Hollywood Sport & Psych

Here Kirt and I talking about the necessity of plyometrics, progression, and being able to jump in general.

Notice how I mention that everyone wants to be able to jump and Kirt quickly rewords my statement to say that even one CAN jump, but it takes progressions—like life.

This took me to the psychological aspect of jumping--taking a leap of faith.

I realize that throughout my life, I have taken so many leaps of faith, and yes I have been scared, and yes I have fallen flat on my face at times.

However, the fact is, I was able to jump.

I genuinely attribute my current ability to adapt and take leaps of faith to, learning at a young age, the ability to push my body and mind in the gym.

I cannot think of a better way to improve your self-esteem than exercise--and probably not why you would think either.

The act of exercise is painful and uncomfortable. When we work out we have to be fully present to have an affective workout and avoid injury. We have to stick to our word when exercising.

“One more rep, one more set, one more mile.”
“I can do this, I am a beast, light weight baby!”

That is usually the self-talk of experienced or even unexperienced exerciser if they genuinely want to improve in their exercise.

Notice those phrases were a one-on-one conversation with the individual and their mind. They locked their mind into the present and STUCK WITH THEIR WORD to do the next rep or set or mile as best as they could.

The same is true to life. We need to be mindful and present to live a full life. WE NEED TO KEEP OUR WORD TO OURSELF. We won’t be perfect at it when we first start, but again, its the process of trying and stay consistent in the long run.

I read somewhere that if you had a friend that constantly said they would do something and never followed through, would you trust them? Would you have confidence in them?

Probably not, so if you’re constantly lying to yourself, how can you trust yourself and gain confidence?

Food for thought.

This goes for life. Humans naturally need other humans. We seek connection.

In today’s world we are so disconnected from one another, but we have this false-reality that we are closer than ever because we can talk to anyone anywhere on the planet.
But those are surface encounters.

True connection and bonding is done through the fire. You gotta go through it all together: pain, joy, suffering, laughter. That is the human spirit.

Did you know an athlete is more likely to be predisposed to injury if they don’t have a strong support system in their corner?

So athletes, don’t think you can do this alone. I promise you, it won’t work.

Love it then give it back.

Did a podcast last year with these awesome young men.

Unfortunately they had some technical issues and are longer hosting their podcast, but to think I was one of many sport talk-heads they had along with my other coaches and player (much more well know than myself) was an honor.

Listen up because I’m about to give y’all free game you would normally have to pay too dollar for. Let’s break down this whole exercise. This should be fun 😁

So we see I’m doing a form of dumbbell bench press. Clearly there is no bench. So obviously this is an advanced exercise, but why work up to this when there is always traditional barbell or dumbbell bench?

Nothing wrong with those forms of bench. I do them too.

The reason this is so special is because of the movement tempo, neural activity, and contraction style.

Movement tempo here is a 3 count down (eccentric contraction), 1-2 count hold at 90 degrees (isometric contraction), and fast press up (concentric contraction). Why? This gives us access to all 3 styles of muscle contraction in one motion instead of isolating contraction styles.

Neural activity deals with how much electricity can your body send to your muscles to active as much muscle as fast as possible. Yes, electricity. The body communicates through billions of neurons in our body. That conversation is had by electric impulses from the brain to body and vice versa. So how do you create more activity in the muscle? Activate it! Isometric holds do just that. Not only do I get an isometric hold through my bench, but I am getting a full body isometric hold throughout my whole posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, lower back, etc.)

In this particular exercise we get all 3 contraction styles as mentioned above. This is important to identify as most lifters train with basic concentric contractions and wonder why they don’t get results.

I’m giving y’all free game here that you would have to pay an advance trainer for. There is so much left to explain here: how do you get to this point safely, where should my shoulders be positioned on the box, where does my ankle need to be, where should I feel tension, how many reps, how long of a rest, what weight to start, how many times a week should you do this exercise, etc. As you see there is a lot more than goes into exercise than just picking up and putting down heavy weights. Let me teach you 😁

See one thing about a lot of these “new trainers” is that they like to make it seem like they did it all by themselves. No help, no advice, no training from someone else. That’s all bulls**t.

If you’re a trainer, haven’t learned from anyone, and only rely on what you read in your NASM book or whatever other certifications there are, I have some news for you…. You’re not a good trainer. That’s not to knock anyone, but it is to raise awareness on how just being a good athlete or just being getting a little certification doesn’t actually make you knowledgeable in how to train others. It’s learning from those who have done it before you, and creating your own model from there. But staying consistent with the learning, it never stops.

I will never forget where I came from and who helped me get where I am today. Jerome Johnson is the man who is taking this video. If you’re looking for a sport trainer in the Chicago-Land area, he is your guy. There is no one better. His contact info: 847-505-2404