Why should I read this?

It's been brought to my attention that I have yet to let you, the reader, know who I am or why I decided to start blogging. It's only fair I suppose that you understand the motivation behind the thoughts and where I see all this going. Let me start out by saying that I sharing isn't one of my best qualities, but I've come to realize that sharing is the only way to make an impact. I don't just mean the sharing of physical things but thoughts and ideas. That's why blogs exist.

I will start off by saying that as of this post I am engaged to be married to one of the most caring, beautiful and selfless people that I've ever met, Stacy. Without her I would not have the courage or support to do this on top of the other endeavors that I've chosen to pursue. And besides, she's always good for keeping me sharp on my movie quotes.

Without giving my resume on this post I will say that I have had more formal education within the fitness field than most and have been involved with more than my share of fitness, corporate wellness, consulting, coaching, and teaching as well. If you must know about my formal background I'll gladly have my secretary forward to you my resume. Outside of all that there has been no greater teacher(s) for what I do today than all the clients and athletes that have trusted me with getting their bodies to a better place. I only say this because this is where what I've read in the books, heard in lectures and taught by my mentors, all becomes real. It's with hope and optimism that what I do have to share is worth while and that you'll come back for more.

One Foot in Front Of The Other

"When your mind doesn't do the job, your feet have to." -Anonymous

This saying was told to me once when I forgot my keys and had to hike back to the apartment. The walk was not bad. What was bad was that we were already late to the movie and there were four people waiting on me.
The point of this message is that if there is little to no thought of exercise selection in strength and conditioning fitness programming someone is going have to work later. By "work" I mean there is going to be a lack of efficiency in getting to the end fitness, strength, power relating to the sport or activity. The only way to make up for the lack of efficiency is to make up the gap in performance with increased effort and energy. In the end poor performance, movement inefficiencies, overuse injuries and fatigue are sure to follow.
If you are an active exerciser, consider the amount of planning that you took on your workout. For example, if you workout three times per week consistently, this adds up to 156 workouts/year. I'm not even talking about how long you're in the gym, lifting, jumping, doing group exercise, cardio, etc.. All put together, at the end of the year you can be 156 workouts closer to achieving your goals or 156 workouts closer to pain, discomfort.
Take some time today or before your next workout and evaluate your performance and level of conditioning. Are you achieving your desired results? Are you making gains in conditioning and strength? If you can honestly answer a solid "yes" to those two basic questions, great! Keep up the good work and keep plugging along. If not, let your mind do more of the work so your feet don't have to.

Sideline Conditioning

Collegiate athletics offers fans an opportunity to witness great plays, athletes a chance to compete and Strength Coaches a chance to figure out how to make this happen. What I mean by this is that the athlete has to be strong, fast and powerful to compete at the highest levels of competition. To attain these attributes they have to train, and train hard.
I wasn't long into my Strength and Conditioning career when I learned that not everyone is able to do the pre-planned workouts. Not long after that I realized that if they can't do it in the weight room, most likely they can't do it on the field or at least not do it well whatever it is. For a sport like football this is more than obvious.
In the weight room you can replace an exercise that might aggravate the shoulder with an injury. On the practice field where that injury may prevent full participation, there is no such substitute. Either you do the job or you don't. All or nothing. In or out. It's not an a la cart situation where you take what you want and leave what you don't.
This brings on the need for a modified conditioning plan for athletes that are sidelined with an injury. This can be called a "sideline reconditioning" program. When the rest of the team is practicing, there is still plenty of opportunity to get better. There are a multitude of steps and departments that have to be coordinated to make this happen.
These steps are:

1. Communication between Sports Medicine, Coaches, and Strength and Conditioning
2. Movement Assessment
3. Corrective Exercise strategy
4. Execution and observation
5. Re-assessment
6. Plan modification

This is the first of many blog entries that address this issue that affects every collegiate sport program, personal trainer or anyone that works with a client/athlete that has sport performance goals but is limited by injury or discomfort.