Brandon Charls

Heel Stike in Running

Feb 21

BrandonCardio health, Challenges, Speed and Agility No Comments

It makes you think differently about running and what shoes you buy.

The FITT Principle

Nov 22

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To really get the most out of your fitness/strength & conditioning program, you are going to have to learn and live by the FITT principle.  Applying the FITT principle to your program will allow you to progress through those frustrating plateaus that everyone faces from time to time.  The reason why you are not achieving success in your program is because your body is getting used to the same routine day in and day out.  ROUTINE IS THE ENEMY! However, implementing the FITT principle into your program will take you to the next level.

Frequency:  Is the number of days you are working out in the week.  You may have to increase your frequency or decrease your frequency depending on how your body is adapting to the program.  Most hardcore athletes need to decrease their frequency due to overtraining because they are not getting enough rest for the body to repair itself.  However, people who are trying to lose weight need to increase their frequency so they are achieving an overall calorie expenditure.   This does not mean that you have to “workout” more but, you do have to increase your levels of physical activity which means…

• Walk or bike instead of drive
• Wash your own dam car
• Join a sports league
• Learn a new sport
• Just stop sitting on your ass

Intensity:  Training intensity is defined as an individual’s level of effort compared with their maximum effort.  This means different things for different goals.  If you are trying to lose weight you must cut down your rest time to keep your heart rate up to burn the most calories.  For example, circuit training, interval training, and Crossfit do a good job at keep you moving with little to no rest in between workout.  However, if you are trying to pack on some muscle you must make sure that every set is to failure.  Thus, increase weight = increase in intensity!  And for athletes who are trying to make it to the next level, intensity means not to take plays off and practice hard day in and day out.  Only the strong will survive in the world of sports and if you don’t work hard at your craft 24/7 you will be left in the dust.

Type:  This corresponds to the types of exercises that you are performing in your training program.  However, you must understand that the human body is a highly adaptable machine that can readily adjusts to the imposed demands of training.  Therefore, exercise selection should be functional and specific to the individual’s intended goal.  Make sure to implement variations to each exercise but keep the movements functional, move in all planes of motion, and stay away from isolated movements like bicep curls.

Time:  is the time frame of a workout or the length of time (number of weeks) spent with a certain program.  A general workout including warm-up and cool-down should take 60-90 minutes.  A professor once told me, “If you’re in the gym for more than one hour…you are making more friends than muscles.”  Furthermore, Workouts that exceed 90 minutes will lead to rapid declines in energy levels which can lead to discrepancies in hormonal and immune responses that can later have negative effects on your training program.

It takes the body approximately 3 weeks to adapt to a fitness program.  However, if you apply the FITT principle to your program, you will be able to break through plateaus and reach your goals quicker.  Good luck!

Speed Kills

Nov 17

BrandonCardio health, Football, Functional Training, Speed and Agility No Comments

There is saying that is always used in the game of football and I’m sure it can be used in all sport and it is “SPEED KILLS!”  The ability to run faster than other athletes on the field or the court gives you a great advantage to becoming very successful as an athlete.  However, training athletes to become faster is somewhat of an enigma to trainers and coaches who inspire to find a cure of making their athletes faster.  To train athletes to run faster you must find a way to increase their stride length and stride frequency.  Here are some of my thoughts and ideas on training for speed.

1. Genetics:  Speed comes from the genetically makeup of your muscle fiber type.  The more type II/fast twitch muscle you have, the faster and more explosive you will be.  However, you CANNOT train to increase type II fibers in your muscles (it’s impossible).  You can train the remaining muscles that are not type II (type I/slow twitch) to have similar characteristics as the fast twitch fibers. 
2. If you don’t use it, you lose it:  To play fast/run fast you must train fast.  This means you must train the neuromuscular system to be more efficient at firing signals to the muscles so they can contract at a faster rate.  You won’t get any faster if you are half assing it in practice or in your training.  Every rep/second counts in the world of sports so go 100% every single time!
3. Newton’s 3^rd law:  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Everything in the body is connected which means that speed and power does not just come from the legs themselves.  The faster you mover your arms in opposition to your legs…the faster your legs will go.  The harder you push off the earth…the more acceleration you will gain and the faster you will become.
4. Proper form:  Form is the key for everything that you do in sport even with running.  Most of the time I see young athletes really tense up when they are trying to run fast and this inhibits the open kinetics chain (proper firing sequences of the neuromuscular system).  In addition, these athletes are running with “wasted movement” that won’t allow them to reach their peak speed.   
5. Ideas on training:  Train fast and be functional.  Train for the demands of your sport and involve plyometrics, speed training, and power training into your workouts.  In addition, you must stretch the tight muscle to allow for full range of motion when you are running. 
   1. Plyometrics:  Exercise that enhances muscular power through quick, repetitive eccentric and concentric contractions of the muscles.  Example: Box jumps
   2. Speed training:  This involves resisting and assisting running.  This will allow you to work on functional speed strength while also focusing on form.  Resistant speed training can be as simple as sprinting hills and assistance training can be just the opposite…sprinting down hills
   3. Power training:  Squat, bench, press, pull etc. at 30% of your 1RM and moving the weight as fast as you can.  Speed squats are a great way to increase speed because it involves hip flexion and hip extension just like sprinting.

The BASIC Blue Print of a Typical Workout

Jun 18

BrandonBuilding muscle, Cardio health, Losing Fat, Speed and Agility No Comments

Follow these eight steps in order to achieve total workout that involves injury prevention, core, strength, power, speed, agility, and flexibility.

1.  General Warm Up:  This consist of any low impact/low intensity cardiovascular work to increase heart rate, body temperture, and increase blood flow of the body.  Exercises consist of jogging, rowing, versa-climber, jump rope, jumping jacks, bike, etc.  A general warm-up take about 3-5 minutes.

2.  Dynamic Warm Up/Movement Prep:  Multiple joint movements of your own body weight to increase body temperture, stretch muscles, and prepare the body for the movements you will do in your workout or on the field.  Exercises include push ups, squats, multiplanar lunges, single leg squat react, etc…This should take 8-10 minutes.  For more information about dynamic warm up.  (refer to blog “Time to Stretch” June 16, 2009)

3.  Prehab:  The focus to stregthen the most vulnerable areas on your body that get stressed in everyday movement (Verstegen 2004).  These exercises will strengthen your shoulders, hips, and core muscles to allow you to correct any muscle imbalances while also preventing injury. 5-8 minutes

4.  Core:  This puts a little more emphasis on your core muscles.  I believe that you should perform exercise that focus on the transverse abdominis, internal/external obliques, and back extensors.  8-10 min 

5.  Skills and Drills:  Even if you are not an athlete, you should still incorporate plyometrics, speed, and agility training into your workouts.    10-15 min

7.  Energy System Development (ESD/”cardio”):  Run, swim, bike, jump rope, row, and even elliptical your way to achieve optimal cardiovascular shape.  However, in ESD training you must keep your heart rate up through a series of sprint intervals… intensity is the key!  When is the last time you have seen a fat sprinter? (Verstegen, 2004)
15-30 minutes

8.  Regeneration:  Foam roll and stretch to correct any muscle imbalances and help speed up recovery.  Takes about 10-15 minutes.  (Refer to blog “Time to Stretch” June 16, 2009) 

This is just the very basic layout of a typical workout routine that covers all forms of physical fitness.  In addition, there is so much more detail that goes into every step of this eight step process.  If you have question, please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at anytime.   

“Yin Yang” Workout of the Day (WOD)

Jun 14

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Complete this workout as fast as possible (AFAP) for time. After you have finished your workout, record and post your times.

Run 400 meters

21 Thrusters (squat to overhead press) 30 lbs dumbbells
21 Pull ups
21 Burpees
21 Sit ups

Run 400 meters

15 Thrusters (30 lbs DB)
15 Pull ups
15 burpees
15 Sit ups

Run 400 meters

9 Thrusters (30 lbs DB)
9 Pull ups
9 burpees
9 Sit ups

This workout should not take more than 25 minutes to complete.  If you cannot do pull ups, you can regress the exercise to jumping pull ups.

Treadmill Training

Jun 11

BrandonCardio health, Challenges, Losing Fat, Speed and Agility No Comments

Put down the weights and tighten up those shoe laces for a workout that will have you burning more calories than you can ever imagine. In this workout you will have to be comfortable with running at high speeds on the treadmill and most importantly hoping off the treadmill while it is still going. For instance, on pretty much every treadmill there are ledges on the side of the rotating belt that are big enough for you to step on to and rest if you have to. You might have done this before when you were running on the treadmill one day and stepped off to the side to rest, get a drink of your water bottle, and then you proceeded to complete your run. However, in this workout you will be allowed to rest/hop off the treadmill after every assigned run, but the rest you take should not exceed past 45 seconds. In addition, there will be some runs in which you will hold on to the rail in front of you (usually where the heart rate monitors are) and perform the run. This workout is not easy! If you need to take more rest or adjust the intensity (speed/incline) do so to meet your needs. On the other hand…PUSH YOURSELF

Here’s how it goes…

This prescribed workout is for elite athletes who are comfortable at running high speed on the treadmill, as well as hoping off while the treadmill belt while it  is still moving. If you feel that you are going to fly off the treadmill because it is too intense, decrease the intensity (speed/incline) so you don’t kill yourself. This workout will allow you to burn a lot of calories and also increase your speed, agility, and joint proprioception (joint awareness).  Have Fun!

Measuring Aerobic Performance

Jun 09

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Are you in good cardiovascular shape???

 A good way to check if you are getting into cardiovascular shape is to check your resting heart rate (RHR).  To get an accurate reading of your RHR, you must take your pulse just after you wake up, while you are still lying in bed.  The best way to do it is to take your carotid pulse by lightly placing two fingers on the side of your neck, just to the side of the larynx (throat).  Once you have found your pulse, count the pulses for 60 seconds and record that number (or count pulses for 30 seconds and then times it by 2).  If you are training properly, you should see a decrease in the amount of pulses in 60 seconds.

What is this important?

1.      Your heart is getting stronger:  Seeing a decrease in RHR means that your stroke volume (SV) is getting stronger.  SV is the amount of blood the heart pumps out in a single beat.  Having an efficient SV will allow your heart to not work as hard to supply oxygen to your active muscles. 

2.      Blood Volume:  With your heart getting stronger, there will be an increase in blood volume and it will be easier for blood to supply oxygen to your active muscles and also clear up lactic acid.

a.      Lactic acid is the burning sensation you feel in your legs if you sprint up a flight of stairs.  In other words…lactic acid = muscle fatigue.  The increase in blood volume will buffer away lactic acid and keep you going longer.

3.      Increase in VO_2max:  Maximal oxygen uptake (VO_2max) is regarded as one of best measurements of aerobic performance.  It is the maximal volume of oxygen that your body can consume per minute and used for aerobic energy production. 

What if you see an increase in RHR through your training program?

1.      You are overtrained:  This is a good indicator that you need to rest so your body can recover.  Overtraining will lead to a decrease in performance, decrease in motivation, decrease in weight, and an overall decrease in energy.

2.      You are detrained:  Your body cannot increase in performance if you don’t train properly.  This means you must increase in frequency, time, and intensity in your workouts.  The body adapts to everything you throw at it so challenge yourself every time you train.  If you train correctly, you will see a decrease in your RHR.

The normal values for relative (mL/kg/min) VO2for various groups of individuals?

Untrained College-aged Females 30-35 mL/kg/min
Untrained College-aged Males 35-45 mL/kg/min

Active College-aged Females 40-45 mL/kg/min
Active College-aged Males 45-50 mL/kg/min

Trained College-aged Females 50-60 mL/kg/min
Trained College-aged Males 55-65 mL/kg/min

Competitive College-aged Males 65-85 mL/kg/min
Highest measured VO2max ~95 mL/kg/min

A strong heart leads to a strong performance

Motivation

Jun 08

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60% of Americans live a non-active sedentary lifestyle. The lack of motivation of not being physically active has lead to the increase rates of obesity in America. In 2006, 33% of men and 35% of women were considered obese. In addition, 16% of children aged 2 – 19 years old fell into this same category.
Here are some tips to build, increase, and maintain motivation so you can stay physically active and life a healthy life style.

 
1. Write down your goals and post it somewhere in which you will see it every day. A good place to place your goals is in your bathroom mirror.

2. Tell family and friends about you fitness goals. This will allow the people around you to support you and keep you motivated on what you are trying to achieve. If you start to slack (trust me you will slack) they will be around to let you know that you are not doing all you can to achieve success.

3. Keep a journal of your thoughts and feelings about your workout and daily activities. This will allow you to adjust what you are doing in your everyday life.

4. Workout with other people and compete in challenges. This will allow you to work harder and have you strive to be the best. If you do not have that “Play to Win” attitude, you will not succeed on achieving your fitness goals.

5. Visualize! Take five minutes out of your day and close your eye to visualize yourself doing what you want to do, where you want to be, and how you are going to succeed. Make sure that the thoughts in your head are as vivid as possible. This is not easy…However, with practice you will get better at controlling your thoughts and feelings. The body and mind work as one, if you’re not mentally prepared you will fail in what you set out to accomplish.

Following these tips will allow you to stay focus and not give up on your fitness dreams.

The Less We Move…The More Fat We Get

Jun 03

BrandonBuilding muscle, Cardio health, Challenges, Losing Fat No Comments

Less Movement = More FAT

I have nothing to say…this picture tells all.

Northridge CA, 91325