This week has been action past at the Synergy Athletics gym.  Our 6 pm adult bootcamp members powered through one of the hardest workouts yet, and three new athletes joined the gym. 

What does a female softball player have in common with a male lax player or an adult boot camp member?  Everyone gets sore.

Even from setting the new female chin up record!

Its a process called adapatation.  Your body is adjusting itself to become more efficient at a particular movement.  The adaptations may include lean muscle growth, quicker firing of fast twitch muscle fibers, or simply your clothes fitting better.

The biproduct of these changes are DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).  Fortunately, there are some proactive steps to recover your body quicker and even speed up the positive adaptations.

During the recovery process, your body’s first response is to create inflammation around the area (hardly noticeable when training).   Just like applying ice to a swollen ankle to reduce inflammation and speed up the recovery process, there are foods you can consume that will reduce inflammation caused by working out.  Oh, and this stuff works for after games as well!!!

My goal is to keep these practical for you (sure you can go eat kelp and wild Alaskan salmon, but I doubt those are common place in your kitchen).

4 Foods To Fix Muscle Soreness

1.  Green Tea.  Green tea has been touted as a beverage that can help over all health for years.  It contains flavonoids that are powerful anti inflammatories. 

I prefer to purchase Lipton Cold Brew tea bags.  I take brew 2-3 bags of green tea and mix it with 1 bag of Lipton Cold Brew to make “green” ice tea.   There are brands that sell cold brew green tea….just not in any stores I’ve found around here. 

2.  Blueberries.   Blueberries are packed with healthy antioxidants.  They are high in phytonutrients that also provide the body with an anti inflammatory. 

3.  Sweet Potatoes.   This is a personal favorite of mine.  Sweet potato are NOT the same in nutrients with regular white potatoes – not even close.  They are a source of complex carbohydrate (good post workout or game), beta-carotene, manganese, vitamin B6 and C, and fiber. These antioxidants help to reduce inflammation in the body. 

4.  Broccoli.  I’ve advocated broccoli to athletes at the gym for the last few months.  Broccoli is a nutritious food that contains anti-inflammatory  phytonutrients.  As a bonus, it also contains plenty of other nutrients and dietary fiber. 

On a related note, there is nothing wrong with purchasing frozen fruits and veggies – as long as nothing else has been added.  Since we are getting into winter, this may be the most economical choice as well. 

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

Before I get to the gym announcement, this week’s tips:

Nutrition Tip:  Don’t let “low fat” fool you.  Foods like peanut butter and some dairy products have the fat removed (often healthy fats the body needs) and puts in fillers that are MUCH worse for you.  Low fat doesn’t always equal better for you.

Muscle Recovery Tip:  We have three new myofascial release tools at the gym – a trigger point wheel, trigger point roller, and a rumble roller.  If you knots or have a flexibility issue, come try these out! 

Now onto the annoucement…

Kinetic Speed & Strength Seminar

When:  Saturday, December 3rd from 4 until 7 pm. 

Cost:  $50 (sibling discount available) You much register ASAP (See Joe at the gym).

Who Can Attend:  Any athlete or coach. 

What:  Here’s the fun part…

I’ve reached out to a friend of mine from Ohio, Rob “The Kinetic Guru” Williams.  He is a top notche trainer and agreed to come to Synergy Athletics to hold this seminar. 

Personally, I’ve been to Ohio twice to train with Rob  at the EAS headquarters (you can see Pat, Crazy Jeff, Rob, and I went out last time to learn dynamic recovery methods from Rob….For the record, Jeff DID not clear those hurdles, haha!)

Rob and I will cover tons of topics including:  functional mobility, “repriming” the central nervous system for athletes, speed mechanics, acceleration “tricks,” and efficiency of movement. 

Here’s why you should be exicted. 

Short version of Rob’s Bio:  He is one of the best in the country, featured in Muscle and Fitness, Men’s Fitness, US Army National Combine, and trained/consulted with pro athletes.   He has worked as a Division 1 Strength coach as well!

Rob is a certified Hard Style Kettlebell Instructor, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Functional Movement Screen certified, and is a performance enhancement specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

Long Version:

Rob Williams is an athletic performance and strength coach that has been coaching and preparing individuals to athletically perform at high levels in sport, life or serving in the armed forces.

He’s a former Division 1 collegiate strength & conditioning coach who’s trained and consulted for numerous athletes in the NHL, NBA and NFL. He’s also been a featured coach and presenter for the Kirk Herbstreit Football Classic, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, and an instructor at Football University and the U.S. Army National H.S. Football Combine.

Rob’s athletic movement based philosophies and methodologies have been featured in both Muscle & Fitness and Men’s Fitness magazines and Mike Boyle’s Strengthcoach.com website.

Rob currently serves as a performance and education consultant for the sports nutrition brand EAS in Columbus, Ohio helping with product development, innovation and education.

Rob has a Bachelor’s of Science in Education from The Ohio State University and a Master’s of Science in Exercise Science from the California University of Pennsylvania. He also a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength & Conditioning Association , a Hardstyle Kettlebell Certified Instructor through Dragon Door, a Functional Movement Specialist through Functional Movement Systems and a Performance Enhancement Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

How To Register

Bring your payment to the gym no later than November 1st.  HOWEVER, it is first come first serve and there will be only 15 spots available. 

I appreciate you considering this opportunity for Synergy Athletics to serve you further.  Enjoy your training!

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

Its been a busy and awesome week at the Synergy Athletics gym!  Before our recap, here’s a few quick tips for our athletes and adult fitness boot campers.

Muscle Recovery Tips

During a sport or activity drink room temperature water.   Your body isn’t built to digest ice water, it first heats it up before the the water can be used.  This means your hydration will be delayed.

Save the ice water for the rest of the day, but room temperate during the activity.   If you insist on drinking Gatorade, note that most bottles are 2 to 4 servings.  Your best solution is to take half a bottle of Gatorade and fill the rest with water.  Cutting the Gatorade will make it easier to digest and more beneficial.

Boot Camper Nutrition Tip

Do the vast majority of your shopping around the outside of the grocery store.  Every grocery store is set up with your produce, fruits, meats, and dairy around the parameter of the store.   These items should make up most of your meals.

If you are doing the majority of your shopping in the isles, chances are your cart is filled with overly refined and/or sugary products.

Tips of the hat

1.  The girls are attacking the record board!  I expect to see Dani and the Ralieghs back up on that board soon!

2.  Congrats to John “Crazy Legs” Kline and Jake Haddock to being named football team captains at SCC and Maine Endwell.   Building muscle AND leadership skills!

3.  Tip of the hat to quiet hard worker Colin S. who became our most recent 200+ lb bench’r and now 300+ lb squatter (up 45 lbs in 6 weeks)!  Learn the form, follow the program numbers, and watch the magic happen!

Gym Announcements

1.  We are open Labor Day from 3 – 6 as usual.

2.  Outside the gym, I am starting to work on a collaborative project with EAS trainer, Rob Williams.   Rob is a great trainer from Ohio and preps the EAS sponsored athletes for their tests such as the NFL combine – as well as working with a number of other lifters.

Still in the planning phase, but it looks like I will be able to get Rob out here in early December to do my 2nd gym seminar.  After the seminar we will set outside a few hours to work with any Synergy athlete that wants to tweak their running.

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

Young athletes need to go through a proper general physical preparedness (GPP) before any serious resistance training occurs.

GPP is best defined as getting in shape to workout.

No untrained individual can walk in to a gym and successfully perform a resistance exercise without first preparing their body and mind (neurological adaptations to training).

These young athletes are flying through the phase, successfully completing body weight exercises, sled training, medicine ball training, plyometrics, and band resisted movements.

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- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

PS.  JOIN SYNERGY ATHLETICS

This summer I had the pleasure of working with the Maine Endwell boys and girls swim teams.   They were dedicated and picked up on the exercises quickly.

As with all athletes, we started with a General Physical Preparedness phase (form, body weight exercises, band resistance, sleds, etc) and moved into resistance training as the summer went on.

I’m looking forward to attending meets this year and cheering for these hard workers!

- Joe Hashey, CSCS –

PS. How To Join Synergy Athletics

I will start out with a disclaimer: the most important thing for improving your shot is…you guessed it…shooting. Find a net, get a bag of balls and just start shooting. The repetition will help expose any flaws with your technique and strengthen the muscles involved, not to mention improving accuracy and consistency.

After your technique improvements, you will be limited to your physical abilities.   The only way to improve speed from that point is increasing the force your body can output.  Here’s four exercises that will help increase force.

1: Rotational Med Ball Throws

One common flaw in a lacrosse shot is doing too much with the shoulders/arms. Focusing on actively contracting the core muscles to twist the upper body will immediately add some speed. Rotational throws are a great way to increase strength in this particular area. There are numerous variations of this exercise but the most applicable one places the athlete standing sideways (perpendicular to the wall) in an athletic stance.

The explosive core twist begins the movement followed by the acceleration of the upper body to propel the ball forward and the actually motion of the arms should be a punch as opposed to a throw to reduce the likelihood of shoulder injury.** Adding this exercise to your routine will help build not only a faster shot, but a quicker shot as well to catch those pesky goalies off guard.

2: Chin-Ups

Now that the core portion of the movement is out of the way we move higher up the torso. Assuming that correct overhand shot form is being used, before the stick actually moves forward the arms should be far behind you to create maximum extension with the lead elbow cocked up for additional range of motion and accuracy.

Once the core contraction has begun, the back muscles on the lead side of the body must engage and forcibly pull that lead elbow over and down. Adding chin-ups (or focusing more intently on them) to upper body days will also add power to your shot.

3: Forearm/Wrist

The wrist snap is perhaps the most challenging area of a shot in lacrosse. Too little snap and the shot is underpowered and leaves the stick slower, a snap that is blazing fast but wild will result in dreadful accuracy. A combination of forearm/wrist strengthening exercises and shooting practice will develop a strong, consistent snap that will be the “cherry on top” that takes your shot to the next level. One of the best exercises for the forearms is wrist rollers. Make sure you perform the roll both ways (turning the implement towards/away from you), and DO NOT just let the weight fly back to the floor once it’s up to your hands. Maintain tension during the eccentric portion of the exercise as well.

BONUS: Developing your forearm strength will not only help for shooting, but in just about every other aspect of the sport from face-offs and the power cradle to checks and stick control.

 4:  Thick Rope Grappler Throws

Grappler throws is an exercise we use here and Synergy Athletics that will improve all of the above.  The thick rope will activate and strengthen the muscles in the forearms and hands.  The exercise requires rotational core strength, correct foot pivot, and the lats to slam it to the ground.

Grappler throws are one of the best sport carry over exercises to bridge the gap from strength training to sport skill.

Conclusion

Add these four exercises to your normal workout programs, then watch goalies cower in fear after your newfound shot velocity rips a hole in their mesh.

…not convinced? I have been clocked at 98mph…in my beloved reef flip flops…without any warm up…and ripped goalie mesh….twice (not in the flops*).  Strength development is a key component to becoming an elite athlete.

- Aaron Zajac

PS.  Come join us for a free trial workout packed with exercises to improve lacrosse skills!

Coach Bill Underwood and his 2011 State Champion team has joined Synergy Athletics for our summer training program. A typical day included 35-40 swimmers working out right along with their coaching staff!

Come join us for a free trial workout!

Congrats to M-E Swimming!

Muscle recovery is essential for all athletes.  Sports that involve running or jumping during practice often result in DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) in the feet, calves, quads, hamstrings, and glutes.

Here is a quick trick to fix this soreness and improve performance:

Instructions:

1. Fill a water bottle up and freeze it.
2. Roll the frozen water bottle on the sore area for AT LEAST 5 minutes and at most 15 minutes.
3. Apply pressure to comfort.
4. Put the bottle back in the freezer to save for next time!

Full Shin Splint Rehab Protocol

Any more questions?  You can shoot me an email, post them in the comment section of this video, or ask at the gym.

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

PS.  I will leave this article and video “public” in case anyone has a friend that needs some shin splint help.  However future articles and videos will be exclusive to gym clients.   If you want to train with Synergy here’s how:  Join Synergy Athletics

The original members of our gym were football players.  We have a proven track record of developing the most explosive, fast, and strong athletes in the area.

In the recent Section IV football combine our athletes finished FIRST PLACE in the 40 yd sprint, 20 yard shuttle, bench press reps, and 3 cone drill.  Last season we won the section strongman contest in Elmira as a team and one of our athletes won 1st overall as a sophomore.

The results are UNMATCHED in this area!

Our girls group trains hard!  We progress the female group (and every group) from body weight exercises up to external resistance exercises.

These girls play a variety of sports:  volleyball, basketball, softball, and field hockey.  We train them for health, speed, explosiveness, endurance, and relative body strength.

Female Athlete Training Video

Female Athletes Workout Endwell NY from Joe Hashey on Vimeo.

Do you want to train for REAL RESULTS with our female group?  Call Joe at (607) 725-7297 or via email at joehashey (at) gmail (dot) com to schedule a free trial session!