New Years Resolutions

During this time of year, it has become increasingly popular to come up with extravagant "resolutions" to accomplish during the upcoming New Year. Resolutions have probably been around as long as humans have used the current calendar system. Who can resist the urge? It makes perfect sense, with a brand new year coming up many people look at it as a fresh start or a brand new opportunity to attain a goal they have in their mind. So what do I think about New Years Resolutions?

I think waiting until New Years to declare a goal that has any personal value to you is retarded. If its worth doing at all, why not just set out on your goal now? Let's look at some common resolutions.

1. Lose weight

2. Read more books

3. Sell more products

4. Make more money

5. Exercise more

6. Eat better

Can we all agree that these are the most common ones we hear? I would be willing to bet you a month's pay that Harry McGuillicutty who tells you he plans to lose 20 pounds this year will have a different resolution for 2010; to lose 30 pounds. Same goes for the other ones. Why not put them on a dart board and throw a few darts and go with whichever one they land on?

Don't misunderstand me, however. I am HUGE into goal setting and achieving. I just think to wait until New Years is a mentally weak thing to do. It is just following the masses, who are usually wrong anyway. It is taking the easy way out.

If you must set a resolution, below is a way to do it MUCH more effectively.

Actions

1. Open up Microsft Powerpoint immediately.

2. Save this new slide deck as "JohnSmith2009Goals.ppt"

3. Create three slides. At the top of one slide, write "2009 Career Goals". Slides 2 and 3 become "2009 personal goals". I think you will need two slides for personal goals, because in my mind "personal" canvases a whole variety of things.

4. On slide one, set 3 career goals. If you write "make more money", go ahead and throw yourself out a window. If that is your goal, write "make 125,000 in 2009" and then go ahead and write underneath that exactly how you plan to do so. BE SPECIFIC or don't bother.

5. For your personal slides, write whatever goals you want to accomplish outside of work. BE SPECIFIC. A few of my personal goals are "Drive a brand new, black, Dodge Ram pickup truck by March 1st". Another is to Visit Mexico before next summer to surf for 7 days, sleep in a tent, and go fishing with locals. They need to be specific and measurable and bonus points if you attach a date because it will give you a sense of urgency.

6. Let's tackle a health and fitness goal. "Lose Weight" may as well be "F*ck Off". Lose Weight doesn't mean anything, you could just cut your hair, wear lighter clothing and have a bowel movement. Guess what, you have just lost weight. A better goal is to "Be at 10 percent body fat, with visible abs, by April 1st, 2009". From here you can now make a plan to go about getting to 10 percent bodyfat.

7. Print this slide deck out and hang it on the fridge, keep one in your gym bag, email it to a close friend, put one in the office, and anywhere else you are bound to be slapped in the face by it everyday. Email it to me if you want and I will check with you periodically to see if you are on track.

Summary

1. Don't wait. Start Now.

2. Be as specific as you possibly can.

3. Put it in public places to help you be accountable. Give a copy to a friend to help you and ask for theirs.

4. If "10 percent body fat with visible abs is in your future, let me put your plan together for you, and train you a couple of times per week. I can guarantee I will help you reach your goals.

5. Aim high, miss high. If you say earn 150k this year, and only earn 138k but last year made 70k, chalk that up in the win column.

Happy New Year.

TS

tssullivanjr@gmail.com

781 831 3901

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas everybody, I hope you are spending the next few days relaxing with family and friends. I know I will. Couple things:

1. I am having a big group workout tomorrow at 10am at the gym. If you are interested, get in touch with me. PS. It is free.

2. As far as the holidays go, do not try to diet through the holidays. Eat and drink whatever you want, try to get a few training sessions in, and then dial it up come January 2nd. I heard a line the other day that goes, "Don't eat well from Christmas to New Years, eat well from New Years to Christmas."

3. I will update the blog in the next couple of days with my thoughts on New Years resolutions.


Have a great day,

TS

5 Things to Change Today: For the girls...

After a couple of requests this weekend, I have decided to write a post for the women who follow the blog. I will lay out a couple of things that women do poorly (not all women, but most), and then some solutions.

1. Not eating enough protein. Almost all of the women I have worked with are way to low in their consumption of protein.

2. Too much steady state cardio. Steady state cardio is the type where you hop on an elliptical, or stair stepper and go at the same pace for 15 minutes or longer.

3. Not doing any weight lifting and being afraid that weights will make you big and bulky.

4. Eating way too few calories.

5. Having the wrong goals.

Solutions:

1. Pretty easy fix. Start eating more protein. A few easy ways to do this would be to eat eggs in the morning, and then make sure to have some lean protein at every meal. Chicken, fish, meat, turkey, etc are all good choices. If you still are too low, think about a protein shake once or twice per day. This will not make you fat or big.

2. If you must do all of the cardio you currently do, you have to change it to intervals. Try an interval where you exert some serious effort for 30 seconds, then you slow the pace to a recovery pace for 1 minute. Repeat for 6-8 times and you have just performed a much more beneficial cardio session.

3. Weight lifting will not make you big. People don't put on muscle by accident. Think about how stupid that sounds, woops I got too big. Plus most of you wouldn't work hard enough to put on serious muscle. Weight lifting will however burn a ton of calories and make you look much harder. If you don't know how have someone show you the basics like squats, pullups, pushups, presses, etc.

4. If you are currently training hard, you probably aren't eating enough calories. A perfect recipe for looking like you have an eating disorder would be to do a ton of muscle wasting, steady state cardio, and then eat nothing but salad. You want to preserve your lean muscle, this is the stuff that makes you look attractive in the first place.

5. If you are skinny to begin with, you shouldn't be trying to lose weight. You should try to build some lean muscle, you will look way better. If you are trying to add some lean muscle, you should make sure your training program is correctly structured to help you reach your goals.

If you need help, drop me a line at tssullivanjr@gmail.com

Do your workouts look like this?

Its 5:30 pm after a long day at the office and you drag yourself over to the gym to get a "workout" in. You walk in the gym, do a few side bends, static hamstring stretches, and you are ready to go. If you are a guy, you head over to the bench do 2-3 warmup sets and then 1 or 2 more difficult sets with the same weight you have used since high school. Maybe you head over to the seated shoulder press machine and bang out three sets. Then you walk over to the bike and pedal at level 2 for 20 minutes (which is usually 15 minutes, you just tell everyone 20 minutes). If you are a girl, you head straight for the elliptical with US Weekly and go for 20 minutes on a machine that makes you look foolish. Guess what folks. Your workouts suck.

Solutions:

1. First off, don't call it "working out". What the hell does that even mean? Call it training. This changes your mindset completely and makes it feel like you are working out with a purpose.

2. So what is your purpose in going in to the gym three times per week? Come up with a specific goal and a specific timeline for reaching it. Otherwise you are wasting your time.

3. Do things no one else does. Look around the office, not one person there could do 10 strict pullups. You hardly ever see anyone doing them. So make it your goal to work up to 10 pullups, you will be thanked with a muscular back and shoulders. Also learn how to squat properly, deadlift, press, dip, and do real pushups. No one does them or does them correctly except for the people who have great physiques. That should tell you something.

4. Have a plan and keep a log.

5. If you need help with a program, ask me. tssullivanjr@gmail.com

The Eagle Has Landed

Congratulations to Eddie O'Connor who has been accepted early decision to Bowdoin College and will play for the Polar Bears next winter. Eddie trained at Sullivan Training Systems this summer and fall in preparation for his final year at Noble and Greenough in Dedham. Ed put in loads of hard work this offseason and the results were excellent.

New Exercise! Overhand Tomahawk Loafer Throw

Happy Monday everybody. I want to take this opportunity to start with a link to a video I am sure most of you have seen by now. Here is the link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7782422.stm

I would like to extend my thanks to the Iraqi gentlemen for his demonstration on this new exercise. Tonight over at STS in Braintree, I will be having my 4pm group and 6pm group experiment with this athletic movement. I will have the athletes partner up, remove their sneakers and stand at opposite ends of the room. One athlete throws and one dodges the incoming shoes. This is a great bang for your buck activity. You get the overhand explosive throwing movement that will transfer directly to your sport, along with the agility involved in dodging flying Nikes. Everybody wins.

Boot Camp Starts tomorrow...

With tomorrow's women's bootcamp kicking off tomorrow, I have developed the plan for what will happen in the 50 minute sessions. Have a look, should be a lot of fun and a lot of sweat.

Dynamic Warmup
high knee walk, high knee skip, high knee run, butt kicks, lateral high knee run, hip walkovers, shuffle, carioca, inchworm

Core work
4 point stability 20 seconds each position x 3 sets
Medicine Ball russian twists 3x10each way

Metabolic Work Stations
Ball Slams
Ring Rows
Pushups
Reverse Lunges
Stairs
Burpees

Static Stretch

There it is sports fans. See you tomorrow morning.

Online Coaching

In an effort to help as many people as possible realize their health and fitness goals, I have decided to do a limited amount of Online Coaching. What is Online Coaching?

I provide you with a plan for exactly what to do when you walk through the doors of your gym for four weeks. No guess work. Simple, but effective. I will also provide you with all of the nutritional guidance you need to reach your goals.

How much does it cost?

$49 dollars per month with a three month commitment. You can't make REAL progress in anything less than 12 weeks. If you are not willing to commit to 3 months, I am not willing to commit to helping you.

If you are interested, let me know ASAP because this stuff is pretty time consuming and I am going to limit the amount of online coaching that I do.

Serious Inquiries Only

tssullivanjr@gmail.com

6 Days to Sign Up for Women's Bootcamp

Sullivan Training Systems will be holding a women's boot camp starting next Saturday December 13th and running through the end of the Winter. Each session will be 50-60 minutes in length and cost $20 per session. Each session will feature:

Dynamic Warmup
Joint Mobility Complex

30 minutes of fast paced work designed to help attack body fat.

Sessions will be run at 10am, and 11:30am.

Spaces are filling fast, serious inquiries only.

tssullivanjr@gmail.com

To All of My Buddies Who Work Real Jobs

Tonight I thought I would take a break from posting about young athletes and fire a message out there to any of my friends who work real jobs in real offices with real responsibilities. When I worked at EMC I was able to maintain a decent body and decent fitness levels (not great, decent). I thought I would put a list out on things that I would have done differently to have a better body and better fitness levels.

1. First and foremost, you have to get the diet extra dialed in. Right now I can afford a little bit of crap in my diet because I am on my feet actively training people and demonstrating exercises. When you sit at a desk for 10 hour per day, you can't afford to eat a whole lot of crap. What does this actually mean? Well here is a sample days worth of eating for people who work in offices.

7am: Protein shake and a piece of fruit (if you don't think you need a protein supplement, you are wrong). Metabolic Drive Low Carb Vanilla is delicious and a great product.

9:00am: Breakfast in the cafeteria. Omelet with WHOLE EGGS (better for you), with either wheat toast or small oatmeal accompanied by a gallon of iced coffee. Get rid of the sweeteners and cream. Drink it black, you will learn to love it.

12:00pm: I would get your workout in now, it will charge you up to get on the phone for the rest of the day. You and I both know that after work you are going to put your sweatpants on and get on the couch. Do something with high intensity. If you don't know what to do, or think that bench and curls twice per week is good, email me at tssullivanjr@gmail.com, and I will write a 4 week plan for $49. Even getting on the bike or elliptical for 30 minutes sucks. After your workout have a grilled chicken wrap on wheat and a piece of fruit. A small bag of chips 5 days per week is stupid and I used to do this everyday. 5 small bags equals a massive bag. NOTE: YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO EAT CARBS FROM NOW TILL YOU GO TO BED. This feed is your last that includes carbs.

3:00pm: Protein shake, keeps the energy levels high so you don't bonk.

7pm: Dinner and the last time you eat until morning. Dinner has to be lean protein and side of veggies. The only acceptable takeout would be steak tips and veggies, most places in Southie will do this for those of you who live there. Other good options will be fish, chicken, or lean steak with veggies. RESIST THE URGE TO EAT LIKE A HORSE NOW, IT WILL PAY OFF HUGE.

Stop pretending you don't know how to eat at work, I just friggin told you.

2. Make sure you crush a workout 4 days per week minimum. Again if you don't know exactly what to do, ask.

3. Allow yourself three cheat meals per week. 3 meals, not days, tubby. And guess what, 11 bud lights and a small appetizers at Cole's Tavern is a cheat meal.

Let me know if I can help you in any way,

Sull

The Holidays and Your Health

This entry was sparked when I listened to Ryan Seacrest on the radio talk about how he had to put his diet and fitness goals on hold because of the holidays.

I also have had a few conversations over the past 10 days or so with people about how holiday eating/drinking effects the health of Americans. It is my belief that our Obesity Epidemic is largely due to the behavior of Americans during the Holidays. People take a period of time from November 27th until January 2nd of the next year and gorge themselves on dinner, drink, dessert, and more drinks like there is no tomorrow. The problem doesn't lie with the small percentage of Americans who train at the gym by themselves, with trainers, or who play sports. The problem lies with the HUGE percentage of us who sit at desk jobs and lack the motivation to get to the gym more than once per month. Think about putting 8 pounds of lard on during the holiday season, not working out and keeping the weight hanging around your midsection. Now 8 pounds may not be noticeable at first but repeat this practice for 7 years. How do you think your current body would look carrying an extra 56 pounds of fat? Decent?

Solution

I am never the type of person to tell you you can't indulge once and a while, I think you would go insane. And if you are around me at all during the holidays you know I put on the feedbag as much as anyone. The difference is what people don't see, and the fact is that even during the holidays I train with high intensity 5 days a week so that the 8 pounds average Joe American stuffs on, may only be a pound or two for me, which as soon as the new year hits and my diet gets back on track will be torched off with a few workouts.

So the choice is yours. Continue to make excuses and put 8 pounds on, or get after it in the gym and put zero to one pound on.

Training for Speed in Hockey

I received an email yesterday from a hockey player that trained with us over the summer and is now playing in the EJHL. I hope he doesn't mind me using this for the blog.

"...I was just wondering if you had any exercises that could improve my foot speed or just speed in general out on the ice. For about two weeks now i have been running stairs and riding the bike at the gym after every workout. I would just like some feedback as to what you think on the subject. Thanks."

If you are reading this, don't take this the wrong way. The fact alone that you are asking for help sets you apart from the rest of your opponents who just assume they will get faster. Here was my response:

"When you think about speed on the ice, you should be thinking acceleration. The guys who are fast like Phil Kessel, or Ovechkin or any of the elite guys go from 0-60 in a split second. This is the kind of speed that creates separation on the ice. This is the kind of speed you and any hockey player should be after.

Just logically thinking, how would running stairs or biking have anything to do with this type of speed? Not a whole lot. In fact, it may be the opposite type of training that you want to perform. In order to obtain this type of speed you have to train that way. So a few ideas:

1. After practice, take a guy on your team who is faster than you. Race him for 6-8 reps from the goal line to the top of the circle if he is willing. If he is not willing he is a shitty teammate.

2. Lift weights with speed. When you olympic lift or squat move the bar as fast as you can. This goes for any type of plyos you might be doing. Train explosively if you want to move explosively.

3. Get your legs stronger. Specifically single leg strength. Any type of single leg squat will get this done. Split squat, bulgarian split squat, unsupported single leg squats, any of these work well.

4. Depending on how lean you are, lose 8 pounds by altering your diet. If you can't afford to lose any weight, then don't.

5. Consciously focus on performing drills in practice as fast as possible. You are looking for overspeed, finding that 5th gear."

Hope this helps. Here's to all of you torching the competition,

Sull

Thanksgiving Thoughts

In light of the recent holiday here are some thoughts.

Things I am Thankful for:

1. My family. They supported me giving up my steady job to pursue my passion and continue to provide support on a daily basis.

2. My customers. They trust me with their children for a couple of hours a few times per week. In return I promise to return you a kid who is bigger, faster, stronger, and more mentally tough.

3. My brother Jeff. Thanks for the help with everything buddy.

4. My friends.

5. Leftover turkey sandwiches, which I enjoy more than the actual meal.

Top 10 Things NOT to do...for young athletes

1. Do not eat fast food more than once per week. But, once per week is fine.

2. Do not eat fries and pizza everyday for school lunch. Eat pizza on Fridays, every other day pack a sandwich and a piece of fruit.

3. Do not drink more than one soda per day. But one soda per day is fine (diet is much better).

4. Do not be lazy; do your off- ice training, skate hard at practice, clean your room.

5. Do not take things for granted; be thankful you have the opportunities you have to go to good schools, play hockey, and have families who love you.

6. Do not lift weights unless you have a good teacher, trainer, or strength coach, you will just be putting yourself in position to get injured.

7. Do not watch TV every night. Watch TV 3 nights per week. Every other night go down in the basement and shoot pucks or stickhandle, read books, do homework, spend time with your siblings. Make a schedule for which nights are TV nights.

8. Do not play video games more than two nights per week. Use nights after school to play football or basketball with your friends.

9. Do not be difficult to coach. If a coach asks you to do a drill, or pick up some tape in the locker room, or pick up pucks, do it at 100 miles per hour with no questions asked.

10. Do not take shortcuts. If you want to be a good athlete you have to practice hard, train hard, play other sports, and make sure you enjoy what you are doing.

Today's Teenagers vs Yesterday's Teenagers

Sorry to everyone following along with me here, I was in Montreal defending the cup from last years Canadian Hockey Enterprises, which explains the week off from posting. This post may sound like a rant, but just some thoughts I have.

Old School Teenagers

The fact that I am writing this article is making me feel old, but I would consider myself somewhat of a dying breed. Old School teenagers were flat out tougher than today's teenagers. When I was a teen (that doesn't feel good to say) here are some of the things that characterized me, my friends, and teenagers of old. We used to play tackle football, street hockey, man hunt, etc until all hours of the night, all seasons of the year. Snow on the ground? Even better, let's throw snowballs at each other across the street and aim for each other's heads. I vividly remember living in Quincy during Hurricane Bob and having my cousin Mark knocking on my door to see if I wanted to take advantage of the 3 feet of water in the backyard to play "kill the man with the ball". Needless to say we were out there flopping around beating the hell out of each other.

We played football, soccer, baseball, basketball, and hockey and often times after playing a hockey game I would put on my pads and get in the car with my mom and dad and drive to my football game an hour later.

During the summer all of my friends would landscape, work construction, roofing, painting, etc. As soon as you were physically able we were working for some pocket money. We all drove shitbox cars for the most part too.

We had conversations with each other face to face, picked up the phone to call our buddies and that first girl you had a crush on.

Today's Teens

This breed is a sharp contrast to the way things were when I was growing up. When young guys come into the gym to train I hear them talking about playing NHL Live or Halo on their XBox (I may not even be saying this right, which makes me feel kinda good). Kids are sitting in dark basements playing these video games with kids across the globe while wearing headsets for 4-5 hours on end. Do you know what would happen if 15 year old me ran into 15 year old you? I would stuff you in a dumpster and take your lunch money. Kids are talking about sick goals and touchdowns they scored, which is great except they scored them using their thumbs while holding a game controller.

I know of 10 and 11 year old kids who have cell phones. What is that about? What could they possibly need phones for? I got a cell phone when I was 17 only to be kept in my car in case of emergency because I was a terrible driver along with everyone else my age. Now you see kids walking around texting each other or using IM instead of actually speaking to each other. Kids have become so used to texting that they are losing their ability to communicate as humans.

As far as sports goes, parents of kids age 10 think they have the next Wayne Gretzky on their hands and start sending their kids to play hockey year round. No more football, soccer, basketball, etc, just hockey all the time. I'd like to tell some of these parents, "guess what, little Johnny probably doesn't even have a shot to play Div3 hockey in college, but he may have a shot at DIV 1 Lacrosse except you will never know because his skates are permanently laced on."

Summer Jobs? Ha! Some of these kids will do some manual labor but bitch and moan about it like it is the hardest thing in the world. And still they are better than the kid who sits on his couch all summer and whines at his Dad who works 60 hours a week when he asks him to mow the lawn once every 10 days. Drive around a high school parking lot nowadays and you see that some of the kids are driving nicer cars than their teachers, and they deserve it, they have worked hard (sarcasm?).

Solution

If you are parent start trying some of these things today and you just might see some really amazing things happen with your kids.

1. Ban TV on weeknights. This will force them to find other ways to entertain themselves. This goes for video games, IM, and other crap. You may notice they start putting together street hockey games or going to the park and scraping up their knees.

2. Give them cell phones for emergency purposes, not so they can text 400 times per day. Watching young kids text like they are a gifted musician playing an instrument makes me wanna puke.

3. Make them try other sports. Church League Hoops, pickup soccer, flag football, anything really.

4. Send them to the gym to lift weights. If you have the means, then send them to a qualified strength coach or trainer who will make sure they turn into well rounded, strong athletes and people.

5. Don't buy them a brand new Explorer when they get their license to drive. Buy them a beat up station wagon so they can appreciate that first nice car. I have yet to get my first nice car but know that when I do, a new Jeep will feel like a Maserati.

6. Make them try landscaping or roofing for a summer.

More than Just Strength and Conditioning

Just a quick thought today.

I find myself more and more involved with what my athletes have going on in their lives outside of the gym. Usually as soon as guys enter the gym I start firing questions at them about grades, school in general, about college and the recruiting process, whether or not they are staying out of trouble, etc. I have noticed a trend. Kids are coming in with the best report cards in their lives, noticeably more confident, not to mention playing the best they have ever played in their chosen sport. I think strengthening the body transfers to all aspects of life. I also think I am involved in more than just strength and conditioning.

Monday Chatter November 10 2008

I couldn't really think of a theme for a unified blog post, so I am just going to rattle off a few thoughts on my mind.

In the picture above from left to right. Myself, Deb Aylward (Dayls), Eddie O'Connor (Eagle), Rich Aylward (Rocket), and Mike Aylward (Big Mike).

1. Last Thursday evening I had the pleasure to train the Aylwards and Eddie O'Connor in one session. I already know how bad ass the Aylward men are, but I was completely floored by Deb. She was much stronger than I expected and kept complaining that Mike, her husband, was slowing her down. She also hates to stretch. Her son Mike, one of my best friends, is over in Iraq patrolling the Syrian border as we speak. Thanks for your service Mikey, love you buddy.

2. Based on an article I wrote this morning, if you aren't going to train with a good strength coach or trainer, why do you continue to waste time going for jogs, walks, and long bikes? You should be lifting weights, doing more intense energy systems work, and overall training like an athlete. Watch any college or NFL football game. Do you want to look like one of them or the same fat guy at the gym who does 30 minutes on the eliptical 3 times per week?

3. Want a good quick workout to do? Go to a park and perform the following. One short distance sprint, 5 pushups, and one time across the monkey bars. Drop down on the other side, catch your breath quickly and repeat 10 times. If you aren't breathing heavy you aren't working hard enough. Sometimes training can be this simple and fun.

4. This week is the last week of the fall session at the facility. If you are looking to put on size, speed, and strength this winter, come train with us at Sullivan Training Systems. Shoot me an email for more details at tssullivanjr@gmail.com.

5. We have had some impressive performances this fall session and I will blog later this week with a highlight reel.

6. I have no idea why I can't figure out the spacing of these blog posts, but it makes me want to spike my laptop on the ground, set it on fire, and perform the Maori Haka dance around it.

5 Tips to Make Your Recruiting Visit a Success

If you are a high school athlete starting to enter the recruiting process, there are a few things that will separate you from the rest of potential recruits as you begin to sit down and interview with coaches. Notice I use the word interview and not meet, or speak. It would be beneficial to start thinking in these terms if you are going to be meeting with coaches. Here are some tips you can use right away to make these meetings a success.

1. Overdress. Will it make a difference to a coach if you show up in jeans and a polo shirt versus khakis, jacket, and tie? Maybe, but why risk it. If you show up dressed well, a coach will know that you are taking this opportunity seriously.

2. Eye Contact. As you sit across a desk from a potential college coach, make sure you maintain eye contact and be confident. They are making judgements about you even when you aren't speaking.

3. Ask Questions. Show up to each recruiting trip with 15 questions to ask the coach. You may not get to all of the questions but it gives you a good number to start with. Write them on a sheet of paper and take some notes as the coach answers your question. He will be blown away by this. Good question: Can you describe the style of play that I will encounter in your league? Bad Question: Are there a lot of hot girls on campus?

4. Figure out exactly where you stand. If this were an interview for a job you wanted, you would close the meeting by asking for the job. So ask for the job. Ask the coach where you fit in with his plans for your recruiting class.

5. Repeat this process on all of your recruiting trips. If you use the same 15 questions at each meeting, you now have 3-6 sheets of notes on your questions from each school that you can use for reference when you make your final decision.

Winter Session 2008-2009

I am happy to announce that we are accepting applications for the Winter Session. There will be two options to train. One will be a two day per week training schedule and the second option will feature a three day per week. Session will run from November 24 through the last week in February. For more information please contact me at tssullivanjr@gmail.com

Below is an article I wrote for the Boston Patriots.

7 Successful Habits for Young Athletes

1. Academic Success. It is crucial for young athletes to start developing solid study habits as they get older. When the college selection process begins, any coach will tell you that a good player who has excellent grades and good test scores is invaluable to a program. Usually a coach has a small number of players they can be more lenient with during the admission process. If you remove the obstacle of you getting admitted, you make the coach’s job much easier.

2. Hard Work. Kids might not be happy to hear me say this, but hard work may be the best trait a player can possess. The beauty of this habit is you have complete control over how hard you work. You want to build a reputation as a “guy who will go through the boards if you asked him too”. Coaches love these guys. So start working hard in practice, stay after to shoot pucks, ask what other things you can do to get better, block shots, finish checks, and just flat out hustle at every opportunity.

3. Be a team player. This means at all times, not just when you feel like it. Pick up pucks at practice, clean the locker room, don’t talk back to coaches, be positive to your teammates at all times, don’t bitch and moan.

4. Summer Jobs. As soon as your son or daughter is old enough, they should be working in the summer even if you are wealthy enough where they don’t have to work. A kid who spends a summer or two working construction or landscaping becomes a mentally tough kid. I would take a construction worker over a kid who plays video games all day. Also, it makes them respect the value of hard work and education. Five summers of landscaping for me really made me think about how I should work hard in school because I didn’t want to do this for the rest of my life.

5. Reading. Read anything and everything. Find an author or some books you like and read them. It makes you smarter. Read magazines, newspapers, anything you can get your hands on.

6. Play every sport you can. Don’t specialize in hockey. Play baseball, golf, football, soccer, water ski, tennis, etc. It makes you a better athlete and actually makes your body more injury proof by being exposed to multiple stimuli.

7. Respect your parents. You won’t realize it right now, but your folks kill themselves to get you to practice, to pay for select teams, off ice training, school, etc. Tell them you love them and appreciate everything they do, and clean up after yourself for god sakes!

95 Pound Front Squat Test

Pictured above: Richie Aylward in the middle of a complex including squat jumps, clap pushups, and 25 pound plate corkscrews. Rich has been training with me for close to a year now and continues to train with me during the football season. Hard work like this has led to some excellent results for Rich. Keep it up buddy.

=>This week at the gym as a change of pace I have added in a couple of tests in order to bring out a little competition among the guys. The tests have been a 95 pound front squat test to technical failure, max pullup test, and a 95 pound bench press test. Another reason for implementing the test was to train for some mental toughness. A set of front squats where you take it into the high teens, 20s, 30s, and 40s, tells you a lot about yourself. Can you push past discomfort? Can you deal with some adversity?

=>During the 95 pound front squat test we had some great results.

Eddie O'Connor set the bar at 28. Brian Talbot went after Ed and posted a number of 30. Pat Bohan batted third and got 35. Brian Mac went and posted 40. Brian Byrne got 42. Pat Bohan dialed it up for another set and posted the record number at 46. The atmosphere during the testing was electric. Guys cheering each other on to get one more rep secretly hoping that their number would remain atop the leaderboard. I was more than satusfied with the way this test went and will use it in the future to test the guys in addition to the regular 3RM tests we do in various movements.

=>There is definitely something to be said for gym atmosphere. Get a group of like minded guys trying to get stronger together and you get results far greater than what you could accomplish on your own.

Separating the Good from Great

Today's post comes from an email I was forwarded that was written by Jamie Rice, the head coach at Babson College.

"I just returned from the BU/Michigan game, and while the game had plenty in it to think about and discuss from a hockey and tactical standpoint, there was something that struck me as what makes a championship team/creates a winning culture... following the game I went down to the locker rooms to say hello to the BU and Michigan coaches, and within 10 minutes following the game the entire BU team was finishing their shakes, eating some pizza AND immediately heading into the weight room, where the following activities were taking place;

players were stretching out, and using foam rollers, players were riding air-dynes, players were RUNNING on the treadmills, players were lifting weights, players were getting and performing self muscle massage, players were talking about the game. They were doing this willingly and eagerly, with no one trying to duck out...they were enjoying the workout as much as they did winning. Obviously, the scientific physiological reason was to dissipate LACTIC ACID as quickly as possible to help ensure their bodies would be ready to perform when needed next. It would be easy to dismiss this as DI scholarship athlete's "doing their job". However, I spoke with one of their coaches and the strength coach, and they both said two different, but related things"We are sick of being a second tier team, and this is an area where we can beat our opponents, in our training/recovery...of working SMARTLY while others rest.""It is a mindset, and certainly beneficial from a physical standpoint, but our belief is that we will stop at nothing to improve. We can only get better if we work at self-improvement." Think of Mike Venit's season last year...Mike rode the bike following every game, and would then again ride every Saturday morning (when we were home). Mike wasn't satisfied with how his career had gone, so he decided to impart change. What do you want to do...how do you want to play...what outcome do you desire? BU won 7-2, and the outcome was never in question...it also was apparent to me following the game that the seeds for success were planted well before 7pm last night, they were planted while others were taking the easy path, looking for short cuts, or using the time away from their teammates to hide..."

Kind of speaks for itself. Do you want to be good or great?

Nutrition For High School Athletes

About 2 weeks ago after a relay race style workout that I completed with a handful of my high school guys we sat down on the floor and had a talk about diet. Most of them had no clue what they should be putting in their bodies. So based on our talk I left them with a few take away points.

1. A good breakfast is not cereal. Cereal sucks, no matter what kind it if. Yes, Special K Blows too. A good breakfast involves a handful of eggs, some oatmeal or whole grain bread with natural peanut butter, fruit, and as much water as you can stomach. Guys were shocked when I told them this.

2. A lot of the guys said there was no way they could eat that much food. So I told them to eat last nights leftover dinner, a sandwich, pizza, or a protein shake with some fruit. Then they came back with, "I don't have time to eat that much." Simple, get up 20 minutes earlier if you are serious about performance.

3. Eat 6 times per day.

4. All of them left with instructions to order a protein supplement. I feel this is crucial. At the very least immediately post workout combined with some simple carbs.

5. Drink a gallon of water per day.

6. At sub shops, stay away from steak and cheese and cold cuts. A better option is steak tips or grilled chicken.

7. Lean guys have a bit more freedom with starch. Heavy guys need to get rid of most of the starch in their diets including things like potato, pasta, bread, corn.

8. In the cafeteria, avoid eating pizza and fries everyday. I thought this was a no brainer but it deserves getting mentioned I guess.

Check the facebook group for some new videos including the Eagle's broad jump.

October 21st, 2008

I spent last Thursday through Sunday playing golf in Myrtle Beach. The trip was very enjoyable with 4 rounds of golf being played at four different courses as well as catching up with three of my buddies from Babson Hockey '06. A couple of quick thoughts about he trip as it relates to this blog:

1. There is something to be said for training for strength and power and the way it transfers to golf. I have never really been a great golfer. I usually score in the high 80s. This weekend was much different however as I had noticeably more pop off the tee. Even when I mishit the ball I had more distance and found my club selection to be about 1 less club than usual.

2. Being strong and mobile in the joints leads to minimal residual soreness after taking roughly 400 swings. Any recovery issues were tied to minimal sleep and too many cocktails. Most issues were from wear and tear on the skin of my hands.

This week in the gym we are doing some heavy loading of the big exercises. I had two guys (Pat and Ed) front squat 230 pounds pretty easily on a heavy single. Probably would have been closer to 250. I also had guys doing 50 pounds of external load on p-grip chinups. I will post more personal bests as the week goes on as well as coming up with a leaderboard for some specific exercises.

The Matadors

Tonight at the gym I had the pleasure of training the "Matadors" flag football club out of Boston College High School. Actually I always train these guys, they are hockey players from BC High. You can see Patty inside the rack providing an excellent spot while wearing his under armour skull cap. Way to go Pat. The Matadors are after the title this year and were able to win a tough battle in overtime today. I don't believe the rest of the league is putting the hours in that these guys are.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of going Tuna fishing aboard "Law and Order", Captain Peter Murphy's 32 foot Cabo out of Green Harbor, Ma. While we didn't put any fish in the boat we were able to enjoy some amazing fall weather and see some crazy wildlife which included seals, sharks, whales, and birds. If you are interested in a great fishing trip I can get you Captain Muprhy's contact info.

I took a day off from training today, but yesterday's training included power snatch, front squats, and pullups. I did a set of 4 pullups with 75 pounds added to my 200 pound carcass.

Everyday is a Friday...Random Training Notes

Everyone loves Fridays. Friday means the weekend is here and you have two days to basically do whatever you want. What if you could live your life with the same "Friday is here" feeling everyday? A lot of it is about mindset but the majority of that feeling comes from doing things you love everyday. What is holding you back?

Yesterday in the gym, Ed O'Connor casually tells me, "I am definitely noticing results. Since July, I started to take your advice about nutrition and really started focusing in the gym. In that time frame I have gained about 26 pounds." I was shocked. I mean Ed looks great but that is some serious weight. Anyone who works out with Ed knows that he has gotten bigger but still absolutely jumps out of the building and his acceleration is second to none.

Brian Byrne and Brian MacDonald have been working together with me since the summer. When I first got to training these two guys, I knew we had a lot of work to do. They had some faulty movement technique, were slow, weak, and couldn't jump. So last night we were training doing some single leg plyo work, some acceleration, and basic athleticism drills and they killed it. They were agile, fast, explosive. When we got to our strength training Mac hang cleaned 145 for 3 reps and Byrnesy did 135 for 2. These are two guys who worked with the bar for about their first 4 weeks. We moved to pullups. Mac was able to do 6, 5, 5 for sets. Byrnesy, who usually sucks at pullups, was able to match Mac's numbers.

What does all of this mean? Well, basic programming, hard work, and a good competitive training atmosphere can help young athletes take leaps and bounds in their performance.

Have a great Friday.

Sull

Thursday October 9th, 2008

Today is my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad.

For those who know my dad, they know he has been following my training programming for the past 3-4 years or so. Dad is a workaholic, 13-16 hours days are the norm not the exception. He also is a pretty savage competitor in the gym. Lately he has been working such long hours that he sneaks his training session in at the house sometime around the noon hour. The way I structure his training is to pick two movement patterns (i.e Knee dominant move with a vertical push) and pair that with a core move. His core move is usually a difficult plank maneuver because Dad's lower back/neck can get pretty mangled if he doesn't visit the chiro do his soft tissue and mobility work that I prescribe. He moves through each exercise circuit style with minimum rest for usually about 15 minutes. He is in and out in 25 minutes or under. Well Dad has gone from a high of 200+ pounds to his current fighting weight of 174 which he has maintained for about 12 months within 5 pounds. Congratulations, keep it going Dad.

If you have started to follow the blog, please drop some comments and let me know some things that you would like to see. Thanks.

Sull

Tuesday October 7, 2008

Brian Sullivan pictured above with Matt Brennan...

Today I didn't have a whole lot of time to train as I was catching up on some work. So I decided to head out to the beach behind my parents' house in Quincy. I grabbed a 4 foot piece of telephone pole that was leftover from building the pier out back and dragged it down to the beach. For the next 20 minutes I cleaned and pressed it, tossed it end over end, carried it, and cursed at it. By the end of it I was breathing heavy and had built up a lather.

I wanted to give a shout-out to thefitcast.com. Jimmy Smith and Kevin Larrabee conduct some terrific interviews over there and the archives are posted. They have some of the biggest names in fitness, nutrition and strength. Today I listened to an Eric Cressey interview and a Mike Boyle QandA session. Oh yeah, and it is free.

Right now I am watching one of my favorite shows, The Biggest Loser. I am fascinated by it. I mean these people lose a whole human's worth of weight. I also like to watch the workout segments. I usually have to bite my tongue because some of the exercises look really stupid to have these severely deconditioned folks performing, but then again, in the end they deliver results and from the looks of it, minimal injuries. I also may have a slight crush on Jillian.

Some highlights from the gym today include Eddie O'Connor doing three sets of pullups for 15, 12, 12, bulgarian split squatting 145 for sets of three and the BC High boys putting up some decent bench numbers. On a different note I have been experimenting with Tabata slideboard intervals and they are really hard but they tend to look like dog shit when my athletes attempt them. Thinking of getting rid of these.

Also had a productive session with the Boston Patriots tonight. More on that later.

Monday October 6th

Today I had a pretty laid back training session for myself. Started with a dynamic warmup, did some mobility drills, played around with 4 sets of 1 arm barbell snatch, 2 sets of max reps pullups (17, 11), and some reverse lunges loaded with a barbell (for some reason with my right knee pain I can reverse lunge with minimal pain.)

Right now I am watching Jon Lester do battle with the Angels. Hopefully the Red Sox can close them out tonight. On a side note, I think anyone who has ever had a lower back injury can respect what JD Drew is playing through right now.

Last night I played hockey with some guys in Rockland at the Bavis Rink. Me and Houghs Neck Legend Matt Gibbons laid the wood to some dudes. 2 Goals and 3 assists for me, five point night, no big deal.

A couple of highlights from my athletes today were Richie Aylward overhead squatting 135 for sets of 5, Brian MacDonald doing 4 sets of 5 chinups after being able to do zero about 8 weeks ago, and having Brendan Gallahue back in the gym is always fun. Bryan Talbot joined the squad today too in preparation for BC High's upcoming hockey season.

Training the youngsters...

This past week I became the strength and conditioning coach of the Boston Patriots Select Hockey Organization. They currently have three teams that I work with to provide an off-ice component to their training. When I took on the position I was faced with some difficulties.

1. The kids I would be training would be 11, 12, and 13 years old. I haven't had a whole lot of athletes that young to train yet, so I was faced with a little unknown territory there.

2. The groups would be anywhere from 13-16 kids at one time, which is larger than the 6-8 kid groups I usually train and have grown quite comfortable with.

3. I would not be provided with any equipment aside from plenty of open space under the roof of the new rink in Dedham.

4. These kids were very new to the world of training that didn't take place on the ice.

5. I had to figure out a way to provide a 20 week progressive strength training program with no weights available unless I were to bring some over from the gym, which I am toying with.

Here is how I have and plan to handle this. Any feedback is always appreciated.

1. We will begin with 6-8 minutes of dynamic warmup. This will include high knee walk, high knee skip, high knee run, hip walkovers, spiderman, backpedal, side shuffle, carioca, etc. The goal of the continuous warmup is to prepare the body for movement, introduce some semi-athletic drills, and get the kids moving.

2. Next I have decided to break them up into 4 lines of 3-4 kids. I have the first line step up to go through the first exercise (two legged squat jump focusing on landing mechanics). While the first group goes, the rest of the young lads will perform a stickhandling drill (I require them to bring a stick and ball) whether it be narrow dribble, wide dribble, side dribble, etc. This eliminates standing around and effing around. The line system allows me to watch the mechanics and coach 4 guys at a time which is manageable.

3. The exercises I have planned are things like squat jumps, skating bounds, split squats, pushups, planks, back bridge, glute activation, short sprints. I am struggling with the fact that there is not much on an option for any vertical or horizontal pulling.

Thats all for now...any feedback or advice is appreciated.

Things I Find Effective in Training Athletes

Below are some random thoughts that I find effective when training athletes.

1. Right now a lot of guys that I train are playing Fall Select hockey in Massachusetts. I have found it effective to make small deals with them after their last session of the week before their weekend tilts. We set a goal, for example, Ed Nolan of BC High fame and I set a goal for last weekend of 3 points and zero penalties for the 2 games he was going to play in. Score 3 points and I have to do 10 burpees. Get zero penalties and I do an additional 10. However, if he gets 1 penalty, he does 10 burpees and 10 for each additional penalty. He also does 5 burpees for every point under 2 that he gets. I think this teaches a solid lesson about having a goals for games, and I am now trying to have guys set goals for their upcoming seasons.

2. Like Mike Boyle explains in his writing. It is easier to teach guys how to close grip snatch than teaching them to clean. The catch position of the clean requires wrist and forearm flexibility that comes with time but almost anyone without a history of shoulder conditions or being a baseball guy can come in and snatch with decent instruction.

3. It may be better to have one heavier olympic lift during the week and one lighter technique day where we focus on bar speed. Two heavy Oly-Lift days seem to drain quite a bit from guys.

4. I trained 24 athletes this summer for 12 weeks. I have a group of those guys back for the fall. I think only about 5 of them bench pressed all summer. Young guys need to be able to do sets of pushups and even loaded pushups before we start loading up the bench press.

5. Some kids respond best to different coaching styles. If athlete A is setting up for a big lift or chalking up for a set of Cleans, I know that saying "jeez, thats a lot of weight, I don't know if you will get it," he will tell me to cordially go F myself by nailing some pretty aggressive reps. However a different kid will dial it up if I keep it positive and pump up his tires a bit.

6. I have taken some of the cardio-strength training complexes that Coach Dos has in his book, "Power Training" and have started sprinkling them in on Thursdays and challenging guys to see who can complete the most rounds in a given time. This week we did an unloaded 45lb barbell complex. It was 3 high pulls, 3 push presses, 3 reverse lunges each leg (6 total). Set a stopwatch for 10 minutes and see how many times you can get through it. My best was 21 times. My glutes are also toast today. I think it provides a nice conditioning effect and also is a mini deload from lifting heavy.

Training High School Athletes

It has taken me 7 months of running Sullivan Training Systems in Braintree, Ma to realize that my specialty is training high school athletes. And more specifically it is training high school hockey players. I guess I am not the brightest person in the world not to see this sooner. I mean, I've played hockey since I was walking (maybe before), everyone I know plays hockey, and I know how to train for hockey since I have been in the trenches myself. I am a dummy for not realizing this sooner. Since this will be my focus here are some things I have learned so far:

1. The best way to get results with this population is to train them in small groups.

2. To take point 1, one step further, you need to take every opportunity to put them head to head in competitive situations.

3. High School hockey players swear like truck drivers. And because nothing sounds worse than a high school guy taking a wrister off the glass and screaming FUCK!!!!! I have decided to implement a 5 burpee per swear rule. And it is working.

4. There will always be guys who are a pleasure to train and guys who are a pain in the ass to train. Accept that or send them home with their check.

5. To earn respect from this population, sometimes you have to do battle alongside them. Over the summer we had touch football games once a month and I participated, and went full tilt.

Stay tuned...