New DVD Coming Soon!

After many years of ruminating about creating a DVD on self-massage techniques, I've finally finished it! The product will be called "Recovery and Regeneration, Self-Massage Techniques." The content includes many practical release techniques that can be done with "low-tech" devices/objects such as foam rollers, various massage balls (golf, tennis, etc..), and even massage sticks (including rolling pins). Some basic stretches that can be used in conjunction with self-massage techniques are also shown. There's a lot of good information and demonstration in this video production.

It is a two-DVD set that includes an instructional DVD and then a follow-along program DVD. The price will be $39.95 for the set. The total running time between the two DVD's is around one hour and forty minutes. The editing and production quality is very good and I'm happy with how it turned out.

It should be available to purchase in the next week or so; I'll send out a mass email to my newsletter list when it's ready!

Inspirational Clarence Bass Video

Check out the following YouTube video; it's a collection of pictures to music of the legendary master of healthy living and leanness, Clarence Bass:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNwgmFsFsOk

At over 70 years of age, he continues to defy father time and show how healthy, strong, and lean someone can remain into advanced age! I have been influenced by Clarence from way back in the late 80's when I first started reading Muscle & Fiction (I mean Fitness) where he had a column called "Ripped." His approach to fitness with a focus on eating whole foods and performing whole movements is very much in line to my own. Keep up the great work Clarence!

Review of Nutrition Seminar

On friday the 3rd of October, 2008, I attended a Nutrition seminar down in Tucson, Arizona called The Winning Edge 2008: Sepcial Topics in Sports Nutrition. It was affiliated with the University of Arizona and was a good (not great) seminar to attend. I did get some good tips out of the seminar however and will review the speakers and topics covered below in this post, and sbusequent posts.

Lecture #1: Nutrition Periodization and Exercise Performance
Bob Seebohar, MS, RD, CSSD, CSCS

This first lecture was by far the most interesting and dynamic of the day. Bob Seebohar is an excellent presenter and was quite entertaining in his delivery of his powerpoint presentation. His basic gig was to explain his simplified approach to Nutrition Periodization which can be summed up nicely by one if his initial slides:

SUPPORT the body's energy needs assoicated with the different training VOLUME and INTENSITY stressors throughout the training year to elicit positive physiological responses.

He also repeated gave the mantra : Eat to train, don't train to eat." Pretty good advice in my opinion. In Bob's experience, the biggest mistakes are made by athletes during the transitional and off-season when athletes often fail to reduce both their total caloric intake and/or alter their macronutrient ratios to meet the demands of their trainig. The end result, in Bob's opinion, are athletes with higher bodyfat percanteges and decreased ability to burn stored fat as fuel. In essence, he stated that athletes are often too reliant on dietary and supplementary carbohydrates which blocks efficient fat oxidation and increases the onset and severity of fatigue during training. This was interesting to hear as Bob primarily works with elite (inclduing Olympic level) endurance athletes which have notroisouly been known for their impressive carbo-eating capabilities.

Bob then went on to give examples of how to create a meal for any seaon of the year using a plate/pie-chart ratio formula. In essence, the more active and intense the trainig, the greater the caloric content can be and the higher level of carbohydrate consumption; kind of common sense huh? So just as you wouldn't do the exact same training program day in a day out, nor should anyone's food remain exactly indentical all year round. Again, this makes intuitive sense.

All in all, this was a very infromative lecture but not groudnbreaking by any mean.

An Amazing Olympic Games!

Well, the Olympics are finally over and what an amazing set of games they were! Of course they were full of controversies and mishaps as usual but this was truly an impressive array of some of the best and most determined athletes on the planet.

As a track fan I was awed by the perforamances of the Jamaican sprinters (male and female) and in particular the new onslaught of world records by the youg and exuberant Usain Bolt! This young man could have absolutely obliterated the 100m world record into the stratosphere if he would have just ran through the line and kept his celebrations until after her crossed the finish line. The following link is to a spoof on how ridiculous his early celebration was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzSpPaCIG0g

However, 9.68 isn't so bad. In the 200m he did not dissapoint and actually ran the entire race with grit and determiniation; Michael Johnson's mark of 19.32 was no easy mark to beat and Usain was fortunate to run 19.30. Who knows though, fresh, Usain might have the potential to run sub 19 seconds in the 200m; the track and field world will have to wait and see. This kid is truly a freak of nature!

And then of course there was the swimming. What an unbelievable performance by Phelps! I just hope all these athletes (yeah right!) are drug-free but I'm not going to be shocked if any post-Olympics shockwaves hit the world about people being busted. It's an ugly and unfortunate part of high-level sport.

Also impressive was the seemingly ageless Dara Torres; wow! Not a bad physique. The beach volleyball wasn't hard to watch either!

Brain Rules!

I just wanted to inform anyone and everyone about a wonderful new book and website I learned about in a Podcast interview by Dr. Ginger Campbell (she interviews some great individuals about various aspects of neural/brain science):

http://brainsciencpodcast.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/37-medina/

The interview was with Dr. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist with a passion for applying the little information we actually know about how and in what settings our brains function best. His latest book is called Brain Rules/12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. Here's his website which contains info on how to get the book and also has short videos on each of the 12 brain rules: http://brainrules.net/

This is a fantastic example of practical and applied brain science at it's best! Spread this website to everyone you know!

Been a While!

Wow! I can't believe it's been months since I've last posted a blog. I've been burried with work, family obligations, and two on-line courses I'm taking in preparation for applying to a Physician's Assistant school here in Arizona.

The classes I'm taking are Microbiiology and Statistics; not exactly easy classes to take on-line!

My fitness and track and field training is still continuing, although not always as regularly as I'd like. Also, my son Aidan is in his first season of coach-pitch little league baseball; it's a blast!

I've got some blog ideas I'll hopefully be blogging about soon......

2008 Track & Field Schedules

For those who might be interested, here's the list of meets for Open and Masters track & field athletes in Arizona: Anyone interested in getting involved in track (especially sprints!) should try it out; I'm always looking for new recruits!

2008 Schedule

January 19 Sat Tucson Senior Games (Seniors) 8:00 A.M. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

January 19 Sat. Lumberjack Invitational (Open) 8:00 A.M. Northern AZ University, Flagstaff, AZ

January 26 Sat. Puma Indoor Invitational (Open) TBA Paradise Valley Community College

February 2 Sat Mountain T Invitational (Open) 8:00 A.M. Northern AZ University, Flagstaff, AZ

February 9 Sat Gaucho Indoor Invitational (Open) 12:00 P.M. Glendale Community College

February 16 Sat PV Indoor Invitational (Open) 10:00 A.M. Paradise Valley Community College

February 16&17Sat&Sun Arizona Senior Olympics (Seniors) 8:00 A.M. Copper Canyon High School, Glendale, AZ

February 24 Sun Arizona Indoor Classic (Youth & Adult) 8:00 A.M. Northern AZ University, Flagstaff, AZ

March 8 Sat Grand Canyon State Games (Adult only) 8:00 A.M. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ
(SISU Challenge)

March 8 Sat Bobcat Relays (Youth & Adult) 8:00 A.M. Horizon High School

March 15 Sat Arizona Relays (Open) TBA Central Arizona Community College

March 17-22 Fri-Sun WMA World Indoor Championship (Master only) Clermont-Ferrand, France

March 21 Fri. Glendale Invitational (Open) 4:00 P.M. Glendale Community College

March 28-30 Fri-Sun Masters Indoor Nationals (Master only) Reggie Lewis Center, Boston, MA

April 5 Sat Puma Outdoor Invitational (Open) TBA Paradise Valley Community College

April 11 Fri Mesa Classic (Open) 1:00P.M. Mesa Community College
April 12 Sat Sun Angel Classic (Open) TBA Arizona State University

April 19 Sat. Arizona Flames Invitational (Adult only) 5:00 P.M. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

April 25 Fri UCSD Triton Invitational (Open) TBA UC San Diego,


May 17&18 Sat&Sun Arizona State Championships (Youth & Adult) 8:00 A.M. TBD

May 24 Sat. Masters Invitational (Adult only) 5:00 P.M. Mesa Community College, Mesa AZ (AZTECH Invitational 5000m)

June 7 Sat USATF Weight Throw Pentathlon(Adult) 5:00 P.M. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

June 7 Sat All Comers Meet (track only) (Adult) 5:00 P.M. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

June 21 Sat Grand Canyon State Games (HS & Adult) 5:00 P.M. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

July 9 Wed All Comers Meets (HS & Adult) 5:00 P.M. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

July 16 Wed All Comers Meets (HS & Adult) 5:00 P.M. Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

July 19-20Sat&Sun Masters West Region Championship (Adults) TBA

August 7-10Thur-Sun. Masters Outdoor Nationals (Masters only) Spokane, WA

August 28-31Thur-Sun North, Central American & Caribbean World Masters National Training Center, Clermont, FL

September 5 Fri National Masters Weight & Superweight Championship Seattle, WA

September 6 Sat National Masters Ultra-Weight Championship Seattle, WA

Entry guidelines for meets:

1. All Ages USATF track meets (Indoor Classic & AZ State Champs) will have to be entered at www.coacho.com. There is a deadline. Be on time!

2. For entries into Open & Junior Colleges use www.directathletics.com.

3. For entries into Glendale JC meets email cran@msn.com.

4. For Grand Canyon State Games go to www.gcsg.org