Aug

31

Nutrition Genius

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Last summer I was fortunate to work alongside Brian St. Pierre. He is a brilliant nutritionist that continues to get phenomenal results with his clients. Brian really knows his stuff when it comes to altering individual diets to help people shed fat, build muscle, recover faster from workouts, and improve their overall health.
In today’s post, Brian shares with us a nutrition tip that will have a large impact on your health and performance.

Brian’s Nutrition Tip:

“Eat Real Food!”

“It may seem trivial or vague, but if you sat back and really took stock of the food in your home, you would probably be shocked to realize just how much of it qualifies as a food product, not actual food. Increasing the amount of real food, defined below, and decreasing the amount of food products you consume is the easiest thing you can do to improve your nutrition and health. It doesn’t require counting calories, worrying about nutrient timing, calculating macronutrient percentages, or any of that, and it will have a far greater impact on your health.”

Real Food Conditions:

-If you couldn’t hunt, fish, pluck, grow, or ferment/culture the food, you probably shouldn’t eat it.
-If it wasn’t food 100 years ago, it probably isn’t food today.
-If it comes in a box or a plastic wrapper, it probably isn’t food, it is a food product.
-If it contains lots of industrial vegetable oil (canola, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, sunflower, etc) and/or added sugar/high fructose corn syrup, it probably isn’t food, it is a food product.

If your response to this is “I knew that already”, you should probably ask yourself “Am I doing this?” Most people know what they should be doing; few are actually doing it. If you know anyone else that you feel would benefit from this information, please pass it on to them. Keep checking back. I will regularly be posting nutrition tips from Brian St. Pierre and will keep posting great training information to help you get better results.

-Kevin Neeld

P.S. You can learn more about nutrition and supplementation for health and performance by visiting Brian’s website.

Aug

28

Fundamental Lower Body Movement Patterns

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This Summer I started working with a ton of new athletes at Endeavor Fitness.  These athletes had been training, but not with me.

Part of building a solid training base is learning the three fundamental lower body movement patterns:

Stiff-Legged Deadlift
The stiff-legged deadlift (SLDL) is entirely hip movement.  You’ll maintain a slight knee bend, but the entire movement involves tilting the pelvis forward, then using your glutes and hamstrings to pull yourself back upright.  The emphasis is almost entirely on the glutes and hamstrings.

Deadlift
The deadlift pattern is similar to the stiff-legged version in that it involves tilting the pelvis forward as far as possible, but is different from the SLDL in that it involves a slight bend of the knees.  A bend of the knees means more force production from the quadriceps.

Squat
You’re probably picking up on the trend here.  The squat pattern uses slightly less forward tilting of the hips and slightly more knee bend, which involves more force production from the quads relative to the SLDL and deadlift patterns.

These differences in loading emphasis are pretty clearly illustrated by noting the maximal forward hip/torso angle in the “down” position of these exercises.  During the SLDL, the torso is almost parallel to the ground.  During the deadlift, the torso is slightly above parallel.  During the squat, the torso is slightly more vertical than the deadlift.  And during a front squat pattern, the torso is almost completely vertical.

It generally takes less than a month for the majority of my athletes to master these movements.  Then it’s time to “load the hell out of them” and get them strong!

-Kevin Neeld

Aug

26

1-Leg Squat vs. 1-Leg Deadlift Continued

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Watch the 1-leg squat and 1-leg deadlift videos that I posted the other day.  Can you see the slight difference in the movement pattern?

The 1-leg versions of these exercises are similar to the 2-leg versions.

The 1-leg squat with the leg in front is similar to a front squat.

The 1-leg squat with the leg in back is similar to a back squat.

The 1-leg deadlift is similar to a deadlift.

The back squat will load the hamstrings a little more than the front squat.  The deadlift will load the hamstrings a little more than a back squat.  If you watch the hips and torso you’ll see that they’re tilted forward more in the deadlift than the squat.

More hip movement and less knee movement means more force production from the hamstrings and less from the quads.

I use both, but at least initially try to write more hamstring/hip-dominant work than quad-dominant work into my athlete’s programs to counteract glute/hamstring weakness and excessive use of stupid exercises like the seated leg extension and leg press that most young kids do.

1-Leg Squat and the 1-Leg Deadlift.  Similar looking.  Different in muscular emphasis. Both effective. Both necessary.

-Kevin Neeld

Aug

24

The Difference Between a 1-Leg Squat and 1-Leg Deadlift

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After talking to Nick Tumminello, I changed the way I do 1-leg squats.  I used to do them with the “up leg” out in front.  Some people call this a pistol squat (I hate that name).  Now I do them with the up leg behind the body.

I made the switch from the “up leg in front” to “up leg in back” in the middle of this summer.  In my afternoon hockey training group at Endeavor, I wrote a 1-leg squat and 1-leg deadlift into the same training session.

Switching to the “up leg in back” version of the 1-leg squat prompted a lot of my athletes to ask what the difference was between them.  This really got me thinking.  Watch these videos and see if you can pick up on the differences between these two.  It’s pretty subtle.

1-Leg Squat

1-Leg Deadlift

-Kevin Neeld

Aug

21

A Valuable Coaching Lesson

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This Summer I’ve been fortunate to work with a group of highly motivated hockey players pursuing various levels of professional hockey.

Last week one of my guys said something that stuck with me. Something that I wrote about in my Off-Ice Performance Training Course.

He said something that went like:

“I hate Wednesdays.  This day is BRUTAL.  I can’t even complain to you though because I know you’re doing it all too.”

So what’s the big message here?

I put that group through tough training sessions.  Need a partner to push you through it, tough.  Need to take a look inside yourself and see if you’re mentally strong enough, tough.  Tough.

And I know how tough they are because I do every single training session, exactly as written.  My athletes know that.  They respect that.

Coaches that preach, but don’t do (or haven’t done, in the case of some of the older coaches) rarely have the respect of their players.

Think about it-Would you want to be bossed around by some lazy loud mouth with a whistle?

I’m not saying every coach needs to follow the same training program as their athletes, but every coach should be setting a good example.

Athletic development coaches should stay fit.

Youth sport coaches should maintain and seek to improve their skill levels in that sport.

And last, but not least, nutritionists should not be fat (I’ll save that rant for another day).

Train your athletes hard. Train yourself harder.

-Kevin Neeld

Aug

20

Is Time Magazine Trying to Kill You?

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Last week, one of the athletes I train approached me about an article he came across in Time Magazine.

My reaction to his comments was: “You have to be kidding me.”

I was going to blast the article and the complete lack of social responsibility Time Magazine showed by printing the article.

This is just ANOTHER example of a staff writer for a magazine completely misinterpreting research and putting together a story of lies with a catchy title to attract an audience.

Effective journalism, yes.  Effective lifestyle advice, no.  In fact, printing articles like this is dangerous and essentially says that Time Magazine weighs you reading their article more than your life (or at least your quality of life).

I don’t want to waste too much time on this crap.

John Berardi took a more level-headed approach to commenting on this article.

Find out what his response was to the “Exercise makes you fatter” slogan of Times Magazine.

- Kevin Neeld

Aug

18

Everything You Need to Know About Testes

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This isn’t going to be nearly as crude as you’re hoping for.
…but it got you this far didn’t it?

Performance nutrition expert Dr. John Berardi, along with the help of Dr. Bryan Walsh, put out these two posts that do an awesome job explaining the cause and results of hormone imbalances in both men and women.
As a man, I found this first post (and the two videos with it) to be very enlightening.  If you’re a fan of testosterone boosting supplements, this is a must watch for you.

Men:  http://www.precisionnutrition.com/testosterone-replacement
As a man, I found this second post (and the two videos with it) to be very…I got nothin.  I made it about 3 minutes into the first video and realized that the only things I’ll ever know about women is that they are all different, but equally confusing.
I still recommend you check out the link though. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.

Women: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/female-hormones

- Kevin Neeld

Aug

14

I Can’t Get it Up

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Luckily, I’ve never had this problem.

Other guys aren’t so lucky.

When I switched the way my hockey guys do bird dogs after watching a video that Nick Tumminello put out, I’d say about ½ the guys I train either really struggled or couldn’t lift their leg at all.

Watch the video below to see Nick demo the exercise that leaves most guys saying “I can’t get it up!”

Aug

12

6 AWESOME Nutrition Tips from Dr. Berardi

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John Berardi is a brilliant nutritionist that has had a ton of success with a wide variety of people from elite athletes to non-athletes. His Precision Nutrition system is still the best nutrition product ever created. I think everyone should own a copy. For more information on Precision Nutrition, click here.
Below are 6 awesome videos of a TV interview that Dr. Berardi did with Christine Williams on the show “On The Line”. Take the time to watch these. Dr. Berardi goes through a lot of awesome nutrition strategies that will help you lose fat, and get lean and strong.
Part 1 – On The Line with Christine Williams

About me, my work, about the differences between athletes and recreational exercisers, and more…

Part 2 – On The Line With Christine Williams

How much protein should we eat, the body mass index, how to gauge progress, and more…

Part 3 – On The Line With Christine Williams

Advanced nutrition, healthy food/supplements, metabolism boosting foods, cravings, and more…

To learn more about how Precision Nutrition can help you get in the best shape of your life, click here.

Part 4 – On The Line With Christine Williams

Cutting cravings, metabolic slowdown with age, healthy recipes, fruits and veggies, and more…

Part 5 – On The Line With Christine Williams

Metabolism preservation, ideal rate of progress, crash dieting, loose skin, and we take some calls…

Part 6 – On The Line With Christine Williams

How to exercise, exercise for seniors, day 1 of your program, and more…

To learn more about how Precision Nutrition can help you get in the best shape of your life, click here.

Aug

10

Position Specific Hockey Training

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After a life of playing forward, I was moved back to defense for my first two years of college hockey. Occasionally I would get an opportunity to jump back up to forward for a couple shifts. What an eye opening experience that was! Since I was rarely tired playing defense, I was surprised to feel so gassed after a few very short shifts at forward.

But it makes sense when you break the game down:

In the offensive zone, forwards are usually in a state of constant movement and battle, defensemen are usually camped out at the blue line (sometimes cutting in to the net) and goalies are looking for their significant others in the stands.

In the neutral zone the situation is usually pretty similar as forwards are running exchanges, defensemen are holding their blue line or making small range escapes to make a pass and the goalies are at least somewhat aware that a hockey game is being played.

In the defensive zone, wingers are holding down the top of the circles, while the center and defensemen are in a state of organized chaos to break the puck out, and the goalie is in a semi-squat position for an extended period of time.

The result is that different players at different positions have very different conditioning demands. 

Is it always possible to conditioning players of different positions differently? 

No.  Many times there isn’t enough manpower or resources to do this. 

Generally speaking, I think defensemen and goalies don’t need to be as highly conditioned as forwards.  It would be reasonable to swap out some conditioning work for players at these positions in favor of more strength work, core work, and/or short distance explosive sprint work with relatively longer rest periods. 

After all, if your defensemen are quick and break the puck out rapidly, they probably won’t spend a lot of time doing anything but sitting at the offensive zone blueline and making a few cuts to the net anyway.

- Kevin Neeld

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