Hey, just a quick reminder that today is the last day you can get training bands before they increase in price but you have to act quickly. Here’s a short video on how to take care of your bands so their always ready to rock and help you improve! Have a great day.

IMPORTANT–If you follow my blog and training content, I have a savings tip for you–By following my writings you know I am a BIG FAN of using a variety of training implements and tools to educate the developing athlete on how to produce more effective and efficient force, proper stabilization and power to maximize their development and training sessions all with respect to being more resistant to injury.

I’m writing to let you know that there is soon going to be a price change in my favorite training implement so if you’re interested in saving $, read on. You have until September 11th to save some $.

Save $ before Sept. 11th (My Birthday)

The single most effective tool I use is my BANDS. My athletes love them and parents are excited to see the response their kids have when I introduce a variety of teaching methods to help their athlete. I’ve used my bands with kids from 6 years old, to high level collegiate players. They have been an important part of my high school developing athlete foundation and are extremely portable.

If you’ve yet to use The Best Bands You Can Buy you’re missing the boat.

Help your kids/athletes learn to be better, and have fun doing so with Bands.

Order by September 11th to get the best purchase price on the best bands you can find!

-Helping you get better,

Hollister

Eat me!

One of the very best, and most complete proteins is the egg. There was a time when consumers were warned about eating eggs/their yolks for fear they would make you fat or that they had dangerous amounts of cholesterol and increased heart disease–all claims without conclusive evidence. Well, we now know eggs to be nearly the best, if not the best source of protein we can eat. This is important for athletes as eggs are cheap and easy to make and go with just about anything. Want more information on the egg? Check out Two eggs a day keep the doctor away.

On the go athletes need protein especially while in-season because we’re constantly creating micro trauma to muscles from the high demands of competitive sports, practices and strength training… not to mention the importance of protein for the success in the classroom. It’s not always easy to get the desired protein or always be able to eat the protein sources of choice. That’s why I believe there is a place for supplementation. Quality supplementation can be found if you do your research. Don’t worry, I’ve done the research for you with with my favorite protein for on the go convenience. Now, if you’re not concerned with the quality of the protein you’re ingesting, this protein is not for you. Then you’re better off buying the over hyped product at the big box nutrition center.

A well rounded “nutrition blueprint” is really what athletes should look into. Wait, my friend Jeff Cavaliere has put together a Teen Sports Nutrition Blueprint that takes away much of the guesswork.

The information is there my friend. It’s our job as coaches, athletes and parents to deliver.

Yes, you read that right, our young future is getting better 1 corn dog at a time… Or so our schools think so. I had the opportunity to pass by the school breakfast line while stopping to meet a coach this morning and I can’t say I was impressed with what was available for the kids to select from for breakfast. After watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution I have been on a kick about the foods most schools are feeding kids.

I really enjoy working with our youth and am fortunate enough to be able to spend some time each week to work teens and help them learn the importance of proper exercise and lifting patterns similar to those often used in nature and life. This means little to no machines, closed chain & ground based exercises and multiple compound movements with a high priority on correct posture integration. Some of the students I work with train early at 6:15 am before school. So, for the typical teen this means rolling out of bed with just enough time to throw clothes and shoes on and head out the door. Not saying they’re lazy, but sleep is at a premium and there are far too many factors that might dictate them not getting to bed early enough to allow for 7-9 hours of sleep… So they’ll soak up as much time as they can in the morning by staying in bed as long as possible.

Teens arrive to school half awake and sporting some sweet bed head hair styles and after some grumbling, we get to work. Workouts typically are 45 minutes and consist of performing dynamic warm-ups incorporating mobility, flexibility and activation. Followed by trunk and core exercises to strengthen and stabilize intricate musculature primarily responsible for good posture, injury reduction and ultimate power & force production in sport, life and weight-room. Then we’ll head to the weight room for about 25 minutes of various strength routines including but not limited to: deadlifting, various bi-lateral and uni-lateral squat patterns such as front squatting, back squatting, overhead squatting, etc., bench press, rowing, pull-ups, Band Training, etc. Once the session is complete, the guys/gals hit the showers and as long as they don’t spend too much time in front of the mirror, have time to eat some breakfast.

What’s on the menu? Cookies, water & sugar loaded imitation juice, flavored milk, corndogs (yeah for breakfast)… are just a few of the items. And to think, kids get up in the morning for training with me, then head to the cafeteria to fill up on foods severely lacking nutrition and loaded with sugars and hydrogenated fats. Can we blame the kids for eating this stuff? Maybe and maybe not. For one, it may be cheaper for families to eat school lunch, so what’s served at school is what they get. Do they have choices when it comes to what goes on their plate? I think so. Are we getting the right choices in front of the youth in the lunch lines? More often than not, no we’re not. If there were better choices, maybe kids would chose better fuels to nourish themselves with.

Many fitness professionals claim to have impeccable diets. Not me. While I generally stick to a balanced diet and mostly eat at home where I am in control of what I’m eating, my diet is pretty good. I too relinquish to my inner beast now and again, I digress. But, the 90% rule (eat well 90% of the time, allow for %10 reward/cheat foods) is what allows me to squeak in a little of some of the bitter sweet foods of life.

Trash the corn-dog. A snack like this can be made for work or for the locker.

So, what can we do? Much of what kids learn is from their parents. This means better choices at home encourage better choices away from home. Cook, bake or mix up nutritious meals at home for yourself or for family. Rely less on the microwave, take more time to treat yourself to cooking. On a budget? Brown rice, eggs, tuna, fresh vegetables are all available for reasonable prices and provide excellent nutrition. Resources like Teen Sports Nutrition Blueprint make it easier to identify healthy habits and establish a great baseline for parents and teens. I love my copy and highly suggest reading it. Easy snacks for work or the locker like sliced apples, a banana, nuts–cashews, almonds, peanuts, etc. Adding some dried fruits like raisins or cranberries mix well.

Reality is, options are there and we’re ultimately in charge of what we eat. Foods and nutrition classes should be a bigger part of curriculum in primary and secondary education–maybe we’d better understand the importance of the foods that fuel. Life’s full of choices. Food is one of the most important choices we can make for quality of life, disease resistance and sport/classroom/work performance. Pack a lunch, feel better about yourself and your kids.

Get your hands on 1 or 2 of my most trusted fitness, sport training, items: BANDS, Teen Sports Nutrition Blueprint

I’m interested in what you have to say. Drop a comment. Let’s tackle this together!

There’s one thing we can agree on when it comes to exercise regardless of age, gender, activity, etc. We all want to look and fell better. That might mean being stronger, being bigger, losing weight, being faster, having more energy to complete your day, sleeping better… the list goes on.

High school kids are not that much different than I was at that age when it comes to questions about exercise, being stronger, being skinnier, being bigger, etc. “What’s a good routine for basketball? I want to add 10 lbs this summer for football–what do I need to do? What should I be lifting for soccer and how often? I just want to drop a few pounds, especially right around here (as she points to her abdomen)… What’s the best way? Like the video below, I know I’d rather do this all day before laying on the ground doing crunches.

Knowing nice weather is right around the corner, people want to look good and have more confidence. Athletes are looking to be more fit. So, I start things out by covering eating habits, eating breakfast, eating regularly, avoiding excessive sugar and low quality foods. Limiting foods such as fast food, a lot of breads, pizza, processed carbohydrates, cereals and soda are a few of the quickest ways to get on the right track. You can’t out train a bad diet. I can speak from experience as I also did not eat as well as I should have when I was in high school. Maybe that’s why I enjoy helping teens learn more about making better dietary choices. Better choices lead to better gains in the weight room, which is always our primary focus.

Heck, smore’s pop tarts were a regular snack in the locker I shared with my good buddy. We’d go through a family pack of those almost each week! Lets be honest–they tasted great, but offer no nutritional value. Even if a sugar ladened breakfast food is supplemented with B-vitamins and some minerals, it’s hard to really accept even the reality that the “good” things they’ve included in the food, is really any benefit because of how masked it is with all of the other processed garbage in it.

In high school I was highly active. I played hockey, soccer, ran track, lifted weights frequently (yes, I believe in lifting on game day), went hunting, raced snowmobiles with friends, rode dirt-bikes, went skiing, and did a lot of yard work–when I was 11 my family moved to a house with 21 acres. While I’m glad I was that active, I was really fit and didn’t think what I ate affected anything I did. No matter what I ate it really didn’t seem to have an affect on me because I would “burn it off”. This really wasn’t the case though. I can now only imagine what kind of results I could have had with my training had I cut things out like overindulging in pop-tarts and drinking soda.

I look at the knowledge that I try to instill in the kids with considerations to diet and how to lift and strength train appropriately and safely for better health and increased sport performance. I compare it to what I had access to when I was a teen lifting weights. I know I am delivering more to them, than what was delivered to me. And that’s important because they are the future. They one day may have families. With the epidemic that we are faced with including food related disease, they need the knowledge so they may help themselves so as to not become a statistic of obesity or related illness from poor food choices or lack of proper exercise knowledge.

So, regardless of your goals, here’s 15 easy tips on how to rapidly lose fat

Always interested in what you have to say. I invite you to drop a comment below and share your thoughts & tips.

-Hollis