does seem excessive. Now, I'm not a college strength coach, and I have a lot of respect for strength coaches at the big time college level, but I have to question the exercise protocol. Where does squatting for 1 minute or 100 reps (based on what I've read) and then pushing a sled 100 yards relate to football conditioning? Of, course, I don't have the exact program that was performed, but from what I've read it's as if these kids were pushed over the limit.
I'm sure Coach Doyle and his staff have a logical explanation for the style workout they were doing, but to have that many players hospitalized is going to raise some eyebrows. It's important to realize that some athletes will push themselves to the point of exhaustion because they don't want to come across as SOFT. There are quite a few athletes that neglect proper nutrition and hydration which could be a another factor relating to this medical condition.
It's common see new and some experienced trainers brag about how they made their clients or athletes puke or were so sore they couldn't walk for a week. Hell, when I first started coaching/training I was one of those guys. I've learned a lot over the years in regards to training threshold someone can endure and I would rather have a productive session that a beat down session any day. Get something out of your training, push your self to the limit, but don't exceed the limit.
Have an awesome weekend.
1 comment:
I have alot of respect for Doyle and I sure there was a purpose to his training method ( GPP perhaps? ). However, shouldn't training be based on the metabolic demands of the sport? The average play last 5-6 secs with 30-35 sec rest between plays; a work to rest ratio of 1:6. Seems like he would work within those parameters.
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