Use association and disassociation to improve every workout

Use your mind to improve every exercise session.

This article is written by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.

There is a time to focus intently and a time to be distracted

Trainers and trainees spend a lot of time on what are called acute program variables when they plan a workout.

Acute program variables

Acute program variables for strength training are the amounts of sets, reps, load, rest time and exercises used for the workout.

These are important. These things should be planned out.

You can miss out on all that the workout has to offer if you only focus on the acute program variables that you can measure.

Get into the right zone.

Don't turn your workout into a checklist

This type of workout can turn into a 'checklist' way of working out. A checklist way of working out is simply checking what you did off the list without a lot of interest.

You got it done. That’s it. It's time to go home. You miss out on some really good stuff when you go about it this way.

The other workout variables that we need to consider

There are other variables that cannot be measured as well as acute program variables.

The one I am going to cover today is focus.

Use focus during your workouts

Where should you put your focus? Where should you really be putting your attention when you are working out? Is there a best place to put your focus? There is.

You should focus on the task at hand, working out, and take the focus off anything that you are not doing at that time.

Let your gym time be all that you are focused on when you are there.

Focus improves performance.

Association and disassociation

Association and disassociation are terms in sports psychology.

You can use both of these things in sports and training very effectively. Association and disassociation are used in both exercise and sports as powerful tools.

Association

To associate is to focus in on exactly what you are doing at that moment.

Being mindful is what it’s more commonly called today.

An example would be when you do a set of curls you attempt to feel everything.

You feel the elbows stay in at the sides of your body. You feel the elbows lock out at the bottom. You feel the pause of the motion at the top.

You focus on exhaling as you lift the weight up and you focus on inhaling as you lower the weight down.

Most importantly you feel the muscles work (in this case the biceps) as you do the exercise. You focus on the burn from the lactic acid and you focus on the form to do it correctly.

Association brings mindfulness to every part of your exercise routine. It's like practicing mediation and exercising at the same time.

Focus on the moment.

Disassociation

To disassociate is to not pay attention to what is happening in the body. It is like daydreaming or purposeful distraction.

There is a place for this as well. When a cyclist is doing intervals on the bike and the lactic acid they feel in their quads is so strong that they want to quit, it is good to disassociate from the burn and turn the attention outside the body.

If you focus on the pain too much, you will quit sooner than if you focus elsewhere.

This tool helps athletes to get the most out of their interval program. In this case, you to want to take your focus off what you feel at the time and put your focus elsewhere. It's like some form of distraction.

Use your focus to improve your workout

Focus on the workout when you exercise.

More specifically; focus on the exercise, set, reps and load in that order.

Give everything else that's going on in your life a rest.

Give a rest to all that is going on in your life that you can’t solve during that time you are working out.

Put what you must do at work or problems that you have on hold while you work out. Stay in the moment.

This is harder for some than others, but I believe we that can all get better at it.

I like to work out alone a lot for this reason.

There are times that I get a lot of benefit from a workout partner, but there are other times that I really want to focus solely on the peacefulness of getting a good workout in.

My performance may be better as far as acute program variables when there is a training partner to push me, but the focus I have is stronger when I train alone.

What’s better?

I guess that it depends on what you think is better.

If you think that getting that personal record on the bench press is of total importance of the day, then I think that it’s best to have a partner around.

But if your view of having a really great workout means you can let go of every other concern you have and focus in on getting a good workout, then training alone with no distractions is best.

Everybody is different. Different scenarios call for different approaches.

Your state of mind determines a lot.

Tune in to your workout

Tune in.

Research shows that we get more out of working out if we focus on working out exclusively.

Body builders have known this for years.

In fact, body builders are very skilled at the mind to muscle connection.

Many of them spend less time worrying about how many or how much and simply focus more on the feel.

The two methods of association

There are two ways of associating that work.

You can focus on the feel of the muscle or you can focus on the form that you use.

Naturally, you can do both. Both can get you to the same place.

If you really focus on the form of doing every aspect of the rep correctly, then the feel will be there.

Do you feel the exercise in the correct targeted muscle group?

If you do triceps press downs, you should feel it in your triceps.

You may be surprised by how many clients state “I’m not sure” when I ask them if they feel it in the targeted muscle group.

Then they may start to focus and state “yes”.

If you feel it in the target muscle, you will get more out of the exercise.

This is easier to do with isolation exercises and nearly impossible to do with what we call compound exercises.

Focus on your muscle.

Compound exercises

Compound exercises work more than one muscle group at a time.

A squat is a compound exercise because it works the glutes, quads and hamstrings at the same time.

It’s harder to focus in on a muscle group because the activation is being shared by at least three muscle groups.

Just because you don’t feel it there doesn’t mean that it’s not working. It simply means you will not feel one muscle group. In cases like this it’s best to focus on the form.

Isolation exercises are exercises that use one joint at a time. One muscle group is being targeted.

A leg extension is an isolation exercise for the quad muscle which is the anterior upper thigh.

In this case you can focus on the muscle being stimulated - or the form. Both roads will get you to Rome!

How to focus on form

Start from the beginning when you focus on form.

Before you start your set, think about what you need to do form wise and what areas are being targeted.

Get zeroed in before you start the movement.

Then think about your posture - whether it is your standing posture or seated posture depending on what you are doing.

Think about keeping your core tight and your spine straight.

When you stand, think about your foot location. Are they where they should be so that you have a good athletic base?

How is your posture when you are seated? Is your back all the way up to the back rest? Are you slouching?

Are your elbows, wrists and hands in the position that they should be when you start the motion? Are you controlling the movement?

Think about where the full range of motion is for the exercise and do it.

If you get choppy or hyper-extending, stop it.

How does the weight or load feel during the motion?

Is it light enough to keep good form for the number of reps you are doing? Is it heavy enough to challenge you? How does it feel?

I can tell after one rep if I’m going to be able to reach my rep goal for the set. You should train yourself for that kind of awareness as well.

Focus on your posture.

Focus on your breath during exercise

Focus on your breath during your set as well.

Are you breathing out during the lifting portion of the lift? Are you breathing in when the load is being lowered? Where is your gaze?

Are you focusing your eyes where they should be? Where is that? If it’s in the mirror, then focus on how your form looks. If you are not using one, attempt to gaze straight ahead.

Be careful not to jerk your neck around. Keep your body still.

There will be times where it is good to look down at your quads or the weight stack on a leg extension exercise, but do not look at your legs or feet while doing a squat! Gaze straight ahead.

Make sure that you focus on your body.

Bizarre imagery

Bizarre imagery is another form of deep focus. Imagery is a part of associating. Visual imagery is visualizing what you want to occur.

Arnold Schwarzenegger used what is called bizarre imagery.

He would exaggerate a thing or a situation to help him focus on what he wants. In the case of Arnold, he would imagine that his shoulders looked like big bowling balls.

Research shows that this kind of imagery works.

I use this type of imagery as well at times. I have competed in body building.

I visualize how I want the muscle group that I’m working to look on stage when I work out. I imagine it as deeply as I can.

Visualize your goals.

Summary

To associate or not associate, that is the question! Yes is the answer!

Focus your mind before you enter the gym.

Tell yourself that anything not related to your gym workout will be put on hold until you are done. Make this declaration.

Find a way to focus on what you do during each exercise - even the exercise bike.

Do you realize how many people just mindlessly pedal?

Did you realize that the stirrups on the bike aren’t there to keep you from falling off? They are there to get you to pull back with the pedal because 1/3 of the pedal stroke is done by the hamstrings - but not if you can't pull back.

Focus. Continue to get zeroed in on every part of every exercise after you warm up.

Your mind may drift and you may daydream. That is okay. Bring it back.

I’m willing to bet you that your results will multiply if you start to work out this way.

It's about your mental state.

This article is written by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.

Retrogression: The use it or lose it principle of fitness

Move it or lose it.

This article is written by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.

The 7 principles of fitness

1. Specificity

2. Overload

3. Progression

4. Periodization

5. Individuality

6. Recuperation

7. Retrogression

Master all of these principles.

Retrogression as the use it or lose it principle of fitness

There are seven principles of physical fitness. They are specificity, overload, progression, periodization, individuality, recuperation, and retrogression.

Retrogression is known as the "use it or lose it" principle of fitness.

If you stop exercising and/or being active, you will lose the benefits that the exercise has given you.

The use it or lose it principle is connected to time

Time gets blamed for many things. In health and fitness, it gets blamed a lot!

Often, I will hear a client talk about how they once had a certain physique. They talk about how as they got older; it went away.

Did it go away due to age or did they simply stop doing what they used to do? It’s the latter.

If you quit doing what you used to do, you will lose what you used to have.

There are plenty of older folks (there is no such thing as old) that are in incredible shape. Use it or lose it.

You lose what you don't use.

Age has an overestimated role in the loss of physical fitness

Age does play a role in some decline.  The key word is some.

We do start to lose some strength as we get older. We start to lose some muscle tissue as we get older. We do lose some bone density as we get older. We do lose some cardio-respiratory fitness as we get older.

Continuing to work out will drastically slow down the rate of loss. We do NOT have to lose as much as you may think.

The greatest loss comes from not doing what you used to do when you were at your peak condition.

Use it or lose it.

Muscle does not turn into fat with age

I’ve heard the most outlandish things regarding this topic.

I have heard people say that football players get fat because the muscle turns to fat as it gets older. That is ridiculous!

Tissue can’t become another tissue. They got fat because they quit working out and kept eating like they used to.

This is a product of choice and not a product of nature. There are plenty of ex-athletes, including football players that still look and feel amazing years after retiring. Use it or lose it. 

This same principle applies to everyday people - not just elite athletes.

If we take a long break from training, we will decline.

I tell my clients constantly how consistency matters. I believe that the greatest key to success in physical fitness is consistency.

Some people go 100% in the beginning of their fitness journey and either get hurt or burn out. It’s better to start out moderately and stay with it.

I often that say we need more moderation. We are a country of feast or famine! That is true in the fitness world as well.

We have people that are super fit and we have people that are morbidly obese. All countries do, but we have more of an extreme on both ends.

Doing our workouts day in and day out on a consistent basis and not overdoing it will lead to greater success for all of us!  Use more moderation. Let’s not burn out and quit!

Rather be moderate and stick with it.

You start to lose muscle from 4 days after your last workout

Here is a scary statistic. We atrophy 96 hours (about four days) after a workout has been completed.

It’s slight, but that is how quick it happens.

That means that if you work out on Monday, you are already losing some of the muscle tissue on Friday unless you stimulate that muscle again.

Plan your workout split with the 4-day atrophy rule in mind 

4 days is fast!

Many people forget about this fact when they set up their workout splits.

A split routine is exercising different muscle groups on different days so that volume can increase.

A common split routine where this happens is when a trainee works out one muscle group per day.

The reason this why this split routine will lead to atrophy (muscle loss) is because you are only training one muscle group per day.

That means that it will be a week before you train it again.

When you target that muscle group again, it’s already atrophied. You've lost some of the hard-earned progress that you earned in your last workout.

Don't lose because of time.

The best workout split to avoid muscle atrophy

It’s best to do a strength training routine where you work each muscle group 2-3 days per week.

The style doesn’t matter so much.

You can do a full body workout 2-3 days per week on non-consecutive days. If you do a split routine, make sure that each muscle group is being trained 2-3 days per week with 48 hours in-between muscle groups.

Training more often is optimal, not non-negotiable

Taking 96 hours (about four days) off from working out will not cause you to fall to pieces. Many people increase muscle mass by stimulating each muscle group once a week. More often is simply more optimal.

I’m using this science to show how quickly we lose muscle when we don't use it. As weeks turn into months and even years, the loss is substantial. It doesn’t have to happen.

Get into a manageable program and stick to it. On the positive side of the coin, we can hypertrophy (grow muscle) at any age. We all need to look after our muscles!

Cardio vascular fitness also declines when you don't use it

Cardio-respiratory fitness is measured by what is called the V O 2 max.

This is the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can use at one time. It also declines when a rest period is too long.

In fact, V O 2 max can decline all the way back to baseline (where we began) in as little as two weeks!

It is therefore so important for athletes of any sport to not get injured. If injury occurs, the athlete must take time off and then atrophy will occur.

Along these lines, it’s so important to train correctly and not push to extremes. An athlete is playing much better if they are still on the field. Fitness declines when activity stops.

Prevention keeps you on track.

Everybody needs to exercise to prevent loss of fitness and health

This is true for non-athletes too. If we take time off from cardio, we will go backwards.

This does not mean that a trainee shouldn't rest. Of course, they should. Be smart about the rest. Rest shouldn’t be for too long.

Use what is called active rest. Active rest means resting one part of your body or system while working another. If you structure hard and easy cardio days into your week, you will be more likely to avoid taking time off.

Do a lighter day of cardio, for example, after a harder day. This will prevent injury and burnout. The key is to do things that prevent us from doing nothing at all.

Mix it up.

Do as much as you can on days where you don't have much time

You don’t have to be overly structured when you get extremely busy and can’t make the gym, but you can do something.

Try to keep those muscles going. We experience this issue quite a bit at my gym. We have people that will take off for weeks. We tell them to try and get some exercise in. It won’t take much.

Just do something so we can prevent too much decline. Often, they will come back after a three-week hiatus and say, “I feel like I lost everything”.

So, why couldn’t they have just done something? Good question.

When we travel, we don’t have to keep moving forward. The goal is to maintain during these busy times and to not slide backwards. 

It’s so important to begin with consistency.

When you start a fitness program, ask yourself what is sustainable and make that a habit.

Many people start out with a ball of fire only to flame out. It’s about starting and staying with a sustainable exercise program.

We can make so many improvements with a moderate program.

I’ve coached for many years and I’ve always said I would take an athlete that follows a consistent program versus an athlete that works his/her tail off when you see them, but you don’t see them nearly as much!

Every bit makes a difference.

Use it or lose it. It’s a fact.

Keep going and everything will go along with you. I often hear that people gain weight as they age. This can be true. But this doesn’t happen because of the birthday.

We move less and we lose muscle (atrophy) because we quit being active. We can keep muscle on our body by staying active and working out.

When we lose muscle, our metabolism slows down. When that happens, we gain weight. This has far more to do with taking time off from moving than it does your birthday.

So many of the issues we experience as we get older (such as obesity) can be warded off by starting and maintaining a sustainable exercise program.

It takes lot more work to go back and forth. Don't make gains and then stop to lose those gains.

It’s a lot easier of a road to not stop at all.

If you have stopped, don’t lose heart. Get back on the wagon and tell yourself that you can now make progress and you are now armed with a good reason to not stop again.

Use it or lose it. Don’t stop.

This article is written by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.

Train your brain with meditation

Benefits of meditation

Meditation is one of the most powerful activities that you can do.

Everyone knows about it but not everyone does it. Only some people practice meditation regularly. 

The current population is roughly around 7.8 billion. Only 200 to 500 million people meditate. This means that only 2-6% of people in the world practice meditation.

There are a lot of benefits of doing meditation.

Through meditation, a person can control the world’s powerful tool. That is nothing but their brain.

You are not controlling your brain. Your brain is controlling you.

You can do anything with your belief system.

Mental benefits of meditation

1. Slows down the aging process

2. Relieves stress and chronic anxiety

3. Builds self-esteem

4. Treats and prevents depression

5. Increases attention span

Mediation is good for your brain.

1. Mediation slows the aging process 

As you age, your body gets slower and you start to lose your edge.

Meditation can actually slow down the aging process in your brain.

This comes from a 2015 study from UCLA that found that people who meditate have healthier and younger brains than people who don't.

Even the researchers were shocked by their findings!

They expected a small difference, if any, in the size of their brains.

Instead, they found significant changes in brain volume.

By meditating regularly, these people developed more gray matter. Their brain volume stayed far more consistent.

In other words, meditation held back many of the most detrimental effects of aging in the brain.

This awarded them a healthier and more productive mind for years to come.

Meditation keeps your brain young.

2. Meditation relieves stress and chronic anxiety

By learning how to meditate, you significantly reduce your stress without having to make any other major changes to your lifestyle.

The more positive lifestyle changes that you make, the better. The point is that meditation on its own is a very powerful tool.

 

Sitting in silence for 10 or 15 minutes has such a huge impact on your life.

When we're stressed about repaying student loans or giving a big presentation, our bodies produce a hormone called cortisol.

Cortisol is responsible for most of the common negative side effects associated with stress.

Cortisol can impair your memory and increase your blood pressure. It can disrupt your sleep. These things make you feel fatigued and unmotivated.

Cortisol can also lead to depression and chronic anxiety. This can bring your productive lifestyle to a crashing halt.

Luckily, a 2013 study found that meditation (specifically mindfulness meditation) effectively deals with stress by decreasing the negative side effects of cortisol production.

Another study that examined over 1,200 participants found that regular meditation lowered stress more than any medical treatment on the market.

In both of these studies the results were consistent for people of all ages and experience levels. 

No matter whom you are or how much you know about meditation, it can be an incredibly effective way to reduce your stress.

Mediation reduces stress and anxiety.

3. Meditation builds self-esteem

Self-confidence is something that almost everyone struggles with on a daily basis. 

In a world filled with critics and bullies, it can be really difficult to develop and maintain a lasting positive self-image.

Without a strong self-image, you may be struggling every day just to avoid another period of depression.

If this sounds like you, mindfulness meditation can help you build a kind of self-esteem that won't fall apart the next time that something doesn't go your way.

Mindfulness meditation is actually a pretty simple concept. To practice mindfulness all you need to do is bring your complete attention to the present moment.

By focusing exclusively on where you are and who you are; mindfulness can help you stay calm, relaxed and aware.

It can also reduce your anxiety while allowing you to think clearly and rationally.

The ultimate goal of mindfulness meditation is to get you in touch with your senses and emotions. This gives you a deeper understanding of yourself.

A 2005 study showed that this deeper understanding results in the development of positive self-esteem.

In this study researchers had a group of individuals diagnosed with breast cancer practice mindfulness meditation exercises for 12 weeks.

At the start of the study, each participant was tested and showed very low levels of self-esteem but after 12 weeks of meditation, the entire group showed dramatic improvements despite their chronic illness.

While mindfulness meditation does help build self-esteem it's even more effective at stopping your self-esteem from decreasing.

When you experience failure or social rejection you might start having cyclical negative thoughts which can quickly destroy all of the self-esteem that you built up.

These harmful thoughts discourage you from doing the things that make you happy so it's incredibly important to address them before they get out of control.

Mindfulness meditation is a great way to do just that because it offers you the opportunity to bring your attention to the negative thoughts or habits and find ways to correct them.

Improve your self-image.

4. Meditation helps you to avoid depression

Mindfulness meditation has been used as a form of therapy for individuals struggling with depression. 

Not only does it reduce the production of chemicals in our brains associated with depression, but meditation also fosters a more stable emotional mindset by decreasing the presence of unhealthy behaviors.

Brooding, for example, is common among individuals with depression allowing for negative emotions like sadness, anger and self-criticism.

A study by the University of Exeter looked for this kind of behavior in two groups of people who were recovering from depression. 

The first group used only depression medication while the second group practiced mindfulness meditation at least once every day.

The researchers found that about half of the medication group ended up relapsing because of unhealthy behaviors like brooding which prevented the medication from doing its job.

On the other hand, those who practiced meditation were significantly less likely to relapse because they were less likely to engage in any of these depressive behaviors.

If you're hoping to improve your emotional health, mindfulness meditation can be a safe and effective way to cut depression off at the source.

Meditation helps with depression.

5. Meditation increases your attention span

Most people are not able to concentrate on their work for a long amount of time without drifting off. 

Mindfulness meditation can help you to build your attention span.

At first, you will find it harder to concentrate while meditating.

As soon as you have learnt this important skill, you’ll find it so much easier to concentrate on any type of mental work.

The hardest thing about meditation is keeping your mind from wandering.

You're so used to constantly thinking about your work and all of your responsibilities that it can be hard to focus on something simple like your breath or the present moment.

But by practicing this kind of concentration, you're actually increasing your attention span so that you'll be more clear-headed and productive. 

Meditation improves mental output.

Check out more articles from Sparkle Purpose:

16 benefits of laughing

4 miracles of rubbing hands

41 remedies to treat acne scars

Let me help you to take back control.

What is more important than knowing what's in the food you eat? The answer is simple. Know how and why you eat.

It is during our weakest point emotionally when the strongest food cravings hit us. We turn to food for comfort.

As an emotional eater myself, I can totally relate. I eat when I am happy. I eat when I am down. I really look forward to eating my favorite foods that bring me comfort.

The sad part is that after overeating or eating something that is not good for us, we get buyer's remorse and then feel terrible. This leads us to eating more and the cycle just keeps getting worse.

Emotional eating sabotages our effort to lose weight.

If you are susceptible to emotional eating, do not fret. With a proper mindset, you can take control of your eating habits. Get back on track and get that ideal weight that you always wanted.

It's all about your mindset.

Today is the right time for you to get your best life back.

How Emotional Eaters Can Lose Weight

1. Find something more enjoyable than food

2. Take your time

3. Know your triggers

4. Accept your feelings

5. Practice awareness

6. Love your body

7. Choose healthy

8. Sleep well

Follow these easy steps.

1. Look for something more enjoyable than food

As an emotional eater, we find that food makes us feel good. At least, that’s how we think and feel.

Appetizing foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt content, trigger a brain chemical called dopamine.

This is one of the reasons why some scientists consider food addictive. It gives us that jolt of energy that makes us feel better for a short period of time.

Just like anything addictive, in order to give it up, you have to find a replacement.

Find out a way that can comfort or de-stress you without eating.

It can be a chat with a good friend, having some “me” time, exercise or even dancing. 

I find dancing to be a good stress-reliever.

Find something that you enjoy.

2. Take your time

If you must eat, take your time.

Your brain sends out signals of fullness 20 minutes from the time you start eating.

This means if you are a fast eater, you will consume more food. The more you eat, the more calories you put into your body.

Practice eating slower. Enjoy the food. Savor its taste, texture and feeling.

This way, you will eat less and feel in control.

Savor the moment.

3. Know your trigger points

Understand what triggers your craving.

This will help you a lot in dealing with your eating habits.

Determine the situations that make you think about food. Have a strategy that will make you stay ahead with your urges.

Have a low calorie, healthy snack always available.

If a depressing situation makes you want to eat, try walking to get some fresh air instead.

Plan in advance.

4. Accept your feelings

Have you heard of the quote, “It’s OK not to be OK.”?

People think that we need to always be happy.

Our common problem is emotional avoidance. We do not want the inconvenience, the discomfort or the stress.

The truth is that all of these are unavoidable.

We just need to have the proper mindset to approach things and see things in a more positive manner.

Avoidance is a short term solution. Dealing with your discomfort is a long term solution.

Accept your emotions.

5. Awareness

It is advisable that when you eat, do nothing else but eat.

Yes, you can have a good conversation with friends while eating a good meal.

One of the things that you need to avoid is distracted eating.

You are eating because you are sad and you sit in front of the TV.  Before you realized it, you had finished the whole box of pizza, a bag of chips and tons of sodas.

Eat only when you are hungry.

Distractions take your control away.

6. Love your body

Loving your body is not being a narcissist. It is a normal, natural thing to do.

When you love something or even someone, you are going to do everything and anything to protect it, improve it and care for it.

Your body can do so many amazing things. Love it!

It starts with self-image.

7. Go healthy

Pack up on healthy foods to eat.

If you practice eating healthy then you do not have to worry about gaining weight as much.

Most of healthy food like fruit and vegetables are mostly water. The fiber contributes to fullness and healthy digestion. The vitamins and minerals will heal you from the inside out. Unprocessed proteins take more calories to digest than processed food.

Keep yourself full with healthy foods. Avoid salty, fatty and even sweet foods. These are the ones that contribute to food addiction. Drink lots of water.

Healthy equals happy.

8. Sleep well

Adults need to have at least 7-9 hours of sleep per night.

When we do not meet this need, we tend to feel tired and restless. This can affect our moods and willpower.

Eating is a response to lack of strength or energy.

Getting enough sleep is an effective way to boost our mood and gives us the energy that we need to last throughout the day.

You need sleep to succeed.

Summary

There are so many reasons why people eat.

The reality is that there should only be one reason.

How emotional eaters can lose weight is by eating only when we are hungry.

We need to discern real hunger from the cravings that our brain is creating.

Drink plenty of water. If you feel like eating, distract yourself for 15 minutes and you will notice that it goes away because cravings are just a wave of emotions.

Mark Ward from LivingSimplyEasy.com

Mark Ward runs a lifestyle blog called LivingSimplyEasy.com.

This lifestyle blog helps to shape family lives through Health, Wealth and Relationships.

He is a 7-Figure Entrepreneur with over 20 years of Business experience.

Starting his first business at age 18, he started the 1st all hip hop dance studio in Western Canada.

5 years later he discovered a need in the market for an All Hip Hop Dance Competition and created Artists Emerge which is a National Dance Competition & Convention.

Along the way his mission was to spread the message of Youth Giving back to Youth while showcasing the positive impact that Hip Hop can have on the Youth of Today.

To really make an impact of this point he produced a benefit Concert that has run for 10 years called Hip Hop for Hope which raised closed to half a million dollars for various Canadian Charities.

In 2015, he created the 1st Destination Dance Experience, where dancers from all over the world would gather to party, compete and train on a 5 star resort in Cancun.

With all the dance businesses going strong, his passion to serve as many people as possible has now led him on a path to affect more people through his lifestyle brand Living Simple Easy.

Meet Mark Ward.

Strength and conditioning for athletes need improvement

Conditioning is important for athletes.

This article is written by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.

Strength and conditioning training for sports

Strength and conditioning routines are needed for athletes - whether it is for youth athletics, young adult athletics or adult athletes.

Weight training and conditioning go hand in hand with athletics.

I’ve seen a trend going on in this area that I don't like. The trend is what we’ve been doing with many athletes and it's not working.

One of the main reasons why athletes should take part in strength training is to reduce the risk of injury. The other reason is to perform better.

The problem that I’ve seen is that the emphasis is too much on performing better. The trainers are using too much specificity.

This is causing the opposite of injury prevention. I believe that this focus has led to more injuries.

Too much specificity leads to injury.

How sports for athletes used to be

A couple of decades ago athletes played their sport. They also played other sports. It seemed that the more athletic a person was, the more sports they played.

There wasn’t as much specialization twenty years ago as what we have today.

Most of the 'jocks' worked out because they liked working out. There wasn’t so much association between working out and athletics back then.

It wasn’t necessarily instituted into their sport program. The idea of having weightlifting days incorporated into practice was a common occurrence.

There also wasn’t the specialization that there is now with sports. Athletes didn’t focus on just one sport. It was common that the great football players in your high school also played baseball.

Did you know that Dan Marino, the great football player, was drafted by the Kansas City Royals to play baseball? John Elway, another great football player, was drafted by the New York Yankees to play baseball.

This was normal. It was common. This was common among all sports and athletes. Athletes played sports - plural!

Different sports are better for performance.

The world of sports has changed

Welcome to the world of specialization. It is now common in all sports that guys and gals now specialize in one sport starting at an early age.

Kids are now being guided to avoid playing multiple sports. They are being guided to 'specialize' in one sport. As soon as a parent or coach sees talent in a player, they recommend specialization.

The thought is that they should only be playing one sport so they can get as good as possible at that sport.

There is a problem with this thinking. Less than 1% of kids ever turn professional. The chances of getting a scholarship to play a college sport are exceptionally low as well.

I’m not being a dream killer here. If you can do it, do it! The rub is that you are taking a big chance with your kids by not exposing them to many sports when the odds are that they will never make it a career.

The risk of specialization

What's the risk? You risk exposing kids to injuries and to the loss of enjoyment from playing multiple sports.

I mentioned the hall-of-famers Dan Marino and John Elway above. They didn’t need to specialize to make it big. Why do your kids need to?

There is a time for specialization. That is when the kid is old enough to be at the top of his or her game in college - and later pro if they make it that far. 

Prior to that, you are only setting him or her up to injury by overworking one joint pattern and not working on all the other complimentary muscles.

The other issue going on in athletics that I don’t agree with is using weight training to specifically train for a sport.

Sport Specificity is one of the principles of physical fitness. It’s a good thing. It means that to get good at a particular activity, you need to do that activity.

For example, if a runner wants to run faster, they need to run. You must be as specific as possible to the activity to improve the activity. 

Many coaches, however, have missed the overall point and now take that principle to the weight training gym. 

Strength coaches have taken it too far. It is now common to use specific strength training exercises to match the sport.

An example would be a golfer who would be taught to do a strength exercise in which they rotate their spine with load to simulate a golf swing.

A football player will use weight in a press position to simulate coming out of their stances used in football. The examples are as endless as there are exercises.

Variety is important.

Sport has become big money

Sports have become big, big bucks. This is a big industry now. It is one of the biggest.

Why do you think that athletics came back before many other industries during the Covid-19 shutdowns?

It’s not because anybody was worried about the American citizens being entertained! It was because billions of dollars were being lost.

I love sports, but this is the side of it that we must all accept. It’s about the money. Because of that, many people want to cash in.

Athletes want to be paid big. Owners want to make money off their athletes. Sponsors want a return on their investment.

Due to this, any edge is gold. Athletes and trainers have tried to find the edge with strength and conditioning. They are on the right path, but have taken a wrong turn.

Strength and conditioning can absolutely make an athlete a better athlete. This happens by keeping the athlete injury free so they can stay on the field.

Is it working? I do not think so. It is hard to find true injury rates on every sport. Many are hidden.

There is a reason that many teams do not want to release the injury status on their athletes. It can be used against them.

If you watch any sports at all you; know that at the very least, it is not getting better.

Doing weight training with specific exercises to the sport is simply making those muscles, joints, and patterns used in the sport even more overtrained and causing more muscle imbalances.

That is not the original goal of strength and conditioning programs for athletes.

Injury reduction must be a priority.

 

The results of the new conditioning programs

Is this new approach working? I'd say, 'Not so much'.

Injury rates in all sports are off the charts. Athletes are injured all the time! The injury reports in all sports, both college and pros are increasing.

My eyes tell me that we are missing something.

If all this time and money is being spent on athletic conditioning, where is the reward?

It’s not working. It’s clear to anybody that pays attention. 

Athletes are more injured now than 20 years ago. Are they any better at their sport because of it? That is hard to answer.

Individual records are greater, but there are a lot of other changes that have gone on as well. The balls have changed and the rules have changed. These are major impacts on the games played. 

Athletes are bigger, stronger and faster now than they were 20 years ago. I believe that nutritional science has helped. I believe that conditioning has helped that as well.

If you play football and you are undersized, there is no doubt that hitting the weight room and proper eating is the only thing that will put more muscle on your body.

What about the current state of specificity and total specialization? I do not think so. The athletes are not better off because of it.

The problem caused by current strength and conditioning programs

Here is the problem:

Athletes will get overuse injuries when they use the same muscles and joints repetitively without enough rest.

There is only so much stimulation that the soft tissue and connective tissue can take. When soft tissue like muscle tissue is fatigued, the joints gets worn down. An injury can occur suddenly.

The other issue is that you create a muscle imbalance when you use the same muscles all of the time and don’t train its opposite muscles (the antagonists). One side is too strong (inflexible), and the opposite side is weak and overly flexible.

Muscles are made to be used in balance. Both opposing muscles should be strong and support each other.

When we do more weight training in the area of our sport, we magnify the imbalance. Do the opposite and train the antagonist of these muscles.

When young athletes are encouraged to avoid multiple sports, they are not allowing all the muscles to grow in balance with each other. This will cause muscle imbalances as the young athlete grows and gets older.

Imbalances cause injury.

Tom Brady

Let's look at Tom Brady as an example.

He has defied age. Brady has not followed what is now commonplace in professional athletics regarding training.

He believes more in recovery and nutritional science. He calls it TB 12. His program maintains an emphasis on staying lean and injury free. He is 43 and still plays at a top level.

Many of his counterparts are following the dominant training trend in athletics - and are injured at a much higher rate.

I’ve always believed that we need to look at what’s working and what’s not. When something is working well, we should look at what’s being done. 

The solution to the current training dilemma

The solution is a happy medium.

We want to keep conditioning in sports. We simply want to do it the right way. I do that believe athletes need proper guidance, spotting, and programming; but I think that the program must change.

The program needs to evolve to fix muscle imbalances and prevent injuries. If an athlete needs to put on muscle for their sport or another athlete needs to lose body fat for their sport; that should be done in the off-season period when sport-specific training is on a pause.

This is the time to get bigger, stronger and faster. They do not need to be in the gym at their sport.

I believe until high school is over, athletes should be encouraged to play all the sports that they desire to and rest their main sport while they are.

Let's make athletes great again!

Implement variety into your training.

Rob Maxwell

This article is written by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.