A case of the Mondays.....

A bunch of random thoughts:

1. With Thanksgiving coming up this week, I plan on taking some time away from training athletes and clients. I think it is important to spend some time with Family and Friends this week and in the coming holidays. Having said that (any Curb fans out there), I do plan on getting into the gym on Thursday morning, Friday morning, and once more over the weekend. These will be brief but intense workouts to combat the caloric intake of the holidays. Usually at about 8pm on Thanksgiving, I take two pieces of Italian bread and begin to build...layer of stuffing, pile of turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, miracle whip, salt and pepper. I literally have to step on it to get it in my mouth, so I figure I need to keep training.

2. For my winter athletes, this is their last week of training before hockey tryouts. These kids are in the best shape of their lives and are looking forward to attacking tryouts. These kids were all beginners when they came in. Most are still relatively skinny kids but their strength levels have shot up as well as their mental toughness reserves and I believe they are ready to go.

3. The past couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of working out with my longtime friend, Chris Cullen, who is in town for Thanksgiving. Chris is an Army Pilot who flies Blackhawk helicopters (how cool is that) and is stationed in Alaska and recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. On Friday we did a team competition in which we pit civilians (Brian Sull, Joe Fernald, and myself) against US Military (Chris Cullen and Mike Aylward USMC). The workout consisted of 5 chinups, 10 steps lungewalk, med ball side toss x 3 (left and right), and a 100 yard sprint out and a 100 yard sprint back as fast as possible. We competed head to head in each round and am sad to report that the Civi's lost 5-3.

Saturday Sweat being postponed.

Quick Update.

I am postponing all Saturday Sweat workouts until after the holiday. Check back after Thanksgiving to see the updated schedule.


TSull

Heading in to the Holiday Season...

Right now, a lot of fitness professionals and strength coaches are starting to write about the holiday season. It is said that most people will gain somewhere between 3-10 pounds of fat during the holidays with some people gaining even more. I think the reason why a lot of people get fat is this steady progressive weight gain. Most people don't blow up over night but if you think about 8 pounds of fat per year, that means in 5 years you are 40 pounds heavier, which is a whole lot more than you weigh now. Here is how I typically advise people to get through the holiday season.

1. Don't try to diet through the holidays. People will think you are a douchebag if you start talking about no stuffing or mashed potatoes as they shovel it on their plate (pass me my shovel please).

2. Maintain or increase your training intensity. Workout on Thanksgiving morning before the feast, and the day after as well. The best type of workouts to help battle fat gain are fast intense circuits or interval sprints which will elevate your metabolism for hours after.

I think just increasing your training intensity from Thanksgiving - New Years can work wonders for you. You will head into the new year with a solid idea of what it takes to prevent, and even lose fat so if you decide to make a resolution to lose fat, you have a jump start on all of those hogs who will be signing up for gym memberships come Jan 1st. These same people will spend 30 minutes on the elliptical sipping on a gatorade sports drink which will contain more sugar and calories than they will burn during their workout. They will be shocked that they aren't losing weight and will quit by Feb 15. Don't be that person. If you need ideas, just ask.

Best,

TSull
tom@sullivantrainingsystems.com

Building Leg Strength.

Back at it today after a long weekend in Montreal. I spent the weekend playing in a hockey tournament with some close friends at Les 4 Glaces in Montreal, Quebec. We were able to secure the championship trophy along with some serious off ice antics. Back to the business at hand...

Mike Boyle and Single Leg Squats

Mike Boyle just released Functional Strength Coach 3.0, which is a DVD set where Mike gets into detail about all of the latest and greatest in the industry of strength and conditioning. One piece that has created some stir is the section on squatting. In short, Coach Boyle explains how he believes that in order to build your most powerful legs, you should be training them 1 at a time. Just as some practical feedback, my Fall Athletes did some front squatting last week. When they looked at their weight sheets, they were nervous about doing poorly because they hadn't done a two legged squat since October 10th. The worst performance out of the group was a 25 pound increase in their heaviest 3 rep set, with the best performance being a 55 pound increase. That should eliminate any questions of whether or not you can get stronger doing 1 legged work. Most of the leg work that the athletes in my facility had been doing was the rear leg elevated split squat with dumbells and barbells.

If you are interested in building some solid pistons, these should be a staple in your program. I think the girls that read the blog will get some serious benefit from doing these as well. Beware that the first few times you perform these, you will have some soreness in your butt and hammys.

Best,

TSull

tom@sullivantrainingsystems.com