TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11TH, 2011
Open Class 4:00pm
Baseball/Softball Class 6:30pm
NOTE: If you are unable to make it to the 4:00pm Open Class please drop into the 6:30pm Baseball/Softball Class for today.
Dear Coaches and PE Teachers,
For the introduction to why I am writing this and how you should be teaching proper squat technique please refer to the previous post, "To The Coaches And PE Teachers - Squatting Is Bad For Your Knees"?
The second example, "running/jogging long distances is good for developing athletes and general fitness" largely depends on the goal of the individual and is more often than not going to need to be combined with the correlating nutrition plan to reach that goal. Some people, for example, have the goal to look annorexic and therefore run long distances and eat very little to achieve this. If this isthe goal than long distances are going to help achieve tat. Some poeple apparently want to look soft and pudgy so they accumulate the miles each week and follow the USDA recommendations of nutrition making breads, cereals, and greains the backbone of every meal...FAIL! Sorry runners, the verdict is out and carb-loading is completely unnecessary it turns out. (Stay tuned throughout the next couple of weeks for resources on what you should really be eating to fuel your body).
I'm hoping you're picking up at least a little bit on my wildly awful attempt at sarcasm here. There are hardly any people I've ever met who watn eitherof these scenarios as their goal, save the obnoxious, OCD girl with wicked self-esteem and image issues who lives each week for nothing more than to be the very first one who snags the latest issue of the hippest fashion magazine (obviously I don't know the names of any or I would have listed a couple) from the racks and obsessively does everything she can to look like the cover...and a couple of "guys" I've met who think that since this is what girls want for themselves that this is what girls will want in a partner. For them...YOU SUCK AS A MAN by Dr. Sekula.
Now where was I...? Oh yeah. No one really wants to be grossly skinny and weak - or fat. And re honestly, the solution is simple. All we have to do is disect different populations of people to figure out who's got it right. Since I've already described two groups who obviously don't get it, let me just demonstrate who maybe does. Top-performing athletes from virtually every sport other than distance running! Why? Because they know wha it takes to look good, perform well, and feel great. Simple as that. And what do they do? They certainly don't consistently run long distances. They sprint! They lift weights, utilizing predominantly compound movements. The practice body control. They eat healthy meals that support energy output and exercise but not body fat. (Again, details on how to do this to come in the following week(s)).
Note however, that I consider an athlete as someone who is capable of accomplishing a wide range of tasks. Someone who can lift relatively heavy, run fast and moderately far, jum high, make a 180 degree hair-pin turn in a sprint, control their body, etc. I am not talking about serious long-distance runners whom you can typically find looking remarkably similar to one of those furst two subsets of people I mentioned and who couldn't help you move your couch if you asked them for help. Also, I'm not talking about pure strength athletes such as power lifters, Olympic lifters or Strong Man competitors. These people have a somewhat different set of requirements than most other athletes. And even within these two sets of athletes, both appearing at completely opposite ends of the spectrum, there are monumental differences. For example, Strong Man competitors, power lifters, and Olympic lifters are useful. they can still complete a very wide range of tasks and anotomically have good movement patterns. At the other end of the spectrum, runners are, without a doubt, the most movement-inefiicient "athletes" as a whole that I have EVER worked with. And no, I've not just worked with one runner, I've worked with dozens of runners and they're ALL severely deficient in their ability to perform virtually any movement other than running. Think about it. What tasks can runners perform? Well, running of course...and...ummm...ummmm...running! That's typically it! And the amazing part is that when runners take on a strength and conditioning program along with their running, decrease their weekly mileage a little bit, and focus on quality more than quantity they get better. I think this bears repeating. THEY GET BETTER!...at running! And they have lower injury rates. Which, if you weren't already aware, running is the sport with the highest injury rate out of any other sport. It doesn't have to be this way though. Distance running just requires a much-needed makeover is all.
For a quick case-study on this simply "Google" pictures of "sprinter vs marathoner" or, "sprinter vs distance runner".
Go ahead and still do the search yourself to see plenty more examples.
See how easy this superficial research was? And anyone should be able to draw A LOT of conclusions from it. Conclusions that don't need a more in-depth understanding of physiology and/or metabolic pathways, etc.
The point I'm trying to make is this...more often than not I have people come to me thinking that elite athleticism is accomplished though running or, heaven forbid, jogging long distances. What they don't realize is that the problems with this are compounding. Long-Slow-Distance running, popularly termed LSD, only makes you good at one thing...Long-Slow-Distance running. Nothing else! Furthermore, continual LSD actually makes an athlete or person a slower sprinter, a poorer jumper, a less powerful and and explosive athlete, and delivers an overall decrease in true athletic ability.What's more is that distance runners usually don't have that sexy look that people are going for either. Typically they have very skinny arms and legs and a soft belly. Even if they don't have a lot of fat accumulation around the midsection they still don't usually have a six pack or an athletic looking body type for that matter. Quite the contrary. Oftentimes they acutally look sick and bulemic, and I would make the argument that most distance runners actually are sick but either have blinders on to that fact or don't have a firm understanding of what being sick really is.
Keep in mind readers who are runners, all of this is just being stated to prove my point to coaches and PE teachers recommending distance running for general fitness and improved athletic ability. Please take no exception. I personally know of a handful of legitimate runners who have it right and if you're one of them then please see this for what it is.
Also keep in mind readers that not all distance running is bad. I actually really admire many distance runners but believe the majority of them simply go about it wrong. It is my contention that if you want to become a better athlete (even a distance runner) you will not log too many miles or as many miles and much of your work will be sprinting and strength and conditioning training that's tailored toward your specific goals. CrossFit Endurance does a great job of this for endurance athletes.
What this ultimately boils down to besides, yes, I got a massive boulder off my chest, is make sure that you train smart for your goals and your sport. This may include more distance running than other goals and sports require, but should still be done with a very carefully thought out purpose and should be done at a high intesity. Also, it should incorporate some sort of strength training (and yes squatting...to FULL DEPTH...is a MUST)! And for the sake of all that is right in this world...STOP JOGGING! Jogging is not intense and should be saved merely for warm-ups and cool-downs. Jogging is not a workout! It will not accomplish anything. Run, and run hard. Even if your run looks like someone else's jog, that's ok. Make it hard for you. Pushing yourself is where the reward is.
So, in the process of educating coaches and PE teachers, I've obviously spent a good deal of time bashing runners, which was not my initial intent. They just make such good example of what not to do.
Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com
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