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CENTRAL STRENGTH NEWS
| Vol. 2, Ed. 4 |
Monday, January 15, 2007 |
Rakkasan Raiders
Willpower
Five years ago I had the opportunity to take part in a special reunion.
At this reunion I met 2 very interesting men and they began to tell
stories about what life used to be like. There were the traditional claims
that life was much harder back then etc. After about 45 minutes of
explaining to me all the differences between their generation and mine,
one man paused & looked me square in the eye and asked the question
"but do you know what has not changed?" To that question he answered
"Our Will." He explained that no matter how things change from year to
year the will of a person remains the same. You see this reunion was a
unit reunion, past members of our brigade returned to meet young
soldiers and these 2 men that I talked with were both experts on will.
Both received Medals of Honor in the Korean War. That day they
explained to me that everybody is capable of anything; it is just a matter
of their willingness to try. Most people run from the tough situations in
life, but as I learned from these heroes, it is the people that get stronger
when life gets tough and that have the will to succeed that can
accomplish anything. The will of some people is immeasurable; their
actions, because of their will, can only be measured in eternity. Are
you one of these people? Are you willing?
Hartshorn's Hallow
Massage: Why we do it and how it works
Why do we encourage athletes to foam roll, stick massage, & use tennis balls? Yes, it does
feel good but that is not the reason behind massage. We encourage massage to increase muscle
tissue quality. Tissue quality basically refers to the knots in your muscle. By massaging our the
knots, the muscle will return to its normal length. We use the example of a rubber band. If you
tie a knot in the rubber band and stretch it, it will not be as long as it could be without the knot.
Also, if you continue to stretch the rubber band it always breaks above or below the knot. When
you have a knot in your muscle tissue, that muscle will not be able to stretch thru its normal range
and will most likely become pulled. The muscles with knots in them will not be able to function
properly and another muscle will compensate for it, this leads to misuse injuries commonly diagnosed
as overuse injuries. One example is knee pain that is actually caused by poor tissue quality
in the glutes or hip rotators. The best time to utilize massage is preworkout. Work out the knots
and then warm-up properly. This will ensure that your muscle tissue is ready to train effectively.
Central Nutrition
The Power of Green Tea
Green Tea-another good food that gets a bad rep (along with broccoli,
prunes, etc)-but can significantly help you lead a healthy lifestyle as
well as help you to recover. Without getting too scientific, as you age
your body becomes more and more damaged by free radicals. What
in the world is that, as Nick Mulder would say? Basically every time you
breathe you take in oxygen. Oxygen enters the body and is metabolized
just like everything else that enters your body. As it is metabolized
loose electrons float around in the body causing damage to cells.
Green tea, along with other types of Antioxidants, grab a hold of those
loose electrons thus no longer causing damage. Free radical damage
increases when you are stressed, exercise or age--guess what, all of
those apply to you guys! Green tea is one of the most powerful
antioxidants. But, not only is it an antioxidant and thus helps you
recover, it is also thermogenic which means that it will increase your
overall metabolism. If you aren't drinking green tea already then now it
is time to start. Try drinking 1-3 glasses per day. Is green tea the end
all be all? No it isn't but it is one more small piece that helps
separate you from everyone else and that's what it is all about.
Foundations of the Haus
Squatting to Parallel: Top 5 Reasons People Don't Squat to Parallel
You have all heard the 5 reasons why we squat to parallel (see issue 2/6/06) and require every athlete
to do so. What follows are the top 5 reasons why people are "afraid" to squat to parallel and thus
squat like 2nd grade girls.
- The person trained under the BFS program in high school. This system
is renowned for producing high-squatting Nancy's who claim to squat 400+lbs than they actually can.
- "I'm lifting to tone my body, not to gain weight." Although this one comes primarily from the female
population, we have heard it from a few so called "men" as well. The following comment goes out to all
female athletes out there, females don't possess enough testosterone needed to gain large amounts of
muscle mass. So go ahead and train hard, you will maintain your feminine physique.
- "I can use more weight." Well tough nuggets! Learn how to handle weight to parallel. No one is
impressed with heavy weight and poor form.
- "It hurts to go down that far." Yep, I am sure it does because you are using
muscles that are weak for you. Make them stronger and you don't have to worry about this one.
- "My high school gym teacher told me it's bad for my knees." Tell your high school gym teacher to
go back to school and relearn some things because he/she is wrong, again. You actually strengthen
the knee joint capsule by squatting, with correct form, to parallel.
Well there you have it no more
excuses. One last thing...Remember, knowledge isn't power, applied knowledge is power.
Final Thoughts
Talk is cheap. Everyone has dreams, some more than others, and everyone likes to talk about their
dreams and goals for the upcoming season or off-season. But, when it comes down to it, and it is time
to practice and train, not everyone is willing to do what is actually necessary to achieve their dreams.
They love to talk about how hard they "will train" or "did train" when in actuality they aren't willing to pay
the price. The old saying that actions speak louder than words continues to ring truer every day. We
live in an "easy button" world and it doesn't take a coach or a teammate too long to find out who talks
about getting better and who actually invests and wants to get better. Ask yourself if you are willing
to eliminate everything that is in the way of your goal and then go and do it--stop just talking about it!
"Leadership is what you do, not what you say"
central strength training: Redefined
A special thanks to Coaches Tim Bates, Tom Hartshorn, & Joe
Niehaus for their great contributions to the newsletter.
Contact
information
Jake Anderson, CSCS
Central College Strength and Conditioning Coordinator
812 University
Campus
Box 6600
Pella, Iowa 50219
(641) 628-7695
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