Nike's New Marketing Campaign

With Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Serena Williams, etc... receiving so much media attention over their "assets" in the last few years, Nike is attempting to cash in with their latest marketing advertisements. While I am not crazy about some of the "toning shoes" put out my some of these big companies (i.e. New Balance, Sketchers, etc...), I do appreciate Nike's stance as far as getting people to understand we should possess developed glutes. Keep up the deadlifts, lunges, and squats ladies!

Vitamin D remains the most-talked about supplement lately. The New York Times recently ran a piece on this increasingly fascinating vitamin. My favorite line from the article is the following:

"Every tissue in the body, including the brain, heart, muscles and immune system, has receptors for vitamin D, meaning that this nutrient is needed at proper levels for these tissues to function well."

Check out the complete article by clicking the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/health/27brod.html?_r=1&ref=nutrition

Female Strength Training for a Sharper Mind

It's one thing to improve bone mineral density and strength from weight training, but how about improving cognitive function? Older women who did an hour or two of strength training exercises each week had improved cognitive function a year later, scoring higher on tests of the brain processes responsible for planning and executing tasks, a new study has found.

Researchers in British Columbia randomly assigned 155 women ages 65 to 75 either to strength training with dumbbells and weight machines once or twice a week, or to a comparison group doing balance and toning exercises.

A year later, the women who did strength training had improved their performance on tests of so-called executive function by 10.9 percent to 12.6 percent, while those assigned to balance and toning exercises experienced a slight deterioration — 0.5 percent. The improvements in the strength training group included an enhanced ability to make decisions, resolve conflicts and focus on subjects without being distracted by competing stimuli.

-NY Times: Feb. 17, 2010

Strength Training Principle

I received a good email from one of my mentors, Coach Mike Boyle, this morning. It was sent to all of the personal trainers and strength coaches who follow his body of work. The message focused around a major tenet of strength training: implementing progressive resistance. If it's one thing I've learned from Coach Boyle, it's that keeping it simple will ALWAYS be the best approach when it comes to improving fitness levels- in this case strength. My favorite portion of the email read as follows:

No one ever got better lifting light weights. Light weight is an oxymoron. A weight should be appropriate to the goal but, rarely, if ever, intentionally light. The load should be based on the strength level of the person. The reality is if you are lifting a weight ten times, numbers nine and ten should be difficult. If you can lift a weight 20 times but choose to do only ten, you are wasting your time. Period. The essence of effective strength training is a concept called progressive resistance exercise. This means that that even if the resistance may be light to begin with, it should not stay that way.

NBA Fit with Jerome Williams

It's nice to see past and present NBA players conducting fitness clinics for kids across the country. One of my all-time favorite players was Jerome "The Junkyard Dog" Williams. Jerome would never be out-hustled and worked his butt off every minute he played. He was not as talented as many of his teammates and opponents, but he outworked all of them. You can tell from the recent clinic he did how happy he is helping all these kids. Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVGQ35v__3k&playnext_from=TL&videos=tQ_TMLBldPU

Hip Stretching

So many of us sit in a fixed position for extended periods of time. Whether it be commuting to work or sitting at a desk longer than we should, it's vital we engage in multi-planar hip stretches to prevent back pain and optimize hip motion. That being said, here is a great video of my colleague Anthony Renna.

Improving Vertical Jump

A major goal of basketball players is typically improving their vertical jump. While plyometrics (box jumps, tuck jumps, hurdle hops, etc...) are all valuable movements to practice, unilateral knee and hip-dominant exercises such as 1-leg squats should be practiced. Check out the following article, courtesy of Core Performance:

http://www.coreperformance.com/daily/play-better/jump-out-of-the-gym.html

Funny Stand-up by Ted Alexandro

You'll like the fitness comments a little ways into it. Enjoy everyone!