The Blog Post About Nothing In Particular Part 1 of ?

Mmmmmmm hmmmmmm

And here begins the randomness..

1)Phuck Physioballs

As much as I'm not a fan of Muscle & Fitness, I did manage to find a quality piece of information in one of their recent publications. It was on a study conducted at Cal State Northridge on how training on physioballs and BOSU balls sucks for performance enhancement. If you haven't seen it posted on my Facebook page, or the Coval Training and Performance Facebook page, then check it out HERE. This goes against what Joey the trainer at Globo Gym has been telling you. You know that benching on a physioball is good for your "core" (he probably doesn't even know what the true core consist of). It's also good for zapping your strength and possibly destroying your body. Just ask Francisco Garcia of the Sacramento Kings. He shattered his forearm after his physioball burst while he was benching back in the fall of '09.

2)Eye of a Tiger

If you don't have a training partner that has an eye for inefficient movement patterns, then definitely tape yourself when you train. I cannot begin to tell you how beneficial it is. Most of the time I don't have anyone to train with, so I use my Blackberry or my digital camera to record my main lifts. And with my squat it has helped a TON. Granted, I've had to regress all the way down to body weight squats in order to regroove my squat pattern (it sucked), but I am making progress and am increasing my body awareness in the process. I've also thrown in some isometrics from the bottom position of my squat to help with equal force distribution on both legs. Got a little off topic there, but again I can't stress the importance of having a trained eye to observe you when you are training. If you don't have a training partner, or have no idea what the hell you are doing, then seek out professional help....just stay away from Joey.

3)It's All About the Benjamins

Darko Milicic was signed last week to a $20 million dollar contract. The world no longer makes sense. Next thing ya know, Kim Kardashian is gonna be blowin' up my phone...actually Darko's contract is way more ridiculous than KK hittin' me up for some late night company. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Hope everyone's week is going great! If there are any topics that you would like me to dicuss, please by all means give me some input. Thanks!

Coval Training and Performance Testimonial

This is a testimonial from distant client Jim Cicinelli. He was suffering from a bulging disc in his lumbar spine. Check out what he has to say....

Dear Mike,

I want to give you some feedback regarding your assessment, assigned workouts, and the impact on my health. Before doing so, I just want to say that I will miss being in your local area for further sessions; however, you have certainly opened my eyes as to the wide range of skills and quality of care regarding trainers.

Mike I was surprised by your attention to detail. While other so-called trainers had their customers go straight into workouts, you had me start with simple stances, basic movements, and stretches. That was new to me, but it revealed much about my muscle movements, weaknesses, strengths, and coordination. Your assessment was "dead-on" correct.

Next, the specialized exercises you assigned me were, in a word, effective. To explain further, the exercises helped improve my lower back pain and they were easy to do; meaning no special equipment was necessary and convenient to do. Furthermore, I was impressed with your current use of technology. Using a video camera to record yourself doing each of the exercises while expalining them in detail and posting them on YouTube was very beneficial. I could see and follow precisely how each movement was to be accomplished, keeping proper form.

Finally, the result has been positive. To repeat, the pain in my lower back has improved. While the impacted are is complex and delicate in nature, your guidance has been spot on. Again, I wish I was closer geographically to continue training under your supervision; however, you have provided me with knowledge to recognize a properly educated and motivated trainer. Please feel free to have any of your clitents contact me as a reference.

Sincerely,
Jim Cicinelli


Don't miss out on the opportunity to get the results that you have always wanted. Get ahold of Coval Training and Performance today! Email: CTPmike@yahoo.com. Call at 734.945.6585 and ask for Mike.

Dispelling Myths of Fitness (Part 2)

In part 1, I introduced you to a few common myths that are generally accepted as the truth in the fitness world. In part 2, I'm looking to help everybody get their learn on once again.

Myth: If a muscle feels tight you should always stretch it.

You probably are thinking that this is insane, but trust me on this one. A great example is the hamstrings. Constantly I see people stretching their hamstrings, when in reality the majority of people should NEVER stretch them (at least statically). The idea behind stretching is to lengthen the muscle, but the majority of peoples hamstrings are already lengthened. That "tightness" is the the tension that the hamstrings are under due to the pelvis being anteriorly tilted. When the pelvis is anteriorly tilted there will be hip flexor stiffness, low back stiffness(possibly even low back pain, and if there isn't LBP then there willl eventually be), and lengthened abdominals. The fix? Strengthen the hamstrings and abdominals. Stretch the hip flexors (low back not recommended). This will change your pelvic positioning and put your muscles in a more balanced state and in the process getting you stronger and decreasing the chance of injury.

If anterior pelvic tilt is wrong, then I don't wanna be right

Myth: Calve raises will increase your vertical jump.

Calve raises have the potential to increase the cross-sectional area (muscle size) of your calves, which in turn leads to the possibility of greater force generation. But, calve raises don't utilize the SSC(stretch shortening cycle), which is gonna help you if you wanna sky like Shannon Brown.

Just filthy

The type of lifts/exercises that you do in order to increase your vert should implement a quick eccentric (lowering) phase followed by no ammortization (pause at bottom) phase, and an explosive concentric contraction. Countermovemnt jumps, jump squats, speed squats, box jumps, depth jumps, and single leg variations of the previous mentioned exercises are what you should be doing.