The Forgotten Athletes

 Athlete : a person who is trained in or good at sports, games, or exercises that require physical skill and strength, as defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary

There are hundreds of jobs that require physical strength, stamina, and motor skills. Construction laborers may have to carry 80 pound bags of concrete across a job site. Cell tower climbers have to climb over 300 feet to get to their job. Lifeguards, nurses, security officers, irrigation techs, linemen, the list can go on and on. These are the men and women that this article is about, the forgotten athletes, the ones who use their bodies 40 plus hours a week to support their families. Yet somehow in the grand scheme of things we blindly overlook the price that they'll pay with their bodies after years of hard, exhausting work, day in day out.

 Occupational therapy has become a huge business in the U.S. due to injuries obtained on the job. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says;

'Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) accounted for 33 percent of all injury and illness cases in2013. Nursing assistants and laborers and freight, stock, and material movers incurred the highest number of MSD cases in 2013. (See table 18.) MSD cases accounted for 53 percent of total cases that occurred to nursing assistants in 2013.'

 And to make matters worse the Center for Disease Control says that in 2013;

'The survey revealed that only 20.6 percent of people met the total recommended amounts of exercise -- about 23 percent of all surveyed men and 18 percent of surveyed women. People most likely to exercise were between the ages of 18 and 24 (almost 31 percent of exercisers).'

 20.6 percent exercise regularly! This shows how much of our society needs to be involved with some form of functional fitness. Even if weight training is part of a worker's lifestyle, functional movement exercises should be added to their training. Working at a job that requires physical abilities automatically puts one into the athlete category and needs to be treated as such. How many of those injuries that make up the 33% could have been prevented by a functional exercise program. How many of them occurred due to poor range of motion, weakness, obesity, or an imbalance in the body? Having a job with health care is nice, not having to use it is even nicer.

 For the professional trainers out there, ask your clients what they do for a living. For all you hard workers, get involved with a trainer and a physical activity that will increase your longevity at your job. Your fitness may even be called upon one day to rescue a co-worker, so be ready. From my own experiences as a 'hard working Joe', getting hurt sucks and not being able to perform a task is even worse. Train my friends - your job as an athlete depends on it.

Restoration; The New Old Way

www.adexclub.com

 With all of the 'new' restorative methods being utilized in the fitness industry these days, it seems that if you aren't 'rolling that shit out' or mashing something or freezing something, you're not going to make gains (athlete's term) or gainz (bodybuilder's term).

 What if you were told that you could increase range of motion or ROM, supply fresh nutrients and oxygen to a worked body part, stretch, develop endurance and power, and increase both concentric and eccentric balances in a few short minutes with just one exercise tool - would you use it?

 Adding clubwork to your training program is a sure fire way to take a great training session and make it an exceptional one. For over a thousand years, clubs have been used to train warriors to fight with sword, mace, spear, and shield. Using them also promotes restorative qualities that will balance other out forms of training while adding more athleticism to a trainee's skills.

 Powerlifting is a great example to use here - heavy compressing weights pound one's body leaving it to restore itself possibly with only some cleaned up nutrition, or if the athlete has access to or can afford a massage therapist, or maybe a bit of yoga. Louie Simmons uses clubs to heal and restore his athletes and himself.

 Clubwork, targeted specifically to the body area that was just trained, is a sure fire way to get those muscles to recover much faster and it won't take a lot of time. Just one or two exercises of 3-4 sets of 10 reps with a medium weight club, 5-15lbs depending on skill, will offer benefits that will be felt immediately and gains that will show in the numbers. Plus throw in the advantage of taking the time to bullet-proof injury prone areas such as hip flexors, rotator cuffs, or elbows. How many times has a tight muscle impeded a bench workout only to show up a few days later on squat or deadlift day to become an annoyance again?

 Try out this experiment, perform a typical bench workout but leave a few minutes to do some drills afterward. Grab a 2.5 or 5lb plate and perform some strict full length arm circles going in both directions for 3 sets of 10, 5 to the front 5 to the rear on each arm, and continue by changing sides until all are done in one large set. Notice the decompression almost immediately in the shoulder socket, the relaxing of tightness, and the healthy feeling that will come within a few minutes after completion.

 So why not just use the plate to do this? Because using a club will offer even more of an effect plus the ability to do specific rehab and more importantly pre-hab exercises. Clubs are fairly pricy tools but so is living on daily doses of Advil, and going to the chiropractor or doctor - which will ultimately cost more than a good quality set of clubs or an Adex Adjustable Club. You now have the knowledge and the choice is yours for your success, health, and budget.

For info on Adex Clubs go to www.adexclub.com

pro-gress my friends!
Donnie



   

Older Athletes - Are You Diverse?

  This article is for those over 40 years old -

 A very long time ago in the 1970's when many of us picked up our first weight, we knew that this was the thing to make us powerful. We began training, started reading Muscle and Fitness religiously, never missed Hulk Hogan on WWF, and told everyone what our bench press max was that week. The only important thing to us was getting bigger and stronger. After all the bench press is the 'king' of upper body exercises, right? So we toiled on after that ever elusive bench max, and while 300lbs was getting to be a reality, many of us looked like the 'I Skipped Leg Day' memes on Facebook. Then one day we read that article (which showed up in M&F in the nick of time) by Dr. Fred Hatfield, or Terry Todd, or whoever, but it was that article that told us if you want to increase your bench press, train your legs also. You just added diversity into your training. 

 As we get better, I mean older, we tend to not be as active as our former selves. Look back at that kid in the 70's and I'll bet that weight training wasn't his only game. Many of us played sports, ran to catch busses, walked or rode bikes for miles, swam as much as we could, did chores and moved our bodies constantly. As we entered our 30's, work was the only important activity, and family life was leisure time. Some of us continued our weight training and that form of exercise was the only 'fun' active time that we got. It was healthy, but it was the same rote movements repeated for years over and over again. And our answer was always, "I exercise, I lift." Well good for you.

 So between then and now, something happened that slapped the fitness world in the face. Crossfit emerged out of garages and warehouse dungeons and exposed the world to functional fitness. Now don't get me wrong, I know that Indian clubs, gymnastics, and kettle bells were around since the Victorian Era, but it was Crossfit that put this type of training into everyone's living room, love it or hate it.

 Enter the present day and you'll find trainees that excel in not one but many different modalities of training. Crossfit boxes house some serious Olympic weight lifters who can do endless muscle ups an exercise once limited to gymnasts, or kettle bell gyms who's athletes use bodyweight moves to supplement their training style. Mixing styles is important, for fitness should build the body and mind as a unit. If you don't have a clue yet think NFL Combine.

 Face it as we get better/older we don't move or play nearly as much as we used to, and if we aren't careful it diminishes a bit more every year. Going to the local gym and blasting out those 900lb leg presses and benching until you bust a blood vessel in your eye isn't enough anymore, it's time to add some sprinting or climbing into that routine. As we increase in our years our desire and ability to 'go to the floor' decreases. Adding some basic tumbling into your exercise plan is an effective way to see if you can still get off the floor, and as you progress in that you can slowly increase the speed at which you 'go to the floor' getting you body used to falling properly - a skill that can save your life when you are older. Learn to pull or push yourself over an obstacle wall, carry unbalanced objects, train with Bulgarian Bags and play outdoors as an addition to your gym time.

 People love a big bench press and are impressed by it, but nailing it and celebrating with a handstand push up will make it monumental. Bud Jeffries has massive lifts and always challenges himself with gymnastics. Evolve your fitness by diversifying your training, diversify your training to move better through life, enjoy life by keeping your fitness. Peace.

Not Older But Better

 During this morning's conversation with Mr. Maceman - Rik Brown, a realization occurred to me that we are the first generation with a sizable percentage of serious fitness enthusiasts. Take notice at the number of the "over 40" crowd in gyms, boxes, social media, setting records, and generally being more active compared to past generations. Search the names Diana Nyad, Louie Simmons, and Freya Hoffmeister to get an idea of what these 'masters' athletes are accomplishing.

 Maybe the beginnings of your fitness was grabbing your first issue of Muscle and Fitness back in the late 70's or a P.E. coach who got you interested in weight training or continuing playing a sport. Regardless of what inspired fitness, many in the masters age group know that use it or lose it holds true. Imagine living a life of working hard and sacrificing to obtain a decent retirement and not being able to enjoy it due to medical conditions that could have been prevented or alleviated with some physical training. Taking care of your body's structure is as important as dental hygiene. You have 32 adult teeth and donate about 5 minutes a day to brushing, now put that into perspective to 640+ muscles - a simple plan would be to train for a half to a full hour a day.

 We will be the first generation with enough participants in the fitness group for doctors and scientists to evaluate the effects of training on different levels throughout the average human lifespan. We are pioneers in not only the fitness arena but also the scientific fields of geriatrics, physiology, kinesiology, nutrition, and a plethora of others without even knowing it! We are also the first generation to have athletes continuing to set and break records until their later years.

 Being stronger not only enables older folks to remain active but offers a decline in blood sugar problems, hypertension related issues, and more importantly a 'suit of armor' built from stronger than average muscles and bones to protect against falls that often debilitates many of our aged population. If you have steadily trained since younger days, or began on you 40th birthday, your continued dedication will pay out in the future and with a much greater reward than your 401K could ever realize.

Chip Conrad and Dave Hall with Adex Clubs

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