Building strength, Size and Speed
This Thursday we are going to go over building muscle and strength and speed. We get a lot of questions here at Pro Athlete Fitness from athletes going flat out at the gym but getting no results after awhile. “I go to the gym 5 times a week, I’m training hard BUT I’m not getting the results I want” Our first main question is, what are you doing training wise. Most of the time people are over training, not letting muscle groups recover and not eating the right foods to recover.
Years before I was a trainer, I thought the more I worked out, the harder I went, the larger I would get and the faster I would be. WRONG. I would constantly over do my training not letting my muscles repair. I would go to training sessions sore and just push through thinking; if I can push through this nothing will stop me. Over a period of time I started seeing no results and lap times dropping. Thinking to myself What’s happening?
I finally decided to teach myself by reading books, articles on the net, training blogs just like this one and actually asking several other people around me. As time went on I learned from them how to train properly and was shocked at the simplicity you need to apply to get the best results from training to build strength, speed and endurance. I have highlighted a few areas below that, I believe, made all the difference:
- When you lift, pull, sprint you are breaking down muscle fibres and your body responds to this by eventually healing, adapting and increasing your muscle.
- The most important point between any 2 workouts, are you doing a different workout but using the same muscles today? The key to optimal growth is your recovery time, when your muscles are being repaired, that gives them the ability to get stronger and larger.
- Working your muscles too much can actually set your progress back if you do not rest. Over-training is the number one reason many fitness enthusiasts do not see results.
- It’s very easy to keep overworking the same muscles you want to be the strongest and fastest by continuously focusing on it, listening to your body is the better policy. If it is sore in any way, it has not recovered yet and therefore you should not be working it out.
- Eat 10-15 minutes after your workout for Post nutrition. Your body will take the most out of your foods or supplements at this time. (High BCAA and protein supplements after workouts EG: Scivation Xtend and BNRG Proto Whey Protein)
Its how much rest and recovery you apply to the body after it has been worked that will give you the dramatic results, you want to see.
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Goals for Sucess
It’s been a while since I wrote about incorporating small and consistent changes to improve your fitness level, diet and sporting goals. How’s that working for you? National MX titles have just started, heading into the 3rd round this weekend coming or for most states, state titles have just started or starting in a few weeks. It’s not too late to start planning goals. It takes 6-8 weeks to make physiological changes to your body.
If you are one of those who have started making changes and have made progress, congratulations! If you are one of those who didn’t, here is a tool you can use to help reach your goals. We all have goals, short and long term, specific and measurable and in writing. Truth is most of us don’t, most let day after day slip by just maintaining rather than having forward motion and improving ourselves.
"Truth is, most of us don’t, most let day after day slip by just maintaining rather than having forward motion and improving ourselves"
Watching athletes for the past few years have shown me, all of them have goals but most of them don’t know what they are. I want to be faster, I want to be stronger, I want to be fitter. The question is HOW much faster do you want to be? HOW much stronger do you want to be? HOW much fitter do you want to be? Sky is the limit. How are you going to achieve these goals, what are you going to do to get there and what is your time frame? It may be you want to drop 2 seconds a lap off in 3 weeks; it may be you want to be able to cycle 100km in a certain amount of time or win that championship.
Set your goals by starting at 3 years and working backward. Write down where you would like to be 3 years from now, then for each year from the 3rd down to the 1st, write a smaller piece of the 3 year goal. Then start at 1 year and work backward for each month and then each week and perhaps each day. Goals need to be specific and measurable, which means you will say, “I will do 100km road cycle today to improve my stamina” rather than “I’ll do a road ride before week end”. Write the goals down and schedule time daily to do what you said you would do. If possible, find someone to check in with on a daily or weekly basis who will hold you accountable for meeting those goals. Maybe a Pro Athlete Fitness trainer ;) This method can be applied to any area in your life.
The bottom line is, we all need something to draw us into improving ourselves and our lives. Without that something, most of us will not make the progress we would like to and look back in 3 years, and wonder What if I had planned my goals, where would I be?
It’s time to take control. Grab some paper; write them down, it’s simply really.
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Cross Fit for Motocross?
Pick one of these 10 general physical skills that aren’t necessary to a motocrosser: Cardiovascular Endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Accuracy, Agility or Balance. Come on, isn’t there something in there that doesn’t matter to the motocross rider or racer? I didn’t think so. Let me propose something here, and then I’ll get on with my point: the fittest people on earth are those who are well balanced at all of those 10 general physical skills. Further, the fittest motocrosser on the track is probably more balanced in them than is the rest of the pack finishing behind him. But what can one do to improve his or her fitness to balance these general physical skills out?
CrossFit has received a bit of bad press in recent months within the motocross business, and as a trainer I feel it’s my duty to step up and defend a training protocol I believe to be the best method to prepare for the demands of motocross.
Firstly you might now have heard or read about the term general physical preparedness (GPP). GPP is not a training protocol, like periodization or the conjugate method, it is a state we are trying to train the body towards; it’s putting your body in a ‘ready state’. This is the missing link for an athlete like you, the motocrosser/snowboarder/skater, as a trainer I know that most of us would benefit more from GPP than most other things.
But how does one maximize GPP? Fundamentally, you cannot improve your GPP without stepping out of your comfort zone. Think of that zone as all the movements you do in the gym because you’re either good at them, or they make you feel good (think jogging, cycling, bicep curls). Barrel chested dudes who love to bench press continue to do so because it makes them feel good, forget the fact that they couldn’t run 3km in under 12 minutes. Then there’s the long distance runner, or cyclist. Ask that person to press half their bodyweight overhead for reps or jump on a 36-inch plyobox, they’d probably fall pretty short of either of those tasks.
Enter Cross Fit’s number one goal: improving GPP. CrossFit utilizes a number of time-tested, functional movements that are scientifically proven to improve your fitness (see list below). Cross Fit’s programming is by definition highly varied, you’re doing some strength work one day, running the next, then the following your doing some mixed modality workout for time. The next week will look completely different. This is how GPP is improved. This is how you become a better athlete.
Take a look at the training program of any successful athlete with a high level of fitness. These days and you’ll find the following movements being done to prepare for their sport: Weightlifting: Dead lift Squat (Front, Back & Overhead) Press (including the Push Press) Power Clean Snatch Gymnastics Pull-up Push-up Sit-up Squats (unloaded) Jumping Monostructural Rowing (most likely on a Concept 2 rower) Running (mixed speeds and distances, not just jogging) Cycling
All those movements listed above are part of the foundation of Cross Fit’s training program and this is why you as a motocross athlete should consider trying out. In short order you will find yourself doing exercising you may be avoiding, and forgetting about the hours you’ve wasted doing work that haven’t paid dividends.
It’s time to start training like a Pro Athlete.