This weekend I was at the Fitness Business Summit 09 in Anaheim, California and it was an absolute blast! I flew in on Thursday and spent the day at Newport Beach just chilling and riding the bike around (it’s been forever since I had done that) and catching some sunshine.
Just like any other conference, it costs money for the event, hotel, travel and expenses. Most people I talked to about going to the event were mentioning how they can’t handle such a cost. I never really looked at it as a cost but rather as an investment. I can say that it was easily worth ten times what I paid for it. The information, motivation and presenters were incredible, while the networking and relationships forged are priceless.
It’s crazy that there is more great information on training out there than at any other time, yet it seems that people are doing more dumb shit in gyms than ever before! Maybe there is too much information, maybe people are getting paralysis by analysis, maybe everyone is looking for “the next big thing” and a shortcut, maybe it’s just a bunch of wussies and hard work has become extinct or it could just be that someone you trust is giving you crappy advice. Wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.
This is happening in every population but I want to focus on the “wandering souls” of high school athletics….
Last post we focused on explaining what deloading is, how important it is and showing some ways how you can incorporate it into your program. This time I’ll talk about deloading more than just training, but using it in life. If you haven’t read part I, you can read it here.
Just like training, we tend to get out of balance and either do too little or too much when it comes to work, relationships, etc. I will touch on the one thing that most people in America including myself don’t do enough of - rest and relax. I don’t even want to go into the statistics about how much vacation people take (and how much they do not use?! crazy) on average, how many hours they work, etc. Sound like you?
When I was young all the way up to the age of 15 I played just about every sport from soccer, basketball, judo, tennis, track (300 m, long jump) while also trying to participate in every activity that included a competition or a challenge. I would regularly go skiing, swimming, hiking, etc. with my family and friends and I would spend most of my time outside either practicing a sport or doing some sort of physical activity with my friends (sometimes this activity also got me in a lot of trouble).
I am trying to reintroduce sleep back into my life as there hasn’t been much in the past 6 weeks. The day just doesn’t have enough hours with all the things that are on my to do list. I have been delegating but it’s still crazy. I would love to believe that it will get calmer soon but I know that’s not the case.
As the Hocevar Performance Gym is getting busier and I am still training a lot of hours at Vision Quest, running a business, there is little (that would mean none) time for much R & R. There has been a ton of good things happening though and that makes me foregt about being tired and rejuvenates my spirit (yes I said spirit!). Here is a bunch of different things that has been going on that I wanted to mention, from the new look of the Hocevar Performance Gym to some transformation pics of our athletes. Here goes in no particular order:
When I was in my teenage years I used to do all the crunches in the world and did every single “angle” of an exercise to hit the abs and get that impressive six- pack. Not only did I realize that this was not the way to a set of six pack abs but it definitely didn’t improve my on court performance or make me stronger at any lifts.
First question I want to ask you, is do you have a strong core? How do you know, because you have ripped abs? Is it because you do thousands of crunches every week? Or maybe you can hold a plank for a minute? Well, I’m sorry to tell you that’s not going to do it and even though people with a strong core may have six-pack abs and hold a plank for a minute, it is definitely not what determines it.
In the past half decade I have always payed attention to my nutrition and on top of that I have studied it in detail, reading books, attending seminars, etc. I thought I had a handle on things until I started training clients the whole day while also training myself and still putting in hours towards basketball. I soon found out it was hard for me to get the hang of preparing meals, eating like I believe I should.
My friend Rich stepped in and gave me advice on how to get through the crazy schedules and training while still eating the highest quality food. I was a little hard headed at first but decided to listen as I realized I wasn’t eating to support my goals and on top of that I was spending a bunch of money eating out since I didn’t prepare meals.
We were discussing this a little while ago and though it would be a good idea to have Rich write up a short post on preparing great tasting meals to support your goals (and maybe some crazy story he has…we’ll have to discuss that one though). I’ll let Rich take it from here……
I get people constantly asking me how much they should be able to lift (sadly it mostly pertains to the bench press) and it is a tough answer because most of the time they do not tell me what sport they play or what they want to achieve with training. Many of them will get frustrated with me because I don’t have a short answer that would fulfill (or crush) their ego and curiosity.
Since my basketball playing days I have always payed serious attention to my conditioning and even though I was mislead in my younger years, I have to say that I was always known to be a well conditioned athlete that could go at a high intensity for the whole game. But the truth is that you can always get better and you can always be more conditioned!
Its been over a year since my first ordeal with the Prowler and I can remember getting it and being real excited about incorporating it at the end of the training session. I started pushing it high and then low on the reversal while switching with two other athletes. I felt confident as my conditioning was good but around 5 minutes into the Prowler workout I started “feeling it” in a not so good way. I stopped and called it a day thinking I’d be fine only to find out about 5 minutes later it hit me. I felt like I had got the flu, sweating, hot, nauseaus and looking like death. It took me a half hour to gather myself and that day I realized that the Prowler was no joke! This is where the term “Prowler Flu” comes from.
I have been incorporating the sled for years and the Prowler for less than a year now and I can honestly say it is the best piece of equipment to get athletes conditioned like mutants. Just like Joe Defranco said, I don’t know the scientific theories behind it and I don’t care, the Prowler will make you a monster when it comes to conditioning - period.
Here is some clips of a couple of Hocevar Performance’s athletes (me included) running the Prowler and the newbies experiencing “the flu”.
The Ride
The Flu
You have to go above and beyond if you want to be in the lead and be a champion. It doesn’t matter what you do in life, you can’t put in half the work and reap all the rewards. All the hard work, commitment, pain and persistence pays of more than you can count, it’s priceless! If you are ready to take that step to be a champion, you want to be around people that are among the five percentile and want to fulfill their potential then the doors at Hocevar Performance are open……you just have to step through.
What are some of you guys doing for conditioning? Are you using the Prolwer and the Sled?
Nothing in life worthwhile to us, comes without sacrifice. If you haven’t found that out yet, then you will sooner or later. With that being said I believe that the people who fail to succeed do so because of the lack of wil rather than strength or knowledge.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Vince Lombardi and it is about perseverance:
“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour - his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has worked his hart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.”
Ask yourself if you have persevered or given up on your goals and dreams. I have had many ups and downs but I have persevered and overcame. Hocevar Performance is the future home of the most dominant athletes in Seattle, the counrty and the world. It is coming……
101, not a coincidence
If you are striving to be the next dominant athlete in the state then contact me at luka@hocevarperformance.com
Comments RSS 
