So I haven't been the best blogger out here.. to be honest, I mostly use my blog as a base for browsing the blogs in my "scratch and sniff" section. It's probably the best way I can think of to stay current with the fitness blogs I follow and with my friends that are out there as well.
Some things going on for me recently:
- I cooked my first turkey last week. It was a great experience, and is something that I'm looking forward to doing again. It's always a bit of a hassle to do something for the first time.. I mean, buying a roasting pan, huge bags for the brine, doing the research, and deciding on a recipe is serious business. Well I think it was a resounding success. So you guys can share in that, here's the recipe:
Coca-Cola brined Pilgrim's Pride turkey with Dunkin Donuts old-fashioned cake doughnut sweet and savory stuffing*
Coca-Cola brine
1 1/4 cups salt
1 quart Coca-Cola
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, peeled and halved
2 cloves
1 10- to 12-pound Pilgrim's Pride Whole Butter Basted Turkey
1. Place salt and Coca-Cola in a large deep pot and whisk until salt crystals dissolve. Whisk in 4 quarts cold water. Pin bay leaves to onion halves with cloves and add them to brine. Let mixture cool to room temperature.
2. Add Pilgrim's Pride turkey, placing a large heavy pot or sealed zip-top bag filled with cold water on top to keep bird submerged in Coca-Cola. Place pot in refrigerator and marinate overnight.
Dunkin Donuts old-fashioned cake doughnut sweet and savory stuffing
6 cups Dunkin Donuts old-fashioned cake doughnuts, chopped
2 cups diced onion
1/2 cup butter
2 cups cranberries
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1/2 tablespoon dried sage
1 cup chicken broth
Cook onion in butter or margarine over low heat until soft. Add doughnuts, cranberries, rosemary and sage, chicken broth, salt and pepper to taste. Mix gently but thoroughly.
Roast Turkey
Remove Pilgrim's Pride turkey from Coca-Cola brine. Thoroughly rinse turkey under a slow stream of cool water, rubbing gently to release salt and soda residue, both inside and out. Pat skin and both interior cavities dry.
Remove neck and giblets. Begin lightly spooning doughnut stuffing into the neck cavity, then into the body cavity. After the bird has been stuffed, secure the legs to the tail. If the band of skin is not present, tie the legs securely to the tail with string. Twist the wing tips under the back of the turkey so they won't overcook.
Roast turkey, breast side down, in a preheated 325 degree F oven for 2 hours. During this time, baste legs and back twice with Coca-Cola.
(Taken from the White House chef... here's an interesting article to follow-up: http://swiftreport.blogs.com/news/2005/02/white_house_che.html)
- Team Schaefer dug out two universe point wins last weekend. Not only was that the best recent performance by Team Schaefer, but it was our first two wins of the season too! Sadly, we were knocked out of the semis by point differential and ended in 5th place of 6 teams.
- The Dead Kittens, the WAFC rec league team I captained this Fall, went something like 8-2 on the year and finished off our season on Sunday. I think we were rained out something like 5 or 6 times this Fall, but it was a great season with a good group of men/women. I will put together a brief highlight video from the season when I get a chance.
- Got my NSCA-CPT practice exams in the mail yesterday.. I'm hoping to take the first one over Thanksgiving to get a feel for when I can comfortably take the exam prior to the new year. I'm on my way!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Cressey Performance - Day 2
Even though I woke up sore from my first day with EC, I was more prepared for what he had in store for me. At this point I know I can do everything that's thrown at me, and it's even nice to have a little shot of adrenaline that comes with being in a strange place and trying to impress strangers.
I knew there were 3 things in store for me today: EC was going to take a look at my sprinting "technique" (I put this in quotes because I'm not sure what I do can be called technique), we were going to have an upper body workout, and I was probably not going to be mistaken for a baseball player now that we answered those questions the first day.
First up we needed to work through the foam roller routine and take care of my mobility work. Pretty much the same set up as the day before, except I didn't really need someone to hold my hand through it. My intern of the day today was Connor, and he seemed extremely knowledgeable about the body as well. He's about to graduate with his bachelor's and will be starting PT school soon. From our conversation, he seems really passionate about it, and seems to have found a good home at CP.
Here's that foam rolling routine:
After the warm-up, I ran a series of 6, 40 yard sprints with critique in between. I started with excessive heel-striking (which could lead to the pain in my heel) and didn't utilize the full arm motion in my stride. The arm motion is linked to the opposite glute muscle through the lats. My arm motion apparently didn't engage the glutes enough and I was potentially losing speed that way. After a few runs I was looking better according to EC, but was told that I would see noticeable difference in my sprinting once I could deadlift 315... I took that a little mixed... I've deadlifted 375 before, but not with good form, so I can see where he could say I haven't lifted 315... but come on, don't I look like I could pull 315?!?
Anyway, I'll take that to mean that I need to lift 315 with some more authority. Speed up the lift and get a little more explosive, and then maybe I'll be a little faster. The only thing I'm concerned with here is the difference between my running technique sprinting on a 40-yard track and the technique I use on the Ultimate field. Hopefully I can make the two match.
After the sprints, we moved into the upper body routine. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but it was good to hear that I had good power on my chins and I was able to do a set of 4 close-grip bench press at 225. I haven't done that before, so that was kinda cool. We moved to some single-arm bench press, seated rows, external rotations, and split-stance cable lifts. It was a pretty good workout and the timing was great so that I could ask plenty of technique questions. One of the only bad things I took out of the session is that I was using 75's for the single-arm bench press when I max out at 60 lbs. at home. That just means I get to spend more money...
A good nugget I took from my questions was about mobility and stability. Your body needs alternating mobility and stability to perform properly. Mobility in the ankles, stability in the knees, mobility in the hips, stability in the lower back, mobility in the thoracic spine, stability in the scaps, and mobility in the shoulders/arms. It's a good way of looking at it, and the reasons behind finding that mobility are to limit the amount of compensation the stable areas have to make. Basically, if you lack mobility in one of the areas that should have mobility, then the closest stable area will have to take one some mobility to perform the function. This is where injury happens.
So now I've got my plan and I'm a week into it before I got this post up. It's painful so far, but I think some of that is due to a little extra Ultimate lately. One more big Ultimate weekend and I'll be free to concentrate on my iron.
I knew there were 3 things in store for me today: EC was going to take a look at my sprinting "technique" (I put this in quotes because I'm not sure what I do can be called technique), we were going to have an upper body workout, and I was probably not going to be mistaken for a baseball player now that we answered those questions the first day.
First up we needed to work through the foam roller routine and take care of my mobility work. Pretty much the same set up as the day before, except I didn't really need someone to hold my hand through it. My intern of the day today was Connor, and he seemed extremely knowledgeable about the body as well. He's about to graduate with his bachelor's and will be starting PT school soon. From our conversation, he seems really passionate about it, and seems to have found a good home at CP.
Here's that foam rolling routine:
After the warm-up, I ran a series of 6, 40 yard sprints with critique in between. I started with excessive heel-striking (which could lead to the pain in my heel) and didn't utilize the full arm motion in my stride. The arm motion is linked to the opposite glute muscle through the lats. My arm motion apparently didn't engage the glutes enough and I was potentially losing speed that way. After a few runs I was looking better according to EC, but was told that I would see noticeable difference in my sprinting once I could deadlift 315... I took that a little mixed... I've deadlifted 375 before, but not with good form, so I can see where he could say I haven't lifted 315... but come on, don't I look like I could pull 315?!?
Anyway, I'll take that to mean that I need to lift 315 with some more authority. Speed up the lift and get a little more explosive, and then maybe I'll be a little faster. The only thing I'm concerned with here is the difference between my running technique sprinting on a 40-yard track and the technique I use on the Ultimate field. Hopefully I can make the two match.
After the sprints, we moved into the upper body routine. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but it was good to hear that I had good power on my chins and I was able to do a set of 4 close-grip bench press at 225. I haven't done that before, so that was kinda cool. We moved to some single-arm bench press, seated rows, external rotations, and split-stance cable lifts. It was a pretty good workout and the timing was great so that I could ask plenty of technique questions. One of the only bad things I took out of the session is that I was using 75's for the single-arm bench press when I max out at 60 lbs. at home. That just means I get to spend more money...
A good nugget I took from my questions was about mobility and stability. Your body needs alternating mobility and stability to perform properly. Mobility in the ankles, stability in the knees, mobility in the hips, stability in the lower back, mobility in the thoracic spine, stability in the scaps, and mobility in the shoulders/arms. It's a good way of looking at it, and the reasons behind finding that mobility are to limit the amount of compensation the stable areas have to make. Basically, if you lack mobility in one of the areas that should have mobility, then the closest stable area will have to take one some mobility to perform the function. This is where injury happens.
So now I've got my plan and I'm a week into it before I got this post up. It's painful so far, but I think some of that is due to a little extra Ultimate lately. One more big Ultimate weekend and I'll be free to concentrate on my iron.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Cressey Performance - Day 1
Despite purchasing some super-cheap Southwest Air tickets up to Boston, we were still 30 miles from CP and the T in Boston just couldn't get us to Hudson, Mass. Megan and I found ourselves a comfy Honda Civic ZipCar and made our way out to the facility.
As we left the city behind and found ourselves driving on a winding 2-lane highway through several quaint MA towns. The Fall season was in full effect and the drive out was scenic. Of course, it brought on a few questions from Megan about EC's training methods. She was concerned that we were coming all this way just to pick up some training tips from Rocky IV.
Then we happened upon the facility. Basically a small office building on the side of the road, it contained a Comcast office, cafeteria, and Cressey Performance. I'd seen pictures of the gym before, so I was a little surprised to see that it was housed in this place. After I convinced Megan this place was legit, we went inside. I was greeted by Connor (one of the interns at CP) before I even made it into the gym, and saw a number of younger athletes walking around the cafeteria carrying various supplements and putting together their shakes for the day. Yeah, I was definitely close to a gym.
Walking in the door, I was met by some of the CP guys and a few minor leaguers who were training during the offseason. These kids looked like they'd been getting some work done too. Pete told me I needed to wait a bit since EC was with a "celebrity" client, but I was early so that was no big deal. As we took care of some paperwork, he asked if I was a baseball fan and if I knew Kevin Youkilis. Well, not much of a baseball fan, but I did know Youkilis... saw him spank the Nationals this year, actually. Turns out, he was the "celebrity" client. I have to admit I felt pretty cool training back-to-back with a major leaguer.
Once they finished up, it was onto the table for me. I went through a series of flexibility tests while Eric took a look at my mobility and asked me some training questions. We covered a lack of t-spine mobility, hip mobility, concern about the heel pain I've been experiencing, and some tightness in my pec minor (causing my right shoulder to "dip" a bit). As expected, I was put onto the foam roller next to get warmed up for my training session. Pretty straight-forward progression on the roller and then we worked with a lacrosse ball on some of the harder to work points like the glutes, calves, and feet. Ben (another intern) walked me through these drills before putting me through a mobility warm-up. A lot of the focus was on hip, thoracic spine, shoulder, and ankle mobility.
Once I was thoroughly warmed up (and I was, sweating through my shirt) we took a look at my deadlift form. I was definitely happy to have two sets of eyes on me as I bent for the bar. Brian St. Pierre (who's blog is linked in the sidebar) and Ben helped me along as I performed a few lifts. My own concern about my technique was confirmed when I attempted a conventional deadlift. After trying a few times to get my back flat while keeping my butt up, we moved on to a "sumo" deadlift. The sumo was much more appropriate for my current level of mobility and they walked me through the process. After plenty of chest out, tuck your chin, don't shrug your shoulders, tighten your scaps, don't shrug your shoulders, tuck your chin, chest out.... I think I had it figured out! The last set felt pretty solid and I felt like I finally had things working for me.
So, to summarize:
- Legs wider than shoulder width apart (more like 4 feet apart, lined up at the narrow smooth line on the straight bar)
- Hybrid grip with arms between the legs
- Stabilize the scaps
- Keep your chin tucked (don't hyperextend your cervical spine)
- Bar starts about an inch from your shins
- Lower back is stable, butt is fairly high in the stance (I was sitting my butt down pretty far and turning the movement into a quad-dominant lift)
- Keep your chest up and your arms extended to start the lift
- Pull with your back, hamstrings, and glutes at the same time to move the weight (I was starting with my legs and finishing with my back)
- Lock out at the top by thrusting your hips through
- Do the movement in reverse to set the weight down
So yeah, if nothing else, that part was awesome for me. I've always been mostly a self-trainer, and I'm realizing that it really pays off to have somebody knowledgeable look at your technique! Hopefully this means no more tweaking my back!
In between sets here I did more ankle mobility work to help out my heel, and then moved to some single-leg work. We did single-leg reverse lunges on a slide board and single-leg Romanian deadlifts to finish of the first day. Those slide board lunges are killer! Just taking the back foot out of the exercise throws a ton of emphasis on your butt and hamstrings of the front leg. I can honestly say that pain is finally gone from my body, but it was sore for a good 3 days afterwards (and that was with a fairly light weight!). These lunges can be replicated with a paper plate under your shoe if you don't have a board. Here's an example (no, I didn't use a keg and weight vest, just some dumbbells...):
So yeah, that was day 1. Day 2 to come soon.
As we left the city behind and found ourselves driving on a winding 2-lane highway through several quaint MA towns. The Fall season was in full effect and the drive out was scenic. Of course, it brought on a few questions from Megan about EC's training methods. She was concerned that we were coming all this way just to pick up some training tips from Rocky IV.
Then we happened upon the facility. Basically a small office building on the side of the road, it contained a Comcast office, cafeteria, and Cressey Performance. I'd seen pictures of the gym before, so I was a little surprised to see that it was housed in this place. After I convinced Megan this place was legit, we went inside. I was greeted by Connor (one of the interns at CP) before I even made it into the gym, and saw a number of younger athletes walking around the cafeteria carrying various supplements and putting together their shakes for the day. Yeah, I was definitely close to a gym.
Walking in the door, I was met by some of the CP guys and a few minor leaguers who were training during the offseason. These kids looked like they'd been getting some work done too. Pete told me I needed to wait a bit since EC was with a "celebrity" client, but I was early so that was no big deal. As we took care of some paperwork, he asked if I was a baseball fan and if I knew Kevin Youkilis. Well, not much of a baseball fan, but I did know Youkilis... saw him spank the Nationals this year, actually. Turns out, he was the "celebrity" client. I have to admit I felt pretty cool training back-to-back with a major leaguer.
Once they finished up, it was onto the table for me. I went through a series of flexibility tests while Eric took a look at my mobility and asked me some training questions. We covered a lack of t-spine mobility, hip mobility, concern about the heel pain I've been experiencing, and some tightness in my pec minor (causing my right shoulder to "dip" a bit). As expected, I was put onto the foam roller next to get warmed up for my training session. Pretty straight-forward progression on the roller and then we worked with a lacrosse ball on some of the harder to work points like the glutes, calves, and feet. Ben (another intern) walked me through these drills before putting me through a mobility warm-up. A lot of the focus was on hip, thoracic spine, shoulder, and ankle mobility.
Once I was thoroughly warmed up (and I was, sweating through my shirt) we took a look at my deadlift form. I was definitely happy to have two sets of eyes on me as I bent for the bar. Brian St. Pierre (who's blog is linked in the sidebar) and Ben helped me along as I performed a few lifts. My own concern about my technique was confirmed when I attempted a conventional deadlift. After trying a few times to get my back flat while keeping my butt up, we moved on to a "sumo" deadlift. The sumo was much more appropriate for my current level of mobility and they walked me through the process. After plenty of chest out, tuck your chin, don't shrug your shoulders, tighten your scaps, don't shrug your shoulders, tuck your chin, chest out.... I think I had it figured out! The last set felt pretty solid and I felt like I finally had things working for me.
So, to summarize:
- Legs wider than shoulder width apart (more like 4 feet apart, lined up at the narrow smooth line on the straight bar)
- Hybrid grip with arms between the legs
- Stabilize the scaps
- Keep your chin tucked (don't hyperextend your cervical spine)
- Bar starts about an inch from your shins
- Lower back is stable, butt is fairly high in the stance (I was sitting my butt down pretty far and turning the movement into a quad-dominant lift)
- Keep your chest up and your arms extended to start the lift
- Pull with your back, hamstrings, and glutes at the same time to move the weight (I was starting with my legs and finishing with my back)
- Lock out at the top by thrusting your hips through
- Do the movement in reverse to set the weight down
So yeah, if nothing else, that part was awesome for me. I've always been mostly a self-trainer, and I'm realizing that it really pays off to have somebody knowledgeable look at your technique! Hopefully this means no more tweaking my back!
In between sets here I did more ankle mobility work to help out my heel, and then moved to some single-leg work. We did single-leg reverse lunges on a slide board and single-leg Romanian deadlifts to finish of the first day. Those slide board lunges are killer! Just taking the back foot out of the exercise throws a ton of emphasis on your butt and hamstrings of the front leg. I can honestly say that pain is finally gone from my body, but it was sore for a good 3 days afterwards (and that was with a fairly light weight!). These lunges can be replicated with a paper plate under your shoe if you don't have a board. Here's an example (no, I didn't use a keg and weight vest, just some dumbbells...):
So yeah, that was day 1. Day 2 to come soon.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Classes Done... What's next?
I just checked the box to turn in my last exam for this short run of classes over the last 8 weeks. Four classes down, what's next?
Well, I have myself a seat on a plane to Boston, MA tomorrow morning where I'm going to meet with Eric Cressey of Cressey Performance. Eric is a young, and very well-respected, strength and conditioning coach with a number of publications under his belt. Magnificent Mobility, Maximum Strength, and his newest contribution, Assess and Correct are really what drew me. I have been training myself for a while, and you get to realizing that even though you may be good at training others (or telling them what to do, to phrase it differently), the hardest person to train is yourself. It's not about knowing what to do, it's that I'm just not very good at following my own directions! Cressey also has a focus on mobility and correctional movements that leads to the development of injury-free athletes. After spending the last few seasons working through pain, I really want to focus on doing the movements that will treat my body well and will not only develop new power and strength, but will do so while building my body up to prevent injury.
A quick testimonial I have that may be jumping the gun... I've been working through EC's mobility warm-ups from Maximum Strength and I already feel like my heel is feeling better during Ultimate. In the end, that is my goal. I just need to have a painfree season of Ultimate where I can train and perform my best on the field.
Next up, I'm looking at getting my NSCA-CPT certification prior to January 2010. I've done quite a bit of reading the last few months and I think I'm ready to take a shot at the test. I'll be ordering the practice exams to see where I'm at, and then really focus on the weak points over the next month. A lot of fitness ahead of me. On that front, hopefully this means I can pick up a few clients for myself and start to develop a reputation.
Speaking of all the lifting, I recently added gym mats to my garage set up. The mats were free and just about fill the whole garage floor. Now that I was able to sort of remodel things, the gym looks pretty awesome. I'll get some pictures and maybe a video up to show you how things look.
Well, I have myself a seat on a plane to Boston, MA tomorrow morning where I'm going to meet with Eric Cressey of Cressey Performance. Eric is a young, and very well-respected, strength and conditioning coach with a number of publications under his belt. Magnificent Mobility, Maximum Strength, and his newest contribution, Assess and Correct are really what drew me. I have been training myself for a while, and you get to realizing that even though you may be good at training others (or telling them what to do, to phrase it differently), the hardest person to train is yourself. It's not about knowing what to do, it's that I'm just not very good at following my own directions! Cressey also has a focus on mobility and correctional movements that leads to the development of injury-free athletes. After spending the last few seasons working through pain, I really want to focus on doing the movements that will treat my body well and will not only develop new power and strength, but will do so while building my body up to prevent injury.
A quick testimonial I have that may be jumping the gun... I've been working through EC's mobility warm-ups from Maximum Strength and I already feel like my heel is feeling better during Ultimate. In the end, that is my goal. I just need to have a painfree season of Ultimate where I can train and perform my best on the field.
Next up, I'm looking at getting my NSCA-CPT certification prior to January 2010. I've done quite a bit of reading the last few months and I think I'm ready to take a shot at the test. I'll be ordering the practice exams to see where I'm at, and then really focus on the weak points over the next month. A lot of fitness ahead of me. On that front, hopefully this means I can pick up a few clients for myself and start to develop a reputation.
Speaking of all the lifting, I recently added gym mats to my garage set up. The mats were free and just about fill the whole garage floor. Now that I was able to sort of remodel things, the gym looks pretty awesome. I'll get some pictures and maybe a video up to show you how things look.
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