Terminal City Training Vancouver Personal Trainer Strength & Conditioning

I am just now in the process of completing an intensive course to become trained as a Club Coach in Olympic-style weightlifting. The course was developed by the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) and the national body for weightlifting in Canada (CWFHC) and delivered by the British Columbia Weightlifting Association (BCWA). I have a lot  of new acronyms to throw around. As the training comes to completion the next stage will be to find athletes who are interested in weightlifting and begin to train them up for competition.

Currently the sport of weightlifting includes two lifts: the snatch and the  clean & jerk. These lifts develop a tremendous amount of power-production
and are very well suited for athletic-style training for athletes of most any sport. They are technical and challenging lifts and therefore provide a very rewarding path of study.

I look forward to nurturing the development of future performers, to constantly improving my abilities as a coach, and also to develop my own qualities as a competitor myself.

Hi Friends,

I have been working on the details and the infrastructure of the 21 Day Lean Eating Challenge. This is a peer-supported, absolutely free challenge for anyone who wishes to spend 21 days focused on lean eating and re-learning beneficial eating habits. Interested participants can start whenever they like, alone or with friends. In the future there may be special time periods in which many people are encouraged to join in the Challenge together.

Before I launch this I want to run it by my blog readers and friends. Check out the website and the Facebook page. And please share your feedback as this project is very much a work-in-progress. I am especially looking forward to see how we can use Facebook as a tool for peer encouragement.

http://www.terminalcitytraining.com/21-day-lean-eating-challenge.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/21-Day-Lean-Eating-Challenge/110721548978092?v=wall

Best!
Al

In doing some visioning for future training facilities I would love to solicit your comments. If you wish, please leave a comment below, or send me a private email if you prefer. PLease dn't feel limited by the questions which I have included:
What is your ideal/dream training environment? 
Do you like to train alone or think you prefer the camaraderie and intensity of a small group?

Do you like a place full of equipment or sparsely furnished with the necessities?

Do you prefer to train indoors or do you like to get outdoors when the weather is good?

Do you like it quiet or do you dig the intense music blaring?

Power racks and Olympic platforms or sandbags, kettlebells and tires?

                        To Belt or not to Belt? That is Yvonne’s Question.
I received a text message from a client/friend Yvonne the other night as I was leaving the Spartacus Athletic Club. If I hadn’t erased it from my phone then I could just quote her. But she wrote something like this:

“Hey a lot of my friends are asking me why I don’t wear a belt when I lift? What’s the deal with belts?”

I wrote back and told her that I would have to talk with her in person about that deep subject. And then I thought, “Hmmm, maybe I will write about it too.”

So here is a summary of my opinion (as of April 23 2010) about wearing belts while training. Most of it I have  adopted from some guys in Wichita Falls, Texas, although I have been testing it through my own scientific process of trial and error.

-Good and even great coaches have divergent opinions about belts. Some never advocate their use. Others think that they are a major asset in getting stronger. There is no clear correct point of view. Although both camps would likely claim otherwise. And they’re both probably right.

  -Belts are useful when a lower back injury has been sustained and also to teach and ensure proper bracing of the torso. When you lift heavy in the big lifts you need to put a fantastic effort into bracing your trunk and creating intra-abdominal pressure. When you slip a belt on it can teach you a lot about whether you are doing this well or whether you have been fooling yourself.  It can keep you honest in your bracing. This is not a time to be half-assed.

-If back injury is an issue then more frequent use of the belt is called for. Otherwise I tend to use the belt on the last warm-up set and during my work sets. I tend to use the belt while squatting and pressing. I loosen the belt between sets, lest I lose consciousness.

  -Most of the belts I see in use seem to me to be wholly inadequate. For most strength-training uses I want to wear a belt that is the same width all the way around. This is because I am mostly concerned with a hard brace in my stomach and so a wide belt in the front will give me something substantial to brace against. I also want a thick belt made of leather. Since I live in Canada I find these belts very hard to come by. I was going to buy myself a belt from elitefts.com for Xmas but the shipping alone was going to put me out $70 (they are in Ohio). Since they make amazing belts I might just have to suck it up. 

 I hope that Yvonne and other readers find this helpful.

Congratulations to everyone who hit personal records this week.

Jamie hit a PR in the deadlift and the overhead press yesterday. For the press he hit three sets of 5 at 120 pounds. Not long ago we cut his press way back after a partial shoulder dislocation while playing hockey. He is progressing very well. 

Andrea and I both PRed in the bench press. I don't have photos. I generally don't take bench photos as I am too busy spotting.

The following video shows the first and the third sets of Jamie's press.

Now we are trying to clean up his technique a little. When he holds the bar closer to the heel of the palm then it will alleviate strain on the wrist.

This forum is brand new. It will be a place to announce and learn about upcoming events relating to training and competititon in the various milieus of strength and power sports and also for general discussion of training and competition. The forum focuses on the Metro Vancouver region (British Columbia) but feel free to announce and discuss events that are further afield.
http://www.terminalcitytraining.com/vancouver-strength--power-sports.htm

A few weeks ago I posted a video of Andrea doing double-banded pull-ups. Now, after hitting sets of 15 reps with the double,  she is progressing to using a single band.

Should I Skate More to Get Better at Roller Derby?
Thoughts on Devoting Time to Developing General Athleticism and All-around Physical Development

The best way to get better at roller derby is to practice and compete in roller derby. To a point this makes sense. Roller derby-specific training sessions are the best way to learn the specific skills of your sport (and your position). And, good roller derby training will serve as the basic method to condition you in the specific ways that your sport demands.

The Perils of Too Much Specificity (or too much skating)

This specific training, however, ought to be done in moderation, and it ought to be accompanied by more general athletic training. The reason I want to stress this is because too much specific training for a particular sport engenders imbalance. And in skating sports such as roller derby this can be very pronounced. Hockey players (who, as a group, are much more well-studied than derby competitors) are generally known to have major imbalances between the vastus medialis and the vastus lateralis (crudely the inside and the outside musculature of the thigh) due to the strong strong lateral push of the skating movement. Don't make the same mistake. Perhaps the number one point to take away from this article is that a derby competitor generally shouldn't spend a lot of time skating or reproducing skating-like movements during the off-season and in your non-practice workouts (those done without your team). You will get plenty of skating in during the season as your team practices. Variety in your training will help to build a foundation of general physical development and therefore temper the dangers of too much specificity before it becomes a problem.

Being able to perform a particular sport at a high level does not mean that one has a body in balance. The body may be beat up after a hard season of collisions, lack of proper recovery, and repetitive strain. Certain desirable physical qualities may be lagging behind. It is likely that your strength is down after so much skating and conditioning work. At the end of the season a more general approach to training is called for: pare things down, renew the foundation of strength, and then add on to that foundation before the next season begins. This is also an opportunity to develop and restore your overall heath. Specialization does not make for a healthy individual. Extended periods of hard training along with the stresses of competition, especially when not addressed with plenty of rest and active restoration, can also be detrimental to overall health and well-being.

General Training Phase

General training is done particularly in the off-season and trains your body more generally in broader athleticism, strength,and fitness. It is not geared specifically towards the qualities needed for a specific sport but instead seeks to make the athlete more well-rounded, broadly conditioned, more resistant to injury and more mobile with fewer of the imbalances or gaps that sport-specialized training can open up if trained too much.

This approach to training can help relieve over-training, and both emotional and physical stresses involved in training and competing for a particular set of demands. It is a time to develop general athleticism, meaning that you are developing yourself into a better all-around physical being, who is stronger, faster, more powerful, resilient and with better movement skills than you had last season. Training can include diligent attention to:

-rest & recovery
-addressing imbalance/ restoring balance
-respecting and healing current injuries and attending to those that may be brewing
-strength
-work capacity (this allows you to do more work during a training session or a competition)
-general athleticism
-your weak points as an individual
-variety and fun

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of developing overall strength at this time. Big multi-joint movements such as the squat, deadlift, various forms of pressing and pull-up progressions will go far to getting you ready for your rough sport and will also make the most economical use of your time in the gym. Spend time playing other sports or recreational activities that are far removed from skating. Develop new physical fluencies. Train with athletes from other sports. The point is that you are renewing and developing yourself and also building a strong foundation for more specialized, sport-specific, training.  This foundation should be renewed regularly, and shouldn't be rushed. Training guru Gray Cook states things nice and clearly, "The biggest mistake made in sports medicine and sports conditioning today is moving to sport-specific movements too quickly."

In closing I would like to mention that general training is not only for the off-season. During the season too it is important to prevent muscle imbalances and maintain work capacity. This is more difficult to achieve during the demands of frequent practices but as you garner more experience in structuring your off-season training the more successfully you will be able to fit it in during the season.