Hardcore

Isolation training is a form of training that is used by many top football (or “soccer) coaches and players worldwide. However, it is still a “secret” to the majority of athletes. The secret of isolation training, is that by simply isolating parts of your body, the rest of the body has to super-compensate to work efficiently. This form of training is ideal for working on imbalances and weaknesses in the athlete’s physical make up.

Through performing new and unusual drills or movements, isolation training is also a great tool for removing inhibitions and embarrassment. We can use the analogy of a car to understand this; you can be a high-powered, sleek, aerodynamically perfect car (Ferrari), but if you try and drive with the handbrake on (mental inhibitions or embarrassment), you will never perform to your optimum capabilities.

A muscle must be subjected to a stimulus that compels it to adapt and grow. If there is no reason for a muscle to grow, no hypertrophy will occur. Muscles increase their strength and size when they are forced to contract at levels close to their maximum. Much more weight can be lifted with compound exercises than isolation movements. More weight, more overload and in turn more muscle. A compound exercise is a movement that involves more than one major muscle group. It involves a primary muscle and one or more secondary muscles.

Mixed martial arts fighting (MMA) is back in a big way. With the return of American Gladiators to NBC, more and more competitors are engaging in “the ultimate fight.” MMA combines the best of many worlds – martial arts, kinesiology, combat training, and body-building. So how do famed competitors like Randy Couture gear up for their sport?

The range of motion available in a joint is referred to as flexibility. It is extremely important in fitness and wellness. Flexibility is specific to each joint, meaning a person might be flexible in shoulder joint movements and tight in hip joint movements. Joint structure, age and sex are factors that affect flexibility that cannot be altered by flexibility training.

Everyone should consider varying their exercise routines for two fundamental reasons: (1) to prevent or delay reaching a plateau in workout performance, shocking the body into further development and (2) to prevent boredom associated with doing the same regimen workout after workout, week after week.
Adding variety to an exercise program can improve adherence and can also help you stay physically challenged and mentally stimulated. The body will most likely adapt to a repetitive training stimulus within approximately four to eight weeks. Modifying your exercise routine will help avoid a plateau.

There are several ways you can spice up your current routine in order to stay enthusiastic and excited about your workouts. You can boost the intensity of your workouts by implementing the intensity principles outlined previously in this book. You can vary the exercises themselves, the order in which you do them, rest periods, rep ranges and rep tempo.

Magnus Agren
www.magnusagren.se

Last we focused on the upper body and its effects on running technique and speed. Now it is time for the lower body to be dissected. Let us start with the hip, (the forces of power production are about seven times that of the ankle when sprinting)! In the hip area there are lots of muscles that in different ways affect running and speed production. Most important are the glutes and the hip flexors. The glutes are one of the largest and most power producing muscles in the body and combined with the hamstrings extend the hip and helps you move forward. Unfortunately, it is often deactivated and cannot fully deliver at its peak. This is mostly due to stiff and shortened hip flexors, a problem that is very common from too much sitting down or sports where you act leaning forward, eg. in hockey, golf etc. Stiff and shortened hip flexors will also lead to decreased stride length and disturbs the rotation of the spine, it will force you to rotate more to be able to keep your stride length and sprint at full speed. This unnatural rotation costs the system an unnecessary energy loss and keeps you from optimal performance in more ways than one. It is very important to have good flexibility in the lower core, the hips and legs. In order to be able to keep your foot longer on the ground during the stride you need to be able to fully extend in your hip, knee and ankle joints.

By Dr. David Ryan

The whole idea of protein powders is just maddening. Which should you buy, what one will offer you the best for your dollar? The consumer is offered massive marketing and little to no facts on protein powders. Let’s start off with some simple facts about diet:

• If you eat more calories than you burn off, then you will gain weight.
• If you eat fewer calories than you burn off, then you will lose weight.
• If you eat the same amount of calories that you burn off, then your weight will not change.
• Our bodies are composed primarily of water and protein.
• Our bodies use protein as the building block for hormones, enzymes and other essential chemical substances, such as neurotransmitters.
• If you do not take in enough protein every day, you will cause disease, and in extreme cases even death.
• You do need some fats and carbohydrates to maximize the absorption of proteins.

Those facts may all seem rather simple but it is necessary not to lose side of them as we discussed this topic.

Magnus Agren
www.magnusagren.com

Everybody who has ever been involved in some sort of sport knows the need of speed! In almost every sport it is a necessity in order to become successful. Even our ancestors were in need of speed, or they got eaten- or beaten to death by the enemy. So it´s in our blood. But even though it is such a necessity in sports I often see people who don’t have it developed to their full potential. They may train their strength (often focused around their legs), their agility, run their sprints and so on. But in order to become the fastest you can be you have to incorporate a lot of things and know a bit about how the body works and the mechanics of sprinting. In this article series I am about to share with you the things I consider to be of importance and try to make this complex and widespread area a bit more accessible to you. And just for the sake of confusing you (just messing around) I will go from upper body to lower body in this article series and finish up with a bit of training methodology for speed.

Stretching – the basics part 2

Magnus Agren
www.magnusagren.com

If you have read the previous part of this series you should have a basic understanding of the science behind stretching. In this installment I will focus on the more technical parts of it, and go into how to perform the different stretches in order to get the most

Magnus Agren
www.magnusagren.com

There is and will always be different opinions about the importance of stretching, and the benefits of it! But anyone who has spent some time in the fitness and sports industry knows its value. In this two part article series I will cover the stretching basics. In this first one will focus on the “technical” pieces while the second will be more about the “practical“ parts.

Most athletes (and coaches for that matter) don’t realize that there are different types of strength. And depending on the demands of your sport, it will make an enormous difference on what type of strength it is that you should train for. So, let’s get some definitions out of the way:

Absolute Strength: The maximum force an athlete can generate, regardless of bodyweight and time of force development. For example, absolute strength is important to lineman in the sport of football. Athletes of other sports typically need not worry much about absolute strength output. Why? Because an athlete’s absolute strength is simply a non-factor because of the brief amount of time and distance that most sport activities allow/require.

1)Make specific goals

It is much easier to reach your goals if you remind yourself what you’re working towards! Once you’ve determined what you want to achieve, write down your goals and post them somewhere where you’ll remember to refer back to them often. It is also helpful to keep a workout log to track your progress. The log should contain entries for the duration of your workouts, how you feel before and after, as well as the maximum loads and/or intensity performed during the workout. Numerous studies have found that writing down goals makes it more likely that you’ll achieve them. If you don’t have specific goals, take a few minutes to write them down today!

Your own GPS to success!
Magnus Agren
www.magnusagren.com

Do you feel that the effort you put out in the gym, don’t give you the results it should? O do you feel that you should see results at a quicker and more constant rate? Every day I see people going through the motion in the gym, going by feel and spending at least four to six days a week in the gym, with little or no significant result to

My first few articles for myfittribe have focused on overall performance. So some of you might have got the impression that I only train athletes, which is not the case. To change that, I am going to give you folks an article about chest training. It´s not for the beginner but even as such you might get some ideas to try out.

Christian Bale starting acting in British television commercials when he was 9 and had his major breakout Hollywood role in the film American Psycho in 2000. He played Patrick Bateman; a handsome, intelligent stockbroker turned serial killer who also happened to be incredibly ripped.