Posts Tagged ‘Illinois personal trainer’
November 16, 2011 | 
Author Interested in getting your arm in shape and throwing harder this offseason? Sign up now at Extra Innings/DBSP. Second session starts Nov.29th.
We do wayyyyy too many blackburns in my gym. But you know what? I think they have as much bang for the buck as any set of exercises out there. For an overhead athlete like baseball, softball, volleyball and tennis players, it’s really hard to beat them.
Here is a real-life example of a baseball player who has the signs of S.I.C.K scapula, which can leave the shoulder and elbow in ruins if not treated.
Morgan before: (Look at right shoulder – DRASTICALLY lower than his left)
And here is Morgan again, after I showed him this picture and told him that he needed to d0 the full Blackburn circuit 2x per day, every single day. He’s a hard worker, so he did…
Pretty big difference. He isn’t perfectly symmetrical yet, but has gotten pretty close with just an additional 12 minutes of rehab/prehab per day. Blackburns are the one thing I wouldn’t live without as a baseball player. They perform miracles…
I don’t know why, exactly, but I felt great today. I had a really crappy night with a person very close to me but with a beautiful, warm day in my new hometown, things just melted back to being very, very good.
Having a long, cold winter really does change you, and it’s hard to step back and appreciate how the sun and some warmth can alter your perspective, or at least shine light (pardon the pun) on the good things you do have.
The bottom line is that I’ve been making a comfortable living in a new town filled with awesome people. I’ve met new people who have been receptive to me seemingly each week, and it turns out that they give me as much as I try to give to them via my training. Read the rest of this entry »
In-season training is where all my athletes are now headed, and I was just recently asked, “How do I balance my training and exercises between games?” (Good question, Ben Mier). So, I thought I would share with all of you in cyberspace what I wrote up for my pitchers. This is by no means the only way to go about things between games, but having played high school, college, and a pro season in which I only missed one start (damn finger blister), my experience helps make the training theory match up with what actually works. Get your work in, but be prudent and make sure your best stuff makes it out to the mound.
Goals:
1. Maintain the fitness and strength built from off-season training
2. Take the mound at 100%, without fatigue
3. Finish the season as strong as one started, healthy and pain-free
On the Day of a Start:
- Make sure to eat plenty throughout the season. If caloric intake drops, your performance will also drop. Velocity can be influenced by eating habits, so make sure to eat lots of healthy food.
- Move around, but keep any exercise to a minimum. Stretch out multiple times, but no exercises for the arm or otherwise
- Visualize yourself attacking hitters and making them fearfully submit to you. Aggression and confidence are remarkably important. Read the rest of this entry »
I recently received some Tyler Grips for use with my athletes during our strength and conditioning workouts, and don’t have enough good things to say about them. If you’ve never heard of them before, let me fill you in…
Competition is good both on the field and in the weight room. Every once in a while I like to mix things up, stray from the program and give myself and my athletes something new, something that can test their mental and physical limits. One of these workouts that is off the beaten path is called “The Spanish Blizzard.” It’s also hard as shit. Read the rest of this entry »
I crack myself up! What a lame rhyming title for this post! I laughed out loud when I thought it up and recited it to my girlfriend, so I figured I would just run with it.
Anyway, I’ve been leaning up since the end of the season (cutting some of the fat that I gained via late-night hot dog benders in visiting clubhouses), and one of the big difference makers is late-night eating. You simply cannot stuff yourself with carbs in the evening if you want to stay lean.
But, if you’re on a quality workout program, you still need to feed your muscles as the day wanes; fasting from 6pm on is NOT the answer.
So, you need to adjust what you’re eating, and I suggest some variation of the 4 Bs: Beef, Bacon, Broccoli and Brie – all low-carb foods that will fill you up and keep your body moving in the direction of muscle recovery and fat loss. Read the rest of this entry »
I talked with a father the other day and explained to him exactly what it would take for his son, or any hypothetical high school pitcher, to earn a college roster spot.
When I was in high school I remembered being extremely confused about what it took to get scouts at games. Our star pitcher was big, left-handed and threw harder than I did, but barely anyone came to watch him, either. I just felt like there was something that I didn’t understand that it took to get to the next level – something intangible, something that I didn’t have in me.
But it’s not like that. Upon getting into my college program, my coach started to break down for me what it took for high schoolers to impress him at showcases, and for our players to earn playing time. Further, he explained what pro scouts looked for. My summer ball coaches, both of whom played professionally, shed more light on the issue, and the more and more I watched other players, I started to understand. Read the rest of this entry »
The best workout program will yield you nothing if you don’t train at a high intensity. I remember my college nutrition professor erroneously telling the class that weight lifting does nothing to burn fat, and that sustained cardio was the only way to slim down. He was dead wrong, but for his and most of the world’s lifting methodology, he was right. Weight lifting the way YOU are used to won’t burn fat, build muscle, or do much of anything…
Need to get stretched out and ready to go in a hurry? Don’t have time for a big, full-body stretch? You’re in luck; I have a video for you with 5 great stretches that are ideal for baseball players, and can be done with comprehensive flow in a short time.
I don’t do a lot of videos, partly because I don’t have an omnipresent assistant and partly because I prefer to lay things out in writing. But, my friend and strength coach Nick Tumminello and I made a little how-to before I left the city for my flatter, more opportunistic midwestern town.
So check this out, and hopefully you learn a few things about the sleeper stretch, hip mobility, thoracic mobility and a few things you might have been doing incorrectly.
It’s great to go to the mound, fully rested, and have your entire arsenal ready and able to dice up a lineup. Unfortunately, few of us take the mound under such utopian circumstances, and we pitchers usually toe the bump with less-than-perfect stuff. Less-than-perfect is standard; however some of those days, you just plain suck. But, you just can’t give up when your curve won’t bite, your changeup doesn’t change, and your fastball has the life of a 35-year old playing World of Warcraft in his parent’s basement. So how do you go out and win when you haven’t got much? Read the rest of this entry »
Every kid growing up playing baseball wants to someday be a pro; a Major Leaguer, really, but I guess being a minor leaguer counts too. Aside from living the dream, playing a fun kid’s game for money, and living devoid of the job responsibilities most of the world endures, there is one other, big perk: All the PB&J your face can handle. Read the rest of this entry »
Some workouts are hard, if not impossible, to complete without taking strides to keep ourselves motivated and on track. This is the very reason people hire personal trainers – to create additional accountability and ward off their inner-pussality.
Yet, if you’re trying to get in shape, and really want to tackle some tough workouts, here are some tips to keep you with it ’til the end. *PLUS!! As a bonus, read to the end to learn a new word for softness that I just invented!*
A Soft and Delicious Destructor. You're just soft.
If you want to challenge yourself to the most torturous leg workout around, then the following metabolic leg circuit is for you! Read the rest of this entry »
Even the best athletes in the world say “I can’t” much more than they say “I can.” Yet, the elite figure out a way to get it done, even when their body and mind don’t want to.
I was recently running with a friend who quit before I did. I also had a solo workout in which I quit before I completed my intended volume. And last week a client of mine told me that he couldn’t do any more [reps]. All of these situations raised in me the question…
What If you HAD to do more?
What if you were forced, FORCED, to keep going? Could you? Read the rest of this entry »