Dave Wilson Starts For England

Just a quick post to wish Dave Wilson all the very best for Saturday.

Dave Wilson (former Newcastle Falcon prop) recently completed an intensive 3 week training period with me at Smart Fitness and will start for England in their match against the Barbarians at Twickenham on Saturday. All the best big man.

If you read the earlier post today about being chased by a freight train - I just need to think of Big Davey Wilson coming after me! Look at the intensity in that face - awesome.

CHASED BY A FREIGHT TRAIN

I was fortunate enough to grab an interview with Alwyn Cosgrove at the weekend and we were talking about Tabata training and how so many people just don't train at the right intensity. He shared with me how Chad Waterbury describes the intensity that is needed to his clients.

"imagine you find yourself on some rail track and you hear the sound of train coming up behind you, you turn around and see a freight train thundering towards you...your only option to run, and run hard. You try to out run the train for 20 seconds and just as it is about to hit, you jump off the tracks onto another rail track. Your lungs are bursting and your muscles are screaming at you but after just 10 seconds you hear another train coming and you have to run for your life again!!! That is the intensity - and guess what, you get chased by a total of 8 trains meaning you are running for your life for 4 minutes"

Robert Dos Remedios also talked about tabata training at our Functional Training Summit and how people pick crappy exercises - you should only pick whole body exercises that you can perform balls out for 20seconds.

I'm just sitting writing this before I jump in the shower. I've been out in the back garden and have been chased down by a freight train! My neighbours probably think I'm nuts but when your schedule is so busy 4 minutes being chased by a freight train is a really effective way of keeping myself in shape! I should stop sweating in a bout 3 hours!

Alwyn Cosgrove - Secrets For Success

Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove were in the UK on vacation and we spent some time with each other over the bank holiday weekend. I was a bit cheeky and asked if Alwyn would spend ten minutes running through some of his business and training tips. In the first of a series of interviews Alwyn reveals some of the key strategies that you can use to take your business to the next level.

I've read from cover to cover my copy of Alwyn's business book that he launched back in January 2009 "55 Fitness Business Strategies for Success" and I know that the simple and effective advice outlined in the book has really helped me develop my business this year.

Listen to what Alwyn has to say about his Business Mentorship Programme and his top 3 tips that will help you to stop counting reps and start counting revenue!

EXCLUSIVE: UK BUSINESS SEMINAR

If you would like to listen to Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove live in the UK let me know. We are looking at hosting an exclusive 2 day event in which they will deliver their highly successful Business Mentorship Programme. We are looking at London based venues and hope to be able to get this up and running for a weekend in October.

In the meantime you can pick up Alwyn and Rachel's business manual here here => 55 Fitness Business Strategies

Triathlete's World - Flexibility

If you would like to catch up on my thoughts on flexibilty training and the role it has to play in triathlon performance pick up this months edition of Triathlete's World.

Just look out for the magazine with a picture of Total Racing International's very own Elite Triathlete, Fraser Cartmell on the front cover.

The article highlights 4 simple moves that will help you injury proof your body for the forthcoming season. Find out what flexibility actually means, the four main types of flexibility training and a step by step guide to what and how to stretch effectively.

Speaking Engagements

Just a quick update of a couple of new dates that have been added to the summer speaking engagements.

Wrightington Sports Shoulder Conference

I'll be making a return visit to this fantastic conference and will be speaking on the 19th and 20th June. I'll be talking on the 19th about the transition back to performance and the use of strength and conditioning, as well as delivering a practical session on the 20th.

This is the first and only annual International Sports Shoulder Conference in the UK, with a large multidisciplinary and distinguished international and UK faculty, including leading surgeons, sports physicians, trainers and therapists.

The 2009 Conference will include:
Joe DeBeer - South Africa - shoulder surgeon
Prof Ann Cools - Belgium - Professoer of Physiotherapy and world authority on overhead athletes shoulder disorders
Guiseppe Porcellini - Italy - shoulder surgeon
Dan Guttman - USA - shoulder surgeon
Ehud Rath - Isreal - sports surgeon
Paolo Paladini - Italy - shoulder surgeon
Nick Grantham - UK - Strength & Conditioning trainer
Jo Gibson - UK - Shoulder Therapist
Stuart Cosgrove - UK - physiotherapist specialising in strength athletes
Mike Loosemore - UK - British Boxing doctor
David Jones - UK - Sports Physician, English Institute of Sports
Jonathan Harris - UK - Musculoskeletal radiologist

The meeting comprises a mixture of lectures, case discussions, workshops and live surgery. For full details download the booking form here http://www.wrightington.com/content/assets/1449-9.pdf

County Durham Sports Coaches Conference

I've recently been asked to speak at the first County Durham Sport Coaches Conference on the 4th and 5 th of July.

I'm delivering two sessions on the 4th of July. The first session will look at how coaches can develop a comprehensive training programme that will enhance all of the physical qualities, whilst the second session will offer practical advice on fitness monitoring to coaches - this is not a bells and whistles talk - it is about, simple and effective tests that can be used to track performances by coaches that are working with minimal equipment and on tight budgets!

This promises to be a fantastic event and full details, including a booking form can be downloaded here http://www.countydurhamsport.com/files/coaches_conference_booking_form.pdf

If you are a coach in the North East then this is one event you don't want to miss...and I'm still trying to work out how they can put on so many great seminars and still only charge £20 for the event. Get booking before someone at County Durham Sport realises they could be charging ten times the amount! Book now as at this price I'm sure spaces will go very quickly

Fat Loss Strategies of Elite Athletes

My training company, Smart Fitness works with a lot of clients that are looking to get in shape in a hurry! Usually a special occasion is looming or they realise that the summer holiday is just around the corner and they want to look good in their swimsuit. We use a range of nutrition strategies to help our clients reach their targets and I'm always on the look out for programmes from credible sources that actually get results.

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Matt Lovell. Matt is one of the most recognised UK Sports Nutritionist’s and he has been the Sports Nutritionist for the England Rugby Team since before the 2003 World Cup. Matt also currently works with London Wasps, Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Saracens as a specialist Rubgy Sports Nutrtionist. He shares my passion for sport and is also a keen martial artist.

I thought our conversation would be focused on performance nutrition for athletes (which it was for the most part), but then I discovered that Matt actually works with a whole host of private clients and has actually produced a fantastic 4 week Fat Loss Programme that applies the principles he uses with his athletes to the man and women in the street! I have to admit that I was excited about by what he told me and I had to find out some more about his programme.

Here is a quick overview of the key points.

"Elite athlete's have to make the same choices THAT WE ALL DO. Decisions about what they eat and when they eat it. Just because their 'job' revolves around keeping fit if they don't eat correctly they can put on weight just like any other person can.

Many top athletes trust Matt to ensure their body composition is bang-on. Being in the best possible physical shape is absolutely necessary for them. Their careers depend on it! That's why they make sure they get the best possible advice available.

The trouble is that if you do any research on-line or in your local book store for weight loss or fat loss programs it's easy to END up CONFUSED by conflicting information. A lot of the ideas are frankly ridiculous and the good information ends up buried by the latest FADS.

Confusion pervades the Weight Loss market, when you're confused you flip- flop from one plan to another or do NOTHING If weight loss and body management is important to you it’s vital to find someone who knows what they are doing so you don't end up chasing rainbows.There's a lot at stake. You've obviously got your health and long term well being to think of and it’s no fun CONTINUALLY beating yourself up because you’re a bit on the cuddly side.

Matt has developed his 4 Week Fat Loss Programme so that you can use the exact same SCIENTIFIC principles strategies that elite athletes use to get lean and stay lean. So you can lose as much fat as you want to.

I asked Matt what prompted him to pull this information together now and to reveal the secrets that his private clients pay him very very well for? He explained that he comes into contact with many people from many backgrounds and he is continually being asked about the latest plan that's being hyped by the press, a few years ago it was the Atkins Diet that everyone was asking my opinion of. Then a celebrity would come out with a new program or get a gastric band fitted and there would be a hoo-ha about that and my inbox would be flooded again.

Rather than keep giving his opinions about what all the other programs are like Matt decided to collate all his information and experience and make it available so that anyone can use the principles that definitely work.

So he created Four Week Fat Loss a program based on scientific principles that will give you a strategy that will work for the rest of your life.

Matt was tired of having his friends and clients being duped by all the mis-information in the market place. It's so conflicting that it is no wonder that people are flip-flopping from one fad to another or just end up doing nothing!"

I was blown away by what I was hearing and it is refreshing to find someone of Matts calibre that is willing to share their nutrition strategies.

Keep an eye on the blog for updates and a special Q&A with Matt.

Firing Line

Today got off to a slightly more demanding start than usual! One of the clients I'm currently working with had a particulalry tough conditioning session scheduled and one of the drills required a partner (that would be me then!). Now normally my involvement in the session takes the form of me on the side line offering polite words of encouragement whilst the client runs themselves ragged. Not today - today I had to get my hands dirty!

The basic drill is simple enough, a simple defensive drill where we both start on the ground on our chest facing each other approx 6m apart. On my command we get up as quickly as possible and then my partner moves toward me to try and defend me with a two handed touch - meanwhile I'm trying to do my best to evade my partners 'touch' and get past him.

That all sounds very simple - that is until you factor in that I'm about 78kg (soaking wet) and my partner is an international rugby player that is tipping the scales at about 123kg! Now, for 3 weeks I've been putting this guy through his paces and it suddenly dawned on me that this was his chance to get one over on the coach.

I now know what it must be like to face a man mountain that is intent on smashing you into the ground! Contact was made on a couple of occasions - which pretty much meant me bouncing off a solid 123kg wall shaped like a human - I'm not sure he even noticed.

I don't think that the 'contact' I experienced was really anything to write home about - particularly when you consider that experts believe the level of contact that elite rugby players experience in an international match is similar to 10 car crashes....that's right.....10 car crashes! I think I experienced a little bump!

A great way to start the day!

Unbreakable

I'm putting the finishing touches to a presentation I'm giving this weekend at the Smart/TRI Seminar Series. The final session in the series is looking at injury prevention and rehabilitation so imagine my delight when I received an e-mail from my good friend and colleague Alwyn Cosgrove telling me about a “first of its kind” system to help anyone deal effectively with all of their physical issues.

The system has been developed by Keith Scott and he has produced a ‘400-plus’ page system that will finally help you eliminate all of your physical pain, restrictions, weaknesses and any other problems that are slowing you down or taking you away of what you truly love to do.
Staying physical healthy is one of the biggest keys to success in any fitness program. If you cannot exercise, weight-loss and muscular development will be stalled, and by the time you are healthy, you have to start all over again.

Keith’s UNBREAKABLE system will teach you how to stay healthy, deal with old injuries or problems and work around any lingering issues so you never have to miss a workout because of pain or injury again.

Unbreakable <= Check out Keith’s system here

“Unbreakable” is a first of its kind product that will bring the best of the “physical therapy” and “physical conditioning” worlds together to help you specifically deal with all of your Orthopedic problems in the comfort of your own home or local gym. In this ‘400 plus’ page system (that includes self-assessments, full corrective-exercise programs for every major area of the body, targeted soft-tissue work for fast pain relief and much more) Keith provides you with everything you need to help you finally eliminate all of your physical pain, and get back to doing all of the things you love to do, without restrictions and fear!!! One of the best features of UNBREAKABLE is that it allows a person to “plug-in” the selected “corrective exercise” strategies into their current program so they can continue to train and workout without missing a beat.

So, if you are following a Westside Program, a body part split, an Olympic lifting plan or even Afterburn -- you can continue to do the program while taking care of any issues that you have and never have to miss a workout.
Unbreakable <= Click here for more details Keith has come up with a truly unique system that everyone should own because I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have some kind of injury, pain or physical problem in their lives. UNBREAKABLE can finally help you take care of any and all issues as they arise.

PS - Keith is also offering an 8 week, no questions asked money back guarantee. That's a long enough time to give the program a solid test run and decide for yourself.
Check it out here.

Functional Training Summit - Round-up

Well the dust has just about settled from last weeks Functional Training Summit! Delegates travelled from all corners of the UK to converge on Kingston Park Stadium in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The line up of presenters was impressive and included myself, Neil Parsley from the English Institute of Sport, Nick Ward, Lead S&C for TASS and our international speaker, Coach Robert Dos Remedios who had brought the Californian sunshine to the North East with him!

Coach Dos kicked proceedings off with the first of two feature presentations. In his first session he shared with the audience how he had helped competitive and recreational athletes achieve their goals. He introduced everyone to his world of performance-based training, where function comes first and physical benefits are unmatched.

After a break for lunch (supplied by the fantastic Regent Sandwich Company), delegates returned for the afternoon programme which got underway with a session looking at Total Training for Combat Sports - Conditioning for the modern combat athlete. Myself and Neil showed real world examples of how to get combat athletes ready to step onto the mat and into the ring. We outlined the strategies wehave used to train boxers, wrestlers, judokas and taekwon-do competitors. Once all the talking was completed delegates had a chance to experience first hand our hardcore mixed metabolic training to learn how to develop strength using ascending and descending training and discover for the first time Eastern block training secrets that we use to help our personal training clients stay ‘bullet proof’ and their fighters win World Championships!

Nick Ward then delivered an insightful session exploring his his Performance Planning Matrix, a tool he has developed to help analyse goals and objectives to ensure results are delivered for his clients. This session showed exactly you to get the most out of athletes and personal training clients.

In the final session of the day Coach Dos demonstrated and explained the concepts and techniques involved in combination lifting. Featured exercises ranged from beginner to advanced and everyone was able to get to grips with exercises that were suitable for use in general fitness programs all the way up to advanced athletic conditioning programs.

As the session closed delegates departed for a night out in Newcastle, something I think Coach Dos and Chris Poirier from Perform Better are still trying to get to grips with (Newcastle has to be one of the best places to party in the UK, if not the World).

Day two got underway with Coach Dos' second feature presentation. This time Coach Dos shared with the delegates to take thier speed to the next level. He explained CHAOS training puts the athlete/client as close to sport demands as possible and in this session they not only found out the theory behind the training concept, they had a chance to experience it first hand during the hands on training session out on the training pitches. The weather was fantastic, although Coach Dos still thought that 17 degrees was not really hot! (he needs to live in the North East a little longer and then he will know why we were all out in t-shirts and shorts!

A slight change of schedule meant that I delivered a session on Recovery and Regeneration, exploring why this area was currently so popular with athletes and looking at how a comprehensive recovery and regeneration strategy could unlock a clients training training potential.

Keeping the tempo going, myself and Coach Dos delivered the final session of the summit. In our session, Ultimate Core Conditioning –Strong and Stable we showed why current ‘core training’ recommendations fall short of the mark when it comes to training athletes! In the final practical of the weekend delegates experienced how to develop a strong and stable core through a combination of bridging and stabilisation exercises, rotational and anti-rotational core exercises and ‘uninhibited’ strength and power exercise!

The Functional Training Summit was a huge success and delegates left on Sunday with with ‘Monday morning’ exercises that would immediately improve the way they trained their clients and athletes. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Coach Dos for coming over to the UK and sharing his training strategies with everyone at the event. I would also like to thank Charles, Clare and Nik from EXF who helped to make sure that the whole event was a huge success. Thanks also goes to Nigel Stockill from Optima Life for coming to the summit and showing attendees the revolutionary monitoring system developed for both athletes and general population.

We are already looking to put together another summit before the end of the year, and it looks like we will be bringing the summit to London. Keep your eyes on the blog for more details coming soon. If the feedback is anything to go on we will have another great event.

What the delegates thought.
"Great speakers on useful and meaningful topics..."
"The practical sessions very good..."
"CHAOS speed training session was very useful..."
"I loved the hands on, practical approach and layout. This was a well organised and thorough seminar, well done..."
"Great practical aspects, very good presenters..."

What is Functional Training?

This was the question that Neil Parsley and myself asked each other when we were putting together our presentation for the Smart Fitness Functional Training Summit. It is a term that get used a lot, but stop and ask yourself what does it actually mean.

OK, I'll tell you what it isn't - it is not wobbling around on a stability ball performing bicep curls with kettlebells whilst whistling a happy tune - that is a second rate circus act!

Neil and I came up with the main factors that contribute to an exercises being considered "functional". In our opinion your exercise is "functional" if it satisfies one or more of the following criteria;

1.Biomechanics (movement) -the movement patterns should have a transfer of training effect to the actual sporting movements.
2.Metabolic - the correct energy systems should be conditioned during the drill
3.Force velocity -appropriate loads are used to train the correct part of the force velocity curve
4.Combination – sport!

When putting together your training programmes and selecting exercises take some time to consider if they meet the criteria, or if you are simply putting together a 'hollywood' session/drill that looks fancy but doesn't really have any impact on performance or results.