Injuries

Oh, the dreaded gym injury.

If you haven't had a sports or training related injury, good job, but it may just be a matter of time. There are many different causes of sports and training injuries that I would like to cover. Here are just a few to start. 

1.  Bad Form    More then 85% of injuries in the gym are caused by bad form! Having good posture and proper form is almost always a key to injury prevention.

Notice in the picture below: Head looking straight forward with no chin tuck, chest out, scaps/shoulder blades pushed together, slight curve inward at the low back, butt out, legs slightly bent with the core of your weight over your heels.

This atheletic pose is aplicable in almost all lifts.  If you're doing a squat lean back a little more.  If it's dumbbell press on an incline bench drape your legs off the end, keeping everything else the same.

2.  Muscle Fatigue   Doesn't really take a genius to tell you the fix for this one.  It could be as simple as rest or eating the right food to fuel your workout.  But more often than not it's simply do less work. Pay close attention to your body and note things like: Headaches, constant cramping, small nagging pains and of course low energy levels.  For some reason the symptoms for muscle fatigue are similar to those of dehydration, so be sure to drink plenty of water. Which you should be doing anyway!  If you are experiencing some or all of these slow down your workout for a little while, get good quality sleep and make sure you are eating nutritious foods.

Time for my nightly injury prevention routine.  A gallon bag of ice and the Simpsons.

Congrats Team FitBlender 100% DIRTY!

OH, The sweet taste of victory....and mud!

At the Camp Pendleton World Famous Mud Run quite a few teams stood out, none more so than Team FitBlender's 6 foot 6 inch 240lb behemoth "The Genius" and his 5 foot 7 125lb partner "KS". There was little dazzle to our outfits and we definitely weren't going to win our respected classes but this being the first 10k (6.25 miles) we had ever run, (not mention more then half uphill or in mud and water),  we stood out by pushing past seasoned vets, a few Marines and even people that passed us early on.  Our training was little more than 6 weeks long and consisted of very little actual distance running (posted below). We not only finished but, finished better than the middle of the pack. Fighting through the pain of bad joints knowing the only worse pain would be stopping short of our personal best. Out of 6000 participants, The Genius placed 119th in male 30-35 age group and 961 over all, KS placed 32nd in fm 25-29 age group and 962 over all. A Big Congratulations to ME and KS           (TeaM 100% DIrTY)!!!

The Regiment-
Running 2 times a week 2-4 miles
Start the first few weeks with 2-3 miles and mix between slow paced running and interval sprints
Walk 2-3 times a week 2-4 miles
If you are a gym goer like BS+KS- cycle between- with no breaks- twice a week before walks-
3 rounds of Upper Body Ergometer (hand bike) training 90rpm for 3 minutes
3 rounds of Row Machine or Stationary cycle 3 minutes full sprint
2 rounds of Planks (1 min elbows and toes 30sec each side 1 min back plank/ elbows and heels
Add in push ups, sit ups, air squats and pull ups at your leisure.

The Fitness Genius- Presented by FitBlender.com

I'd like to start my first true blog entry by explaining Me, "The Genius" .

I'll be the first to tell you, I'm not some special CSCS with a PHD in Exercise Science.  I'm just someone who has been lucky enough to surround himself with coaches and trainers who think outside the box, the "true scientists" of the fitness world.  I strive to learn something new every day and to reinvent and tweak the traditional fitness model. I just don't believe in aesthetic lifting or sitting around the gym, hogging the equipment for two plus hours just to look good in a sleeveless shirt. You'll see in my posts that I'm all about mixing it up, being sport specific when needed and helping your body heal and prevent injury when not needed.

 I'm currently working with an up and comer in  MMA and a  power house of a fighter, Cosmoe Cala.  Thanks to Cosmoe's love of my "mad scientist" methods, he has brought me in to get his close friend and one of the top welterweights in the world, Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos,  into fighting shape by 7-30-11.  I promise you both of these men need little help in the fitness department, being two of the fastest and strongest men I've ever worked with, merely needing fine tuning and refined methods to prolong their careers and make them even better over all athletes.  I will continue to update you with all the details of their training and progress in the coming months as well as other up and coming pro athletes I'll be working with. As not to sound like a snob that only works with pros, I will also post about the many non pro athletes I work with.

The Fitness Genius (FitnessGenius.com)
- The Genius

Chest Day Switch Up : The Crush Carry Fly

A secret weapon in the fight for full chest strengthening!

I see quite a few guys in the gym doing cable flys, dumbbell flys and machine flys to build their pecs.

What they don't know is , changes in direction while fully engaging the pectoral muscles will work the

entire muscle group without having to change angles, equipment or seating/standing positions.

As always , I'm a fan of standing during lifts, on one leg occasionally

Due to lateral movement of the arms with your pectorals fully flexed you will achieve not only

a "pump" but a true strength gain.

Try it in place of normal band or cable flys for 8 weeks and enjoy the feeling of crushing power!

Thanks to our Fitness Model Chris for having perfect form!