As the hockey season winds down in Rhode Island, I've had the great opportunity to be able to catch a few of my clients' games here and there over the (never-ending) winter. The best game I got to see was Game 2 of the Division I State Championship between Hendricken and LaSalle last Saturday evening. I sat with the Father of one of the kids I train and got more into the game than I thought I would. I love to see my clients succeed, but I was right there on the edge of my seat with the teen's father.
It was do or die for Hendricken, which is the team I so desperately wanted to see succeed for my friend/client. It was a huge game, as they needed to win to push it to the final game in a best of 3 series. The game went into Overtime, and every time number 7 stepped onto the ice, I felt the excitement and energy from his dad, who was sitting right next to me. And when he assisted on the Game Winning Goal in overtime, both of us erupted, and I felt the joy emulate throughout our entire section for the comeback win this desperate team had just fought to accomplish.
You see, this boy's father knows how hard his son has worked on the ice with his team, off the ice with me, and all those times shooting the puck around with his younger brother and his dad in the driveway. In that moment my exact thoughts were "This is why I do my job. This is why I love what I do." You see the effort put out in by these athletes in all of those different scenarios, but to see it come to life in a moment like that is just indescribable.
Working with these kids in my Hockey Program is not just a great experience for them, but for me as well. I get to know these kids on a personal level and they get to know me. We talk about life, their futures, their goals, and then we get to work. Ask any one of these athletes why they have so much success in my programs, and the answer is simple: They want to work hard for me while they're here! Nobody is forcing them (in most cases) to show up and work with me. These athletes know I care, they know I want them to succeed as badly as they want to, so they trust in my processes and programs. The majority of the time it gets them to where they want to be and we have fun doing it. If you want to know a little more about this program, check out this quick informational link here:
The Way HPI's Hockey Performance Program
Those moments inspire me to be a better trainer for my clients. I'm only a small part of the help they get along the way to get to those moments. They have Hockey Coaches, Skills Trainers, practice at home by themselves, and most importantly, have full support from their families. I give them the tools they need to succeed, but it's the athletes who put in all the real work, and the parents who put in the time to get them to practice and games. But the better I can be at working with my athletes and getting them into peak physical condition, the easier it becomes for them to outperform their competition. Seeing their success due to my help drives me to want to continue to help in the best ways that I know how. Here's to more success stories and indescribable moments like number 7's on Saturday night. They might've lost the series on Monday evening, but nobody can take away that feeling of elation from Saturday. That's something you carry with you for the rest of your life.
Cheers,
Eric Fish, B.S., CSCS
Strength Coach at The Way HPI
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Should You Run Before Or After A Weight Training Workout?
I get asked a lot of questions throughout the day by my clients, but as we get closer to Spring and people tend to want to go for a nice run out in the sun to kick those Winter blues (I know, hard to believe when it's 20 degrees today), one of the most common questions people ask, is whether they should run before or after they come to the gym for a weight training workout. My answer is always the same, no matter who the client is, and I answer with a simple question: Which is more important to you?
If your main goal is to build muscle, get stronger, and become more athletic, then the answer is obvious. Lift first, run later. What many people don't understand is that when they go for these long runs in order to lose weight, while simultaneously trying to build muscle mass in a strength training program, it's that most people don't have the right diet to sustain both goals at once. I'm no dietitian or nutritionist, so I can't really give you an exact science of how to perfect that aspect of your training, but what I can tell you is distance running typically kills the goal of building muscle mass due to a caloric deficit and not enough proper nutrient intake. If you're training to be more athletic, your better bet is to do sprint intervals after your actual weight training workouts. Short bursts of maximum effort, which is working those fast twitch muscles that you're trying to build for athleticism (power, speed, agility), is the name of the game for you guys and gals.
The other deterrent to running before lifting if the main goal is strength and athleticism, is that running seriously taxes your neuromuscular system. Without getting too scientific, this system effects how much force you can produce, how precise your movement patterns are (think about how many people are less effective in shooting/passing a basketball, puck, soccer ball, etc at the end of a game when they're fatigued), and biochemical changes that affect our energy levels.
Essentially, taxing your neuromuscular system before going to lift heavy weights can lead to you not being able to lift as much (less force production), bad form that can lead to injuries (movement patterns), or feeling generally groggy/less motivated during your workout (energy levels). These are just three examples of many that I could talk about.
To all of my Life Performance, Tactical, and Sports Performance clients; how much harder is our Single Leg Balance series when you're tired after a long day and find it hard to focus? That's another easy example of the effects fatigue has on the neuromuscular system.
The exception to this rule is if you're running at a slow pace as a warmup. A 1-2 mile run at a slow pace to get the blood flowing won't have too much of an effect on what you'll be doing in the weight room. Just make sure if you're running as a warmup, do it to get the sweat flowing, not to feel like you just finished running a sprint or a marathon.
Now, if your goal is a marathon or some sort of race, then obviously running is the more important tool for your training (in most cases), and should typically be done first. Don't get me wrong, runners should absolutely be weight training. I can't stress enough how important it is for runners to be doing some sort of weight training with a Strength & Conditioning coach for injury prevention. The amount of stress runners put on their joints over time is astounding, and most don't know that they have poor movement patterns to begin with, so the constant stress on poorly moving parts can create a lot of problems. It's important to work with a Strength & Conditioning professional to help find the root of these problems and work to fix them, instead of just masking them with icy hot and overstretching your muscles for momentary pain relief.
But I digress.
To sum this all up, if the goal is athleticism and strength, run sprint intervals after your workouts or on your off days. You'll get the same cardiovascular benefit if you do enough volume and work hard, while still being able to build adequate strength and power. If the goal is more endurance related, and you're using strength training as a means to build up your general strength/help with injury prevention, get your run in first and then move on to the strength training later. Essentially, whatever the main priority is, start with that! Happy Training. Cheers.
Eric Fish
B.S., CSCS
Strength Coach at The Way Human Performance Institute
If your main goal is to build muscle, get stronger, and become more athletic, then the answer is obvious. Lift first, run later. What many people don't understand is that when they go for these long runs in order to lose weight, while simultaneously trying to build muscle mass in a strength training program, it's that most people don't have the right diet to sustain both goals at once. I'm no dietitian or nutritionist, so I can't really give you an exact science of how to perfect that aspect of your training, but what I can tell you is distance running typically kills the goal of building muscle mass due to a caloric deficit and not enough proper nutrient intake. If you're training to be more athletic, your better bet is to do sprint intervals after your actual weight training workouts. Short bursts of maximum effort, which is working those fast twitch muscles that you're trying to build for athleticism (power, speed, agility), is the name of the game for you guys and gals.
The other deterrent to running before lifting if the main goal is strength and athleticism, is that running seriously taxes your neuromuscular system. Without getting too scientific, this system effects how much force you can produce, how precise your movement patterns are (think about how many people are less effective in shooting/passing a basketball, puck, soccer ball, etc at the end of a game when they're fatigued), and biochemical changes that affect our energy levels.
Essentially, taxing your neuromuscular system before going to lift heavy weights can lead to you not being able to lift as much (less force production), bad form that can lead to injuries (movement patterns), or feeling generally groggy/less motivated during your workout (energy levels). These are just three examples of many that I could talk about.
To all of my Life Performance, Tactical, and Sports Performance clients; how much harder is our Single Leg Balance series when you're tired after a long day and find it hard to focus? That's another easy example of the effects fatigue has on the neuromuscular system.
The exception to this rule is if you're running at a slow pace as a warmup. A 1-2 mile run at a slow pace to get the blood flowing won't have too much of an effect on what you'll be doing in the weight room. Just make sure if you're running as a warmup, do it to get the sweat flowing, not to feel like you just finished running a sprint or a marathon.
Now, if your goal is a marathon or some sort of race, then obviously running is the more important tool for your training (in most cases), and should typically be done first. Don't get me wrong, runners should absolutely be weight training. I can't stress enough how important it is for runners to be doing some sort of weight training with a Strength & Conditioning coach for injury prevention. The amount of stress runners put on their joints over time is astounding, and most don't know that they have poor movement patterns to begin with, so the constant stress on poorly moving parts can create a lot of problems. It's important to work with a Strength & Conditioning professional to help find the root of these problems and work to fix them, instead of just masking them with icy hot and overstretching your muscles for momentary pain relief.
But I digress.
To sum this all up, if the goal is athleticism and strength, run sprint intervals after your workouts or on your off days. You'll get the same cardiovascular benefit if you do enough volume and work hard, while still being able to build adequate strength and power. If the goal is more endurance related, and you're using strength training as a means to build up your general strength/help with injury prevention, get your run in first and then move on to the strength training later. Essentially, whatever the main priority is, start with that! Happy Training. Cheers.
Eric Fish
B.S., CSCS
Strength Coach at The Way Human Performance Institute
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
How to Distinguish Between Good and Bad Trainers
The fitness industry is interesting for so many different reasons. It's a cornucopia of different personalities, training styles/methods, and ideas of what a good workout should be. Let me be clear in saying I do not believe that there is a be all, end all style of training. That would be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. If you love going to spin class, then that's the best style of training for you. If you enjoy lifting weights, then by all means go and lift something heavy (with good form, please). But the thing that I take issue with in this industry (aside from Instagram fitness "Models," Weekend Warrior Trainers whose actual job is being an Accountant, and other such annoying trends these days), is the idea that a person should be sore after EVERY SINGLE WORKOUT.
That's about as far from the truth as it gets. Should you be sore from your workouts from time to time? Absolutely. Should your trainer be pushing you to your limits during every single one of your workouts? Absolutely not. Recovery is one of the most important components of constant improvement. If your trainer pushes you to the point where you can't move for three days afterwards, guess what? You just lost out on 3 days where you could've been either in active recovery, getting in other workouts, or essentially doing anything other than wince anytime you stand up from a chair or raise your arms higher than your waist.
And to go further with that, when I see people who come back from a new workout for the first time ever and actually brag about how sore they are for days afterwards, it makes me cringe at what the general public actually thinks about what it means to be productive in their workouts. When I have new clients, the first thing I do is assess where they're at. Have they worked out before? How recent? What modes of training are they used to? Then I run them through a workout that is by no means going to kill them (unless they are very advanced and can handle a more difficult workout), and see how their body reacts. I don't tell them to come back in 24 hours. I tell them to see how their body feels and we move forward from there. Essentially the first week of training with a new client is seeing what they can and can't handle. Whether it's due to movement pattern issues that need to be fixed, the fact that they are detrained, or if they don't have the mental strength to push themselves farther than a certain point. Assess, evaluate, and re-assess.
Don't be tricked into thinking you're not being productive because you weren't sore. Don't be tricked into the mentality of "no pain no gain." There's a reason most of the Physical Therapists I know have their offices within shouting distance of a CrossFit facility. Not that all CrossFit trainers are bad, just like not all Gold's Gym trainers are bad, but if we're being honest here, how many good ones have you seen? Could you recognize a truly knowledgable one? If so, can they use that knowledge in a practical sense?
It's tough for not only the general public, but even a lot of fitness enthusiasts to differentiate between a good training program and a bad one, as well as a good trainer and a bad one. Here's a quick checklist of what to look for:
1) Did they evaluate you via some form of Medical/Injury History or Movement Screening Check List?
2) Do you enjoy the mode of training you're doing? If not, switch it up!
3) Are you debilitatingly sore after every workout? If so, find a new trainer or workout program! Those days you can't move off the couch are wasted due to an overzealous workout program.
4) Do you get pain during or after working out? Note that there is a difference between soreness and pain. Soreness is okay, but when there's actual pain, you know something is not right with your body. If you have any sort of pain, ask your trainer what might have caused it and see if he/she can figure out the root of the problem. If it persists, head to a doctor to get evaluated. If you weren't in pain before your new workout regiment, and you're in pain now - well, let's just put 2 and 2 together there. Pain is not a good result of working out.
In summary, I'm not saying to find a trainer who won't push you to your limits, but they shouldn't push you there during every single workout. Find somebody who will learn to know your body just as good, if not better, than you know it. They should know your deficiencies and be attempting to correct them. They should know how to fix your bad movement patterns should you have any (most people don't realize they have them). And most importantly, they should be catering to your own personal goals in the best way they know how, not modifying your goals to fit their training style. It's a lot to look for, but you have to live in your body every day, so you may as well treat it the way it deserves to be treated. Cheers.
Eric Fish
B.S., CSCS
Strength Coach at The Way Human Performance Institute
That's about as far from the truth as it gets. Should you be sore from your workouts from time to time? Absolutely. Should your trainer be pushing you to your limits during every single one of your workouts? Absolutely not. Recovery is one of the most important components of constant improvement. If your trainer pushes you to the point where you can't move for three days afterwards, guess what? You just lost out on 3 days where you could've been either in active recovery, getting in other workouts, or essentially doing anything other than wince anytime you stand up from a chair or raise your arms higher than your waist.
And to go further with that, when I see people who come back from a new workout for the first time ever and actually brag about how sore they are for days afterwards, it makes me cringe at what the general public actually thinks about what it means to be productive in their workouts. When I have new clients, the first thing I do is assess where they're at. Have they worked out before? How recent? What modes of training are they used to? Then I run them through a workout that is by no means going to kill them (unless they are very advanced and can handle a more difficult workout), and see how their body reacts. I don't tell them to come back in 24 hours. I tell them to see how their body feels and we move forward from there. Essentially the first week of training with a new client is seeing what they can and can't handle. Whether it's due to movement pattern issues that need to be fixed, the fact that they are detrained, or if they don't have the mental strength to push themselves farther than a certain point. Assess, evaluate, and re-assess.
Don't be tricked into thinking you're not being productive because you weren't sore. Don't be tricked into the mentality of "no pain no gain." There's a reason most of the Physical Therapists I know have their offices within shouting distance of a CrossFit facility. Not that all CrossFit trainers are bad, just like not all Gold's Gym trainers are bad, but if we're being honest here, how many good ones have you seen? Could you recognize a truly knowledgable one? If so, can they use that knowledge in a practical sense?
It's tough for not only the general public, but even a lot of fitness enthusiasts to differentiate between a good training program and a bad one, as well as a good trainer and a bad one. Here's a quick checklist of what to look for:
1) Did they evaluate you via some form of Medical/Injury History or Movement Screening Check List?
2) Do you enjoy the mode of training you're doing? If not, switch it up!
3) Are you debilitatingly sore after every workout? If so, find a new trainer or workout program! Those days you can't move off the couch are wasted due to an overzealous workout program.
4) Do you get pain during or after working out? Note that there is a difference between soreness and pain. Soreness is okay, but when there's actual pain, you know something is not right with your body. If you have any sort of pain, ask your trainer what might have caused it and see if he/she can figure out the root of the problem. If it persists, head to a doctor to get evaluated. If you weren't in pain before your new workout regiment, and you're in pain now - well, let's just put 2 and 2 together there. Pain is not a good result of working out.
In summary, I'm not saying to find a trainer who won't push you to your limits, but they shouldn't push you there during every single workout. Find somebody who will learn to know your body just as good, if not better, than you know it. They should know your deficiencies and be attempting to correct them. They should know how to fix your bad movement patterns should you have any (most people don't realize they have them). And most importantly, they should be catering to your own personal goals in the best way they know how, not modifying your goals to fit their training style. It's a lot to look for, but you have to live in your body every day, so you may as well treat it the way it deserves to be treated. Cheers.
Eric Fish
B.S., CSCS
Strength Coach at The Way Human Performance Institute
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