I’m 36 Years Old Today… but I feel like I’m 86!
March 26, 2012 by danny · 2 Comments
March 26th – another year in the books for me. Why do I feel like an 86 year old fart? Because I played in a basketball tournament this weekend… 4 games! I have blisters all over my feet, scratches and cuts all over my body (thanks for “letting us play,” refs!), and my knees, legs, shoulders, and legs are killing me. I haven’t played in a tournament in YEARRRRRS! But it was a lot of fun as I got to play with my old college coach… Carl Armato, my friends “Shinny,” and “Scooter,” as well as a bunch of players that made it when they could. In other words, because of people’s busy schedule, we were never really at full strength.
For example, in the 1st game we had Todd Townsend on our team. He played on Marquettte’s Final Four team back in the early 2000’s (with Dwyane Wade). He couldn’t make the rest of the games so we were scrambling and calling people left and right to see who we could pick up. We ended up getting enough each game for a full squad, but like I mentioned, it was tough to get a good rhythm going with new guys showing up for each of the 4 games.
This was a unique tourney as it was 4-on-4. The games were played on an elementary court, which is considerably smaller than a high school or college court.
Alright, to recap this weekend’s games…
Game 1
We got off to a good start in the opener on Friday night. It was a hard-fought game and we pulled away a bit at the end, winding up with about a 10 point victory.
Team - We got the W, and we’re “well on our way.”
Me – I played pretty well. I probably shot about 50 % from the floor and give myself a B for the game (grading on an A through F scale).
Game 2
I woke up Saturday morning sore as sh#t! I was thinking, “how am I going to make it through 3 more games!?!” Without the foam roller, lacrosse ball, and a THOROUGH warm-up between each game, there is no way I would have survived. But I did…
Unfortunately we got our ass kicked up and down the court in this game. They had a player that played at the University of Iowa and I think he hit 47 three’s on us (give or take). We got down big early, and stayed down big ’til the end. Frustrating! Me however, I was on fire. It was one of those games where basically everything I shot wound up in the bottom of the net… pull-up jumpers, spinning moves to the basket, And-1s, etc. etc. I’d guess I probably shot about 12-15 from the field.
Team – A BIG fat L!
Me – My best game of the tourney … A+
Game 3
Once again, we didn’t play very well as a team today. And once again, we didn’t defend the 3-ball well… at all! This was a game we should have won, damn it!
Team - Loss #2
Me – I shot average, played average. C
Note: I went out after this game with Shinny and Scooter and we “got after it” a bit. We went to a bar/comedy show to drown our sorrows. And let me tell, it’s hard to keep up with guys that weigh 2 times more than me! We had a fun night, and luckily our final game on Sunday did not tip ’til 3 p.m.
Game 4
Before the game I’m thinking to myself, “if we lose this game, I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight!” And I’m happy to report that we went out with a win. We put it all together… shot well, passed well, play some good D, and finally didn’t let our opponent GO OFF from 3-point land. Good way to close out a fun weekend.
Team - We won and finished 2-2 for the tournament.
Me – Good overall game and I shot it pretty well with a couple And-1s mixed in there. B+
Well, I don’t think that I’m going to be playing in a tournament anytime soon. They take a toll on the body, especially when you don’t play as much anymore. And although I treat my body pretty well in general, there is a BIG difference between being in “general” shape and basketball shape!!!
I’m going to make today an “active recovery” day (similar to what I go over in “My Body Is A MESS!”), then start up a new training block in a couple days.
As for my birthday, I have a few more clients to train, and then we’ll all head over to my parent’s house as my mom is cooking me up a nice little b-day dinner.
My first birthday with the babies = awesome!
The Cliffs Notes Version of Great Fitness Information
December 6, 2011 by danny · Leave a Comment
I know most of your are not personal trainers/fitness coaches/strength & conditioning coaches (whatever you want to call me). Therefore you don’t have all day to spend in front of the computer reading articles, attending seminars, or watching training/nutrition DVDs. But at the same time, you want the best training and nutrition information that you can get your hands on. No worries, that’s what I am here for (you can thank me later). When I’m not actually training clients and myself, I DO spend a lot of time scouring the web for great fitness information that I can apply to help make me a better trainer to those that I work with. With that said, here are some great little nuggets of of fitness tips that you can start applying right away en route to your fitness goals…
Eric Cressey made this blogpost a couple months back, and I’ve been meaning to share it with my readers – especially since winter is coming. Here is the portion of his post, that I wanted you all to see:
“Warm-up – This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be amazed at how many people jump right into their weight training program of the day without even getting their body temperature up. It’s well documented that performance improves as core body temperature rises. However, as this study demonstrated, even a lowered skin temperature can decrease force output – independent of core body temperature. So, it may be advantageous to start your day’s strength training program in long sleeves and remove layers as you go. I prefer to see folks sweating by the time the warm-up ends; set aside at least ten minutes for it so that you can get some foam rolling and mobility drills in.”
More and more information is being gathered, suggesting that dental health may play a key role in overall health. In Charles Poliquin’s recent blogpost, he states:
“Researchers found that individuals who had had their teeth cleaned and scaled once over that period reduced their risk of heart attack by 24 percent, and lowered stroke risk by 10 percent compared to those who never had their teeth professionally cleaned. Plus, the more frequently that participants had their teeth cleaned, the more of a reduction in heart attack risk they experienced.” And …
- Step 1: Wear this before you break a sweat…
...and for after you break a sweat.
If you have friends or family members that can benefit from this information, be sure to share it and/or hit the like button below…
Exercise of the Week
April 6, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
In previous weeks, I focused on lifting for the exercise of the week. Today, I’m going to put the focus on improving mobility. Getting leaning, stronger, and more muscular is great. But if you don’t work on your mobility, it will lead to problems down the line. These problems could be; injury – if you don’t spend time getting the proper joints mobile, your body will go to another joint to get this motion. Quite often this ends up being a joint that is designed for stability, NOT mobility. So basically, you’re getting mobility at the wrong joint. Another problem is a drop in performance. This drop could show up on the athletic field, or in the weight room. If you are trying to get the most out of each training session, this is not a good thing. You want each training session to be as efficient as possible.
Exercise of the Week: Walking Spiderman
I picked up this exercise from a great product called Access & Correct. This is an exercise me and my clients use pre-workout to improve the length of our hip flexors (which are tight for just about everyone out there…from all the sitting we do, day-in-day-out), and the adductors. As described in Access & Correct;
-Take a long stride forward into a lunge position.
-Keeping the chest up and out, lower the same-side elbow to the heel of the your forward leg.
-In the bottom position, squeeze the glute of the trailing leg and drive the hip towards the ground.
-Stand up and return to the starting position.
- Maintain a neutral spine and do not allow your back to round.
-Keep the chest up and out.
-Make sure to take long strides to lengthen the adductors.
