Matt Hank

I rarely endorse nutritional supplements. My nutrition philosophy is to increase the amount of produce (preferably raw), eat organic, limit produced foods, and still live in moderation. However, some nutrition supplements can compliment your diet well. I have been taking Amazing Grass Green Superfood for some time now and this seems to be a good nutritional supplement to compliment my diet. This product provides added antioxidants with 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables. It also has an alkalizing affect on the body, which helps to regulate pH values in your blood stream. This is important to help aid the body in detoxification, building, and general maintenance at the biochemical level. Amazing Grass also contains prebiotics, probiotics, and digestive enzymes which helps promote healthy digestion.

Green Superfood

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This is a great strength and mobility exercise.  My intention with this exercise is to address the hip and shoulder in all three planes of motion.  The hip and shoulder/Thoracic Spine require a fair amount of mobility in sport and daily activities.  Also, these two areas of the body need to work together to produce powerful movements such as throwing a ball or spiking a volleyball.  Finally, this illustrates the importance of core strength because the powerful core musculature is connecting the shoulder and hip together.

The first sequence of repetitions attacks the sagital plane (forward and backward motion).  I am getting complete extension and flexion from the shoulder and the hips.  The second sequence of repetitions is addressing the frontal plane (side to side motion).  This plane of motion is addressed less frequently in many strength programs compared to the sagital plane.  Within this movement there is abd- and adduction occuring through the hip and shoulder joints.  The final sequence of repetitions targets the transverse plane of motion.  This plane is also rarely considered when designing a strength training program.  In this video my shoulder and hip go through full range of internal and external rotation.  The key element to this sequence of exercises is that the hip and shoulder are working together to produce this movement in all three planes of motion.

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I get the question from parents all the time “What age should my child begin training?” Usually they mean sports performance training with me. My answer is they have already begun sports performance (weight training, speed, and agility) training at a young age. Every youth team sport and many individual sports involve running, jumping, hitting, kicking, or throwing. If they are doing these activities, they already begun performance training. Here is the problem: parents are willing to invest money to have their kids practice with specialized coaches such as soccer goalkeeper specialists, basketball shooting coaches, pitching/hitting coaches, and many other specialized coaches. At a young age you teaching your child one skill, when they really need to train their overall athletic development. On the other hand, I teach young athletes a variety of skills that apply to virtually every sport. If the training is age appropriate and progressed systematically, there should be absolutely no reason for your child to not participate in a sports performance program. They will develop many skills such as improved coordination (footwork and foot speed) and body awareness (how to move in all three planes of motion effectively, how to change direction efficiently, improved flexibility, and relative strength). Every type of athlete, young and old needs to develop and refine these skills on a continuous basis or they will either A) never develop these skills or B) loss their ability to perform these skills correctly and efficiently. A and B will both lead to inquires in the long run.

Parents: If you invest your money into a specialized coach, you had better also invest your money into a quality sports performance coach who works on the develop of athletic ability otherwise you’ll be paying to have your child rehab from sports injuries in the future. ASAP Baseball Academy is taking the right approach and combining specialized training with athletic development training, check it out www.asapbaseballacademy.com. This is how the development of young athletes should take place.

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Tight hip flexors can attribute to glute inhibition – meaning when the hips are tight the antagonist muscle group (the opposing muscle group in this case the glutes) are not at the optimal length to be able to contract properly. Tight hip flexors also can cause lower back dysfunction because if the hips are not able to move in their intended full range of motion the lower back can tend to take the extra workload causing strain on this overworked area. Shown below are a series of hip flexor stretches that can help lengthen the muscle and thus restore proper function to the hips.

An 8 week study of high school male football players compared a group that used Olympic lifting (clean, snatch, jerk - my athletes perform these lifts so you should know what they are) vs. a group that used traditional weight lifting (squats, deadlift, etc.) on vertical jump height.  The vertical jump is an indication of lower body power and explosiveness.  The researchers determined that both groups improved their vertical jump height over an 8 week period, and Olympic lifts provided a modest advantage between the two.

Channell, B. & Barfield, J. (2008).  Effect of Olympic and Traditional Resistance Training on Vertical Jump Improvement in High School Boys.  The Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 22 (5).

So what does this mean…Essentially at the high school level both boys and girls need to improve their strength to see improvements in their sport.  Young athletes with very little training background will see improvements with any type of lifting program.  Olympic lifts are a great way to train rate of force development, or explosive actions, while traditional resistance training is a great way to improve relative strength.  The group that trained with Olympic lifts had a modest advantage in the vertical jump heights for these high school boys because Olympic lifts are essentially vertical jump actions with weight in their hands.  All three Olympic lifts (clean, snatch, and jerk) are performed in a jumping position at a high rate of speed.  This also illustrates the principle of specificity - your body will adapt to the stimulus that you provide it.

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I am having Jackie do tire flips for a few reasons:

1. Full body workout – She starts in deadlift position with her feet apart and back flat. Then she squats upward while engaging the muscles of the lower body, core and upper body to lift the tire off the ground. At the top, she has to push the tire over, using her core to stabilize and upper body to perform the task.
2. Metabolic conditioning – Flipping a tire for over 2 consecutive minutes will definitely get the heart rate up. Short duration/high intensity exercises are great for burning calories. Conditioning (or you can call it “cardio”) does not always have to be on the treadmill or elliptical machine.
3. It is fun to train outside the gym with different pieces of equipment and still get a great workout.

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Pull ups are a great exercise for developing the muscles of the posterior shoulder girdle including the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, traps, as well as the biceps. Many individuals I train can not perform a body weight pull up or sustain more than a couple pull ups in a row. Using an exercise band around your knees you will able to perform body weight pull ups. The progressions are simple: start with a thick band around both legs, progress to the same band only around one leg, then progress to a thinner band around both legs…Continue this until you can execute body weight pull ups or band assisted pull ups with the smallest possible band you can hande.

Bands are relatively cheap and versatile (I will demonstrate other exercises at another point). They can be purchased here Perform Better.

Band Assisted Pull UPs

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VHS Baseball players training with speed parachutes.

Sit ups, V-ups, bicycles, and leg lifts are great exercises if it was 1985, but it is not - so stay current on core training. Lets be honest most people do not have a healthy enough diet to have wash board abs anyways so get that fantasy out of your head. So let’s stop doing isolated supine flexion exercises and start taking a functional approach to engage the entire core musculature. Remember when we are talking about core strengthening exercises we are talking about exercises/drills that engage the muscles from the shoulders down to the knees. This is the understanding we need to have of the core, especially when we consider the myofasacial (muscle and connective tissue) linkages throughout the torso. Virtually every vertical (standing) exercise we perform engages the core musculature because we have to balance and stabilize or transmit forces across the body. Exercises that are great at developing core strength are medicine ball exercises such as slams, tosses, and shot put throws. (I do acknowledge that virtually any exercise performed vertically engages the core to a certain extent, however I am choosing to focus this post on medicine ball drills). These exercises are functional because they are performed in an upright position on both feet or one foot at a time and in multiple planes of motion. I love to do medicine ball exercises with all my clients, from competitive athletes to weekend warriors. With medicine balls, you can use different weighted balls which will change the velocity of the movement. Also, many medicine ball exercises can be performed continuously (rapid fire) such as lateral medicine ball throws against a wall or they can be performed one time for maximal effort such as lateral medicine ball throws for distance with a partner. Try these out!

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Willy Taveras of the Colorado Rockies lead the major leagues in stolen bases this year. This guy is quick, but let’s look at his form for a second to illustrate how perfect his running technique is.

His body is in a perfect acceleration position. You can draw a line from the top of his head down to the foot that is planting into the ground. With this straight and rigid body position, he is able to drive his foot into the ground with no wasted movement or energy. He has complete extension of his right leg at his knee and most importantly at his hip. The powerful muscles of hips and butt are working to produce this hip extension. Also, notice his leg drive (his left leg). He drives his knee up to the optimal height – any higher, he would bend at the waste losing his rigid body position, and any lower and he would lose power when driving his foot into the ground. His foot is in a dorsiflexed position (toe up) which loads the calf muscles and propels him even further when he drives that foot into the ground to push off. His arm action is also perfect; both arms are short and compact. He is driving his elbows back and this motion is taking place at the shoulders, which connects to the powerful core musculature. Finally, his head is looking straight forward, not down at the ground, which would cause his torso position to change and thus slow him down.

To all parents, coaches, and athletes who think perfect running technique is not that important look up how many stolen bases Willy Taveras has this year and then get back to me.

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