As an 80′s baby, I grew up during what was inarguably the most revolutionary time in modern day history. I mean c’mon, we had the 56k internet, Power Rangers, Pogs and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. How can you argue with that? Answer: You can’t (although I encourage you to try your hardest). The best part of this existence is that we had shows that not only entertained, but also enrolled us in the school of hard knocks. Want to learn about the perils of drug use? Check out just how wild Carlton gets when hopped up on speed. What about the sheer thrill of bungee jumping? Look no further than Trevor’s ill-fated proposal to Hillary. However, intertwined within these sage-like teachings, one of the most important lessons of all in the quest for sexification was lost in all of the hubbub – that of how to maximize your fat loss.

As the Grand Historian of all things 90′s T.V., let me weave a tale for you. Once upon a time not long ago, there was a television show on Nickelodeon that was of great importance to kids who raced home after school, leaving a trail of discarded juice boxes in their wake, to watch it. That show was called Legends of the Hidden Temple. The premise of the show was this: six groups of kids battle it out via physical challenges in order to earn the right to enter the temple and escape with the scared treasure. In order to progress within the temple, the young adventurers had to solve various puzzles, one of which was responsible for failing more unsuspecting newbs than banana peels and whoopee cushions combined – The Shrine of the Silver Monkey.

In order to proceed to the next room, the monkey had to be assembled in the correct order on the pedestal. It consisted of three pieces: the base, the body and the head. However, due to the lack of functioning retinas or the failure of the American schooling system, more often than not the head or the body ended up going on first, time ran out and the kids went home with nothing but memories of epic failure for their troubles.

(2:20-3:20 is all you need to watch)

Ok, so far I’ve managed to prove two things:

A) The 90′s were awesome.
B) Some kids need to revisit kindergarten.

But Rog Law, how the heck does this relate to fat loss? Lets get to it.

Agony of defeat

One of the most fundamental errors that most people make when looking to drop a few pounds is that they start with a base that isn’t conducive to their goals. For instance, I’m sure we all know at least one person who begins a fat loss program with all the energy and vigor of a 5 year old on a Cookie Crisp high. They hit the gym in the morning. They hit the gym during their lunch break. They hit the gym after work. They hit the gym right before bed time. Hell, they probably hit the gym in their dreams, bench pressing with good ‘ol Freddy Kruger himself giving them a spot! Naturally, after weeks of arduous effort, they hop on the scale with a smile on their face. I mean surely after all this hard work they are destined to be rewarded, right?

Wrong!

Knees meet the floor in horror as the scale greets them with the terrible news: same crap, different day. Without knowing it, they violated the cardinal rule of fat loss – develop a solid nutrition base, or prepare thyself for a lifetime of sailing the blubbery seas. Just like the failed assembly of the Silver Monkey, many people have it all wrong when it comes time to implement their fat loss plan, and as a result often spend months if not years spinning their wheels in frustration.

Can you out train a subpar diet? Sure, but I can think of a few things that are slightly harder, such as slurping dry the Atlantic Ocean with a straw, or body-slamming the Empire State building. Simply put, it’s hard as all get-out to burn a ton of calories through exercise alone unless you’ve built up your physical capacity to the point where you’re able to handle the workload, and even then it’s always easier to eat less food than it is to burn it off after doing so.

So what is the person looking to bring that head image of themselves into reality left to do? Have no fear! As the conductor of the Sexification Express, I take it upon myself to make sure that you are equipped with the requisite knowledge to get the ball rolling on your own fat loss journey, so let’s go through the necessary steps of creating a solid foundation.

The Base

In order to stand a chance of getting to where you want to be, you first have to figure out where you are, therefore it is of super duper importance that you determine your maintenance calories. There are a lot of fancy calculators out there, but you don’t need no stinkin’ technology to figure out where you stand – just multiply your current bodyweight in pounds by 14 if you lean more towards the inactive side of things or 15-16 if you have a higher level of daily movement such as resistance training and moderate intensity cardio.

Remember that this is but a rough estimate and nothing more. That said, it still serves as an effective starting point compared to just pulling random numbers out of thin air. If you find that you’re gaining weight at this calorie level, decrease your starting number by 150 calories and reassess.

I know that there are some folks out there who would rather skip this step for whatever reason, and that is fine with me as long as you are progressing towards your goals. If you’re raring to get going, simply multiply your starting bodyweight in pounds by 10-12. For those who have jobs that don’t involve much movement at all throughout the day, you may want to start out with the lower number, possibly going as low as 8 calories x bodyweight in pounds if you’re really, really inactive. Just as a side note, I rarely recommend going down to such a level, especially for more than a week or two, so start with the higher values and stick with those until you have reason to do otherwise.

And no, not achieving your goals within the first few weeks is not a valid reason.

Cliffsnotes Version

• Maintenance intake = 14-16 x bodyweight in lbs. The less active you are, the lower the number you start with.
• Fat loss intake = 10-12 x bodyweight in lbs. The less active you are, the lower the number you start with.

There you have it, a simple, time effective way to estimate your maintenance intake and fat loss calories. If you don’t have this down, you’ve got no business proceeding to the next level, so consider this your homework assignment. Make sure to stay tuned for the next post in this series where we move beyond the base into the belly of the beast – macronutrients and their role in your dieting plan.

What are the greatest barriers that you encounter when trying to lose fat? Also, what are your fondest memories of the 90s? Be sure to drop your answers in the comment section. Don’t worry, if you say Pokemon I won’t hold it against you. In fact, I may very well give you a high five on the down low. Shhhh – don’t tell nooooooooobody!

Casein: A member of the most excellent protein family, which plays a role in pretty much everything we do, from enzyme function to making sure we don’t look like Skeletor due to lack of muscle mass. Don’t leave home without it.

Kevin Federline: Leader of the species of human commonly referred to as Supremeicus Dumbassicus. Despite first being documented around 17,000 BC, no known benefits have been established.

Winner: Casein

Casein: The Superman of the dietary protein world, well-known for its documented anti-catabolic properties, which is a fancy way of saying that it contributes significantly to the prevention of muscle breakdown.

Kevin Federline: There is no pretty way of saying this folks, so I’m gonna just throw it out there: K-Fed is straight up 129% catabolic to every tissue in the human body. Scientific studies have shown that just 2 minutes of exposure to K-Fed at any point in your life will cause irreparable damage to the brain and decrease muscle mass by 72%. You will also lose the ability to love.

Winner: Casein

Casein: As a slower digesting protein found in milk, cheese and other dairy products, it tends to keep you satiated for longer periods of time. Also, depending on the flavor, it can be quite delectable.

Kevin Federline: There ain’t nothing slow (highly debatable) or tasty about K-Fed. Like a ninjitsu Sonic the Hedgehog, he hits you hard and fast, leaving you mighty blue and depressed from having briefly been in his presence. His unique sound can best be described as…you know what? I won’t even try. Prepare yourself for what may very well be the worst album of all time.

Winner: Casein

Casein: At only $29.99  for a months supply, adding a scoop or two a day to your current intake won’t break the bank.

Kevin Federline: Just by mentioning his name several times throughout this post I’ve managed to wipe out my entire life savings and lose my girlfriend all in one fell swoop. Can you imagine what its like to be married to this guy?! Imagine no more. In what will most certainly go down in history as the most bizarre and outrageous Jedi mind trick ever performed, Kevin managed not only to go from nada to Prada by hooking up with Britney Spears, but he actually leveled up after the divorce. Peep the stats:

A 2004 pre-nup called for K-Fed to get $250,000 for each year of their marriage, but Spears upped that figure to $500,000 to speed up the negotiations.

He receives half the proceeds from their Malibu mansion, which is on the market for $13.5 million.

$25,000 a month in child support for each of the couple’s two children until they reach 18. He also gets custody of the boys four days a week.

Federline gets to keep all the gifts Spears bought them during their marriage.

He’s forbidden from writing a tell-all about their marriage.

Winner: Kevin Federline

The count says it all. If you’re interested in lean mass preservation and a delicious and convenient protein source, I encourage you to buy a tub of casein (or, even better, a whey/casein mix) protein powder and give it a try to see how you like it.  However, if you’re one of those rare individuals who enjoy the sound of terrible music and would like nothing more than to surrender some brain cells over to the dark side, then you have met your savior. Oh, and by the way, his kick game is ridiculous.

So, my loyal readers, where do you get your protein supplements from? And who would you rather have on your side in an alley fight, a cow or Kevin Federline? Shoot me your answers in the comment section below. Thanks for reading, and I would say that I love you, but I’ve lost the ability to experience that emotion.

Photo Credit: idovermani, Hot Rod Homepage

I just want to let you all know that Rog Law fitness is inactive for the time being and will be back on September 1st when I launch the new, sexified site. So, until then, thank you for your continued support, and hold on to your tushies because its about to get real!

It may seem like it takes a spectacular event of epic proportions to draw me out of my blogging cave, and while that may or may not be true, this is certainly a noteworthy announcement. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that what I’m about to drop on you is going to be a game changer in terms of the way that fitness information is disseminated to the masses.

Ladies and gentlemen of the interweb, I’m proud to present to you the brand spanking new Fitmarker.com – the brainchild of my homie JC Deen and the one who is well-known in these e-streets as The FitJerk.

The reason I like this site so much is simple – it puts the power in the hands of the end-user. Think about it for a moment: would you rather be forcefed information of questionable quality without any say in the matter, or would you like to play a critical role in deciding what content gets the frontpage worthy thumbs up or the Spartan kick of doom, destined to never see the light of day? That is the premise of this site: if you find a particular piece useful you can “bump” it, and if you think its whacker than an air sandwhich, you can “dump” it.

While this may be a great tool for the personal trainer or strength coach to use in order to get their work in front of the eyes of people who need it, the real winner here is the general fitness enthusiest who is so bogged down in the guagmire of crappy (or even harmful) information out there that they end up doing nothing at all out of sheer confusion. Just like anything in life, the cream rises to the top, and it is my firm belief that this will become a straight up smorgasbord of thoroughly researched, helpful and applicable information that people can actual use.

But enough with the hype. Its clear that I love the concept and implementation, and I think you will too. Give Fitmarker a test drive here – you won’t be disappointed.

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – Harry S. Truman

Once upon  a time, thanks to the ease of information consumption on the internet, Rog Law was a fitness EXPERT. And honestly, why wouldn’t he be? I mean everything regarding training and nutrition found for free online is true and should be taken at face value. So off our hero went,  spreading the gospel with such fervor that at one point even the Dalai Lama was convinced that he needed to step his interval game up. Then the kool-aid ran out and he realized just how mad he truly was.

This is my formal apology to everyone who was crazy enough to listen to my ramblings all those years ago, when at that point I had barely graduated from curling in the squat rack with 5lb plates on each side of the bar. If anything good has come from those years, it is from the fact that I have more tempered outlook on all things fitness related.

I’m sorry for convincing you that carbs were the spawn of Satan and that by eating them you were not only going to ruin your physique, but you were surely going to die.

I’m sorry for telling you that intervals were the ONLY way to lose body fat and that if you couldn’t do them, you might as well do nothing at all.

I’m sorry for telling you that steady state cardio was useless as a Supersoaker in a wildfire, and that you would certainly lose all of your muscle by doing so.

I’m sorry for telling you that if you didn’t eat 5-6 meals a day, spaced exactly 2-3 hours apart, you may as well kiss your metabolism goodbye.

I’m sorry for telling you that calories didn’t matter.

I’m sorry for telling you that if you want to get cut up, you need to drop your calories and increase your reps. That only works if you’re going for the coveted emo look that is so in style these days. Skinny jeans included.

I’m sorry for telling you that if you ate carbs and fat together that your stomach was going to explode and your next of kin would be kidnapped and held hostage by bridge hobos.

My bad!

In short, I went straight full retard for awhile there. If anything good has come from those years, it is from the fact that I now have a more tempered outlook on all things fitness related. Thanks to the likes of Alan Aragon, Eric Cressey, Lyle McDonald, Leigh Peel and a slew of other evidence based fitness professionals, the bar has been raised and I’m doing chin ups on that mug! This industry deserves a better class of trainer, and I’m gonna give it to them. Want to know my opinion on most things these days? Like old folks pissin, I guess it all depends. Thank you, Kanye West.

The JP Fitness Summit was the brainchild of Jean-Paul Francoeur, who happens to be a modern renaissance man and one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Each year a group of industry professionals and forumites descend upon a pre-determined U.S. city and talk fitness, life, and everything in between. This is their story.

Lou Schuler, the man, the myth, the legend, kicked off the day of presentations and set the bar for everyone else to follow. Lou’s talk focused on how a fitness enthusiast’s foray into the world of exercise and diet can be likened to the archetypal hero’s journey commonly found in mythology. I loved his talk for several reasons. First of all, it connected the English Literature part of my soul to my role as a fitness professional – didn’t see that coming! Secondly, he had pictures…of light sabers. Anytime that what I and millions of others across the globe are doing on a daily basis can be tied-in with images of light sabers and cheesy special effects noises, you’ve got my vote. Lou’s ability to connect the mundane to an epic hero’s journey while at the same time managing to not make us feel small and insignificant, but empowered and inspired, is why I loved his talk so much. I see what you did there, Lou, and I approve. High five!

Next up was the brofessor himself – Alan Aragon. If you’re don’t know who he is, you betta ask somebody! I don’t remember who introduced me to him, but all I know is that the end result was me turning down a night of debauchery to sit in my apartment on a Friday night and read as much of his research review as I could before surrendering to sleep’s sweet, sweet embrace. Now, before you assume that I am just an anomaly in the Matrix with an exceptionally high level of nerdery in my blood, let me say that this could easily happen to you! The way in which Alan writes his research review makes it easily palatable, and, dare I say, fun to read. Even if you aren’t into the nuts and bolts of the research, he provides you with enough brief take home points at the end of a section to make it worth your $10 a month. Check it out here.

But I digress.

In his presentation, Alan brought out the sledgehammah and demolished many of the dogmatic teachings that run rampant in the fitness world today in just 12 short slides. Not one to leave his audience hanging, he made sure to provide us with simplified, easily implementable solutions when it comes to goal setting in terms of body composition and macronutrient intake. He wrapped it up by highlighting a client of his who he prepped for a fitness contest in just 37 days while having him continue to consume allegedly dirty, filthy foods such as dairy and fruit.

Bringing us in to the pre-rib homestretch was Ryan Zielonka, who took the audience through his own fitness journey, detailing how he went from a short, ball of a man (his words, not mine!) to a lean individual and what he learned along the way. Out of all the presenters, I enjoyed Ryan’s talk the most, if for no other reason than his conversational style of presentation. He was able to poke fun at himself while at the same time conveying the message that he understood the big picture of weight loss and body transformation and wasn’t bogged down in the minutia. Given the nature of his talk, I find it funny that they had him lead us into lunch, where I unlocked the cage of my inner fattie and let him loose.

The next man up is going to do to the world of glute training what Sir Mix-A-Lot did to the rap game – Bret Contreras. Bret was the first person to go rogue in terms of his prepared presentation and spoke straight from the heart on some issues that had nothing to do with his presentation, and I loved every minute of it. Bret covered his concept of load vector training, which is just a sassy way of saying the direction of the resistance relative to the trainee, and how it relates to glute training. I can’t possible do him justice in such a short review, so please check out this exhaustive e-book on the subject.

And then there was Nick Tumminello. Nick’s conveyed the why and how-to’s of foam rolling and self myofascial release. As a trainer I thought I knew all that I needed to know on the subject, but Nick dropped some certified cerebral cocktails on the crowd and I would say that he was right up there with Alan in terms of providing information that anyone would be able to take home and apply immediately. He certainly has a unique approach that differs from what I’ve read and have used during my internship, so be sure to check out his website where you can preview a variety of his products to see if any of them fit your need state.

In the past when I’ve attended seminars, the environment seemed very sterile, often to the point of feeling like a press conference. You come in, sit down, listen to some smart people talk, ask a few questions, give dap to your fellow man and then you’re outta there in enough time to catch the first episode of the Golden Girls marathon on the Hallmark Channel (or so I hear). While I always walk away having learned something new, this kind of presentation leaves much to be desired in terms of interacting with the presenters. The JP Fitness Summit is an entirely different beast – homie don’t play that! There is simply no other seminar like it. Every night we while we were in Kansas City, there was an opportunity to go out on the town as a group and hang out with no pretentious barriers up between anyone. Honestly, where else are you going to be able to eat ribs with Lou Schuler and Nick Tumminello, talk Lord of the Rings with Alan Aragon and Ryan Zielonka, and have a gun showdown with Bret Contreras? Answer: only in your nerdiest dreams.

The next JP Fitness fun train is leaving the station May 2011, so make sure you’re on it, or regret it forever.

     A recent study out of Australia that can be found in the American Heart Association journal Circulation has some released some pretty disturbing and shocking findings. According to the study’s lead author, David Dunstan, just 1 hour of face to face time with the television carries an 18% increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and an 11% increased risk of death from all causes.

BUTT WEIGHT, DARE IZ MOAR!

        The study also found that watching more than 4 hours of television a day increased the likelihood of death from all causes by 46%, and cardiovascular disease in particular by a face slapping 80% percent. And here is the kicker: the link between television and death still persisted even after factoring in diet and exercise as variables. I know that I have readers all across the world, so instead of speaking about the United States and leaving it at that, I’ve included a user-friendly map where you can find out how your country measures up in terms of television consumption:

     Now I’ll be completely honest with you – I don’t have access to the entire study. I have no idea how well it was put together nor how valid these claims are, but I do know one thing: sitting on your booty for upwards of 40 hours a week can’t possibly be good for one’s health. We are constantly being forced to do more and more with the same amount of time that we’ve always had, which usually means lots of sitting. When you think about it, most of us are simply moving from chair to chair throughout the day – from the chairs in our offices, to the seats of our cars, right on home to log some more cushion time.

     The main take away point from this study isn’t that television is the devil, but that we need to, as the great prophet Ned Flanders would say, stop being so gosh diddily-darn inactive. As humans we are designed for movement, and if we weren’t — this is clearly backed up by endless hours of scientific research on the process of evolution — we would just be limbless egg-shaped people with heads. Even then we would be forced to roll around a lot to get where we were going, and would probably be awesome break dancers to boot. But I digress. Movement is crucial to our overall health, from the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism, the reduction of postural imbalances, muscle group (i.e. hamstring) inflexibility, and an entire host of other benefits that we may not even be aware of yet.

     Personal story time: I’m what you would call a FBJ – Facebook Junkie for those not in the know of my own ridiculous in-head language – to the point where if Facebook were crack, and they were casting for a New Jack City remake, I’d be their Pookie. I took the leap and deactivated it for a couple of months, which drastically reduced my internet sitting time, so now all of a sudden I have more time for walks, rock climbing, archery and motosurfing.

     So, here is my challenge to you: take a look at your life and identify one cheek-to-cushion vice of yours. After doing that, explore your options and see how you can turn it into something more active – or better yet, substitute an hour of that activity out for something more movement based. For instance, if you like watching television, at the very least stand up and move around every now and then while doing so. An even more awesome idea is to do some jumping jacks, pushups or a wide variety of other exercises during the commercial breaks, although my favorite is to act out a scene from the movie you’re watching – Enter The Dragon, Weekend at Bernie’s and Flash Dance are particularly dope.

     If you take the findings of this study to its extreme conclusion, between American Idol, Youtube and World of Warcraft, we are all gonna die! But it doesn’t have to be that way at all. As long as you have at least once functioning limb, there are always options for movement, even during a busy work schedule. Take for instance my friend Josie who, instead of sitting down all day while on the job, took to the stairwell throughout the day to repeatedly show them who the boss was. You can check out her hilarious telling of this account here.

     That’s it, y’all. Have a great weekend wherever you are, and get moving!

     In this diet game, there are rules. Now sure, if you break these rules a referee won’t drop out of the sky and blow a whistle all up in your face, but by following them you’ll increase the likelihood of emerging on the other side looking and feeling a lot better than you do now.

1. Secure Home Base

      There is a tasty killer lurking in your house, and he is out to try and desexify your body. The most disturbing part of all is that you are the one that let him in. A lot of the damage that occurs during a diet happens right at home – late night binging, mindless tv snacking, etc – and often involves all of the comfort foods that are tasty as hell, but pack a ton of calories and are easy to devour with reckless abandon. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it make sense to avoid this pitfall entirely by getting those foods out of the place where they’re most likely to be eaten?

      The first rule of Rogonian law is that if a yummy food is in your house, it will eventually end up in your stomach. Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang wrote an op-ed for the New York Times discussing how will power is a finite resource and that while demonstrating zen-like will power on one task, you “deplete” your reserves and are therefore less likely to display that same amount of self-control when performing another, seemingly unrelated task. I don’t say that to give you a reason to obliterate the cookie jar when stressed – quite the contrary, because with practice our will power reserves can be bolstered. Simply put, the best way to avoid eating something is not to have it around at all. If you’re not ready to make this plunge just yet, you can always slowly get these foods out of your house, first by reducing the portion size of what you buy then by decreasing the frequency of how often you buy them. 100 calorie snack packs serve this purpose well.

What would the Fresh Prince do?

2. Don’t Roll Solo 

     Once you leave the comfort and safety of home base, that’s when it gets real; not just real, but realer than real. You’re away from all of your prepared meals and now you’re venturing out into a world where you’re rarely more than 5 minutes away from something you can eat. This is where will power is critical, but if you’re like me and lack it when you need it the most, its best to come prepared. Bag up something non perishable and keep it in your pocket or in your car – ½ to 1oz portion sizes of walnuts or almonds are a personal favorite of mine, but fruit and beef jerky are also viable options. By employing this strategy, you don’t even have to go through the whole mental rigamarole of deciding between a piece of fruit or two ginormous slices of pizza with a piece of chocolate cake in between – you’ve already made a choice that will keep you on track towards your goals.

The only dude in the universe who can roll solo

 3. Tame the Beast Before Going to the Zoo

     When on a diet, one fact that is you’re going to have to accept is that you’re going to be hungry. Maybe not all the time, and not ravishingly so, but you and hunger are going to be homies during this whole process. With that said. its only natural that you’re going to have to interact with other folks while in a state of hunger, and this is where people (myself included) usually jump off the wagon. If you simply eat something in line with your goals before you head out the house, you can drastically decrease the chances of you binging on food at a party or get together only to feel like crap about it later on. A social gathering with food is just that – a gathering where food just happens to be. You don’t have to eat, and if you do eat you don’t have to eat a lot. Instead of saying that I’m on a diet, which tends to cause people to get on my case, I just say that I ate more than I should have recently and I’m pretty full. Problem solved, caloric disaster averted, and you’re now free to have fun without stuffing your face.

      This rule applies for grocery shopping as well. I’m sure that we’ve all gone grocery shopping while hungry at least once, and the result was madness on a grand scale. That list probably snowballed from 6 simple items into pretty much anything within arms reach that looked like it might make your stomach smile with delight. Once the beast within takes over, everything starts to look like it could taste good and you make purchases that you never would under a more sane state of mind. And lets be honest here, do you really want to get home only to find out that 5 cans of Spam managed to find their way into your cart?

No. Just no.

     When Michael Boyle took to the stage, his message was simple: want to reduce ACL injuries? All you need to do is commit yourself to a sound training program because in the end, that’s all ACL reduction is – good training. All presenters touched on the fact that training in itself is great from a corrective exercise standpoint, and Mike’s talk just hammered the point home even further. To take the words from his mouth, ACL injury “prevention” programs often consist more of packaging than new concepts, and is a way into the head of the AT, PT or female coach.

     While its true that females are at a greater risk of injuring their ACL, it is by no means a gender specific injury. Out of 100,000+ ACL tears every year, 30,000 of them are experienced by high school age females. Since changing an athletes gender isn’t going to do diddly hoo ha in terms in injury prevention, the only sensible thing to do is focus on the one thing that is in your control – good training strategies to reduce the likelihood of injury.

 ACL Injury Reduction Strategies

• Active Warm-Up

• Power & Stability/Eccentric Strength (Landing Skills)

• Strength Development – 1 Leg

• Change of Direction Concepts

• Change of Direction Conditioning

• Nutrition

      Mike made a point to mention that you can’t just pick one of these strategies and hope to reap the benefits – you must incorporate them all. Since he does a better job than I ever could of explaining his logic behind these steps, be sure to check out some of his products here.

An example of single leg strength.

     Having been privileged enough to work with Eric and the rest of the Cressey Performance crew as an intern for 3 months last year, a lot of his presentation was a welcome refresher to what goes on at their facility on a daily basis. With that said, I was also able take away a host of new coaching cues as well as a better understand of the sweet science behind medicine ball programming.

            Eric kicked off his presentation by highlighting which populations could benefit from including medicine balls into their overall training program, which included rotational sport athletes, unicorns, The Hulk, and wacky wavy inflatable men. While the inclusion of this type of training can be extremely beneficial for the aforementioned rotational athletes, the point that I’m trying to make here is that almost everyone has something to gain from tossing a heavy rubber ball around, especially the general fitness population.

            As a trainer, keeping things interesting for your clients while at the same time keeping them healthy and moving towards their goals is essential, and the medicine ball helps accomplish all of these goals. Looking for a low impact alternative to include in your fat loss training? Give a medicine ball medley at the end of your session a try. Could I interest you in a fun and exciting way to improve your mobility while simultaneously releasing the ever-growing rage that has been festering in your soul? Find a non jagged wall (preferably not in your home), a ball and go nuts. Eric highlighted many of the areas that can be improved upon by implementing a soundly designed medicine ball session into your day, including ankle, hip and thoracic spine mobility as well as scapular, glenohumeral, and core stability – all of which everyone should be concerned with.

In dire need of core stability!

            Now, for rotational sport athletes such baseball pitchers, the when and how often to incorporate medicine ball works depends on several variables, one of which is the time of year (I.E. – early off-season, mid off-season, late off-season, and in-season). For instance, Eric conveyed that during the early off-season, the total volume of throws is kept between 120 and 160 spread over 2 or 3 sessions, but during the mid off-season when it’s time to get down to business that number increases anywhere from 240 to 360 throws before tapering off again in the late off-season.

            The most interesting “bwahahaha” moment that I took away from his presentation was the concept of using medicine ball work as a means to bridge the gap between absolute speed and absolute strength. Eric used himself as an example – his sport is power lifting in which he has spent his time on mainly on the maximal strength side of the spectrum, but if he wanted to try and transition to being a professional pitcher, he knows that he would have to start moving towards the speed side of things. Well, that and throwing a lot of balls. For pitchers, who usually spend all their time on the absolute speed end, Eric did a fantastic job of showing how incorporating medicine ball training into their program can serve as an efficient bridge in terms of reaping the benefits of not only being fast, but fast and strong.

            Eric’s presentation was very video heavy, so sadly this is one of those “you would’ve had to have been there” sort of things. For those of you who missed out, be sure to check out his website (especially this article) as well as his Youtube page for medicine ball videos. I didn’t dub him the Magnificent Massachusetts Medicine Ball Magician for nothing!