Two Exercises every athlete should do

Sports require athletes to move with speed and power, in all directions.  There are many exercises to help athletes prepare for these demands, and as a strength coach, I am always looking for new ways to keep my athletes from getting bored with the workouts.

I have seen many of my athletes come to me with weak hip flexors and weak core muscles.  These two things can lead to diminished performance as well as potential injury.  So in this article I am going to discuss two exercises that will address these issues an make an athlete not only faster and stronger, but more powerful.  A recent study indicated that even a slight improvement in hip flexor strength can improve linear speed (ie:  stealing a base, sprinting for 100m)

Band-Resisted Hip Flexor Pulls with Hold
The first exercise is the band-resisted hip flexor pulls with isometric holds. This is a simple exercise on paper but can be a difficult exercise to perform.
    *Starting in a position like a Mountain Climber exercise, have the athlete wrap a mini band around his right foot (and anchored at the other end as well) and bring the foot forward keeping the foot off the ground.
    *Ideally you want about 90 degrees or more of hip flexion.
    *Have the athlete hold this position for 3-5 seconds and perform 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps.  Switch legs after each set and allow 15-30 sec of rest between sets.
If the athletes' hip flexors or really tight or weak, it won;t take much to fatigue this muscle.  In this case stick with 3 sec. holds and start with 2-3 sets.

Barbell Landmine Rotations
The second exercise is the barbell rotation using a landmine.  If you don't have access to a landmine-style anchor, you can just place one end of the bar in the corner of a wall (place a towel down to protect the wall from getting marked up).  This exercise is one of my favorites for working the oblique muscles and developing stability and strength.  Not only is this a rotational exercise, but more specifically it is a anti-rotation exercise.  What I mean by this is not letting gravity pull the bar down for you during the execution of the exercise.
    *Grab the end of the bar, with the other secured in a landmine or corner of a wall, with slightly bent arms extended overhead.
    *Feet should be placed about shoulder width apart
    *Have the athlete bent his/her knees slightly, and rotate the bar down to the right hip, pivoting the left heel
    *Pull the bar back to the starting position using the oblique muscles (sides of the body) and not the arms.  Repeat by rotating the bar down to the left hip.
    *Repeat for 8-15 reps on each side making sure to control the bar and not let the athlete use momentum to bring the bar back to starting position.

By incorporating these two exercises into an athletes workout program 2-3 days a week, they should begin to notice an increase in linear speed (forward) as well as their shuttle sprints (change of direction movement).

Hydrophilic foods - what the hell are those?

This is a big word used to describe foods that are "water lovers", meaning that they attract and retain water and help to fill you up.  You may be surprised to learn that some of these foods are ones you eat regularly, and others are foods you should try to include in your daily diet.

For those who are looking to lose some weight, these foods are hugely beneficial because of their high soluble fiber amounts.  This helps to slow down the digestion process and give you the feeling of fullness for a longer period of time.

Believe it or not, there is even a "hydrophilic diet", click here for more info.  I am not keen on recommending "diets" to anyone but this one seems to be pretty legit and sustainable.  This diet does have some very sounds evidence that doesn't require any major changes or restrictions, and exercise is highly recommended as part of the diet, which many other diets don't seem to mention.

 

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Hydrophilic foods have even been shown to help reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol, and help control diabetes by keeping insulin sensitivity in check.

Some examples of hydrophilic foods include:  brussels sprouts, chia seeds, oranges, pears, oatmeal, kidney beans, celery, figs, apricots, broccoli, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.   

Beat down on beet juice

Many in the OCR community may be familiar with Beet Elite.  Many of the elite obstacle course race athletes are plastering fake "Beet Elite" tattoo's on their bodies as part of their sponsorship, and swear that drinking the juice helps improve their performance during races and training.  Is this actually true, and should you be taking it before or after your workouts/races?

 Photo Credit Eising/Photodisc/Getty Images

Beet juice is made from the root vegetable, Beets.  If you're are not familiar with this veggie, it comes in several distinct colors, red (most common), golden orange, pink and white.  They are full of many essential nutrients including vitamins A, C, B1, B2, and B6.

Research shows that drinking beet juice can help lower blood pressure, boost stamina, and reduce inflammation (a risk factor for Type-2 Diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease).  The reason for this is that Beets are full of natural chemicals known as nitrates, a nutrient usually found in green, leafy vegetables as well as beets.  During exercise, our bodies convert those nitrates into nitric oxide, which causes blood vessels to dilate and hence increasing blood flow and reducing blood pressure.  As a results of the increased blood flow, more oxygen can travel to the working muscles, allowing them to work at higher intensities.

Photo Credit tashka2000/iStock/Getty Images

How much beet juice is safe to drink?  It appears that drinking 2 cups daily is sufficient for the health benefits listed below.

So, what are the benefits to athletes?
     1. Increase in stamina and endurance - according to the University of Exeter, drinking 2 cups (500ml) improved stamina up to 6 days and allowed athletes to exercise up to 16% longer.

     2.  Regulation and balance of electrolyte levels - because beet juice contains lots of potassium, it can help prevent cramping during periods of heavy sweating.

     3.  Improves blood flow - this can help prevent blood clotting, lower LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and increase HDL (good cholesterol) for better overall heart health, critical for heavy exercisers.

     4.  Reduces inflammation - prevents muscle tissue damage leading to sore muscles from strenuous exercise.

I'm going to give beet juice a try for the next 3 months and see if I can notice these benefits myself.  Mothers Juice Cafe in Bend, OR is now selling bottled beet juice for $7 per bottle.  I am also going to try using beets in my Nutri Bullet to make some healthy smoothies along with other veggies.

Beet Elite, a supplement made with natural sweeteners, is a faster and more powerful way to deliver nitric oxide to working muscles.  A shot of Beet Elite is equivalent to 6 whole beets, making for a more concentrated solution so you don't need to consume as much before an event.  Some of the OCR athletes that swear by it include, Hunter McIntyre, Matt Novakovich, Rose Wetzel-Sinnett, and Isaiah Vidal.

If you have a favorite smoothie recipe that includes beets, I would love to hear what it is.  Please send me an email or leave a comment below.  Who knows, if I get hooked on it, maybe you'll see me running around with some beet tattoos as well

OCR World Championships

What an honor to be a part of this race.  Hands down one of the most difficult and rewarding obstacle course races I have done.  I say rewarding because that's how it felt completing some of these insanely challenging obstacles.  Most I have never even seen before, but its what I would expect for a World Championship event.  Finished with a time of 2:16 but wasn't able to complete two obstacles so was slapped with 8 min of time penalties.  I believe I finished 42nd in the elite male category, but because of the time penalties was not ranked in the final standings.  Only those who completed all obstacles were listed in the final results.  The winning time was an amazing 1:21 by Jon Albon of England.

Finishers medal, "bling"!

Many athletes from many different countries were on hand to determine who really is the  #1 obstacle course racer.  Some of the pre-race favorites were from Jon Albon (England), Ryan Atkins (Canada) and Hobie Call (USA).

The race was held in Oregonia, OH, in between Cincinnati and Columbus.  It was located at the Kings Domain park (site of the Mud Guts and Glory obstacle course race series) which was pretty damn cool.  They designed the course so that it was very spectator friendly for the beginning and end of the race.  A large grassy area that included about 15 of the 50+ obstacles was on display for spectators to watch and cheer on athletes.  Made it feel almost like an arena.

Starting area.  Lots of obstacles were located to the left

My dad flew out from Arizona to join me, and this was his first obstacle course race experience.  We drove out to the course on Friday morning to check out some of the obstacles.  I don't think my dad had any idea what to expect and after checking out the first couple obstacles he was pretty impressed that I would be doing this.  With my best "poker face", I said "I got this", but to myself I was saying "holy shit this is gonna hurt".

Inverted Monkey Bars...brutal

Friday night they held a dinner ceremony for Hobie Call, arguably the most feared and humble obstacle course racer.  Still remember a few years ago Spartan Race puttin' out a bounty on him as they offered $10,000 to anyone who could beat him; he had won every race in their series.  I don't believe anyone beat him the next race, but he did eventually get beat.  Well the dude is still fast as hell and he finished 3rd overall today.

Unique to this race only, instead of having us do burpees or any other exercise for not being able to complete an obstacle, a time penalty was incurred instead.  Most time penalties were to be 4 min. and the weaver obstacle (google it) held a 6 min penalty.  Also, if you were unable to complete an obstacle you had your wristband (given to us at the start) cut and you would not be eligible for the cash prizes.  You could, however, try several times to complete one, if needed.  I struggled a few times and was slapped with three 4 min penalties.  The first was the Platinum Rig (google it - 80% of elite field failed it), the second was two rope traverses.  This was the most frustrating because I attempted it twice and fell short about 3-4 feet both times.  Both times my grip completely gave out and couldn't hold.on to the rope.  This was another obstacle I have not done, so maybe my technique could have been better.  The other obstacle was near the finish and it was two walls that you had to traverse laterally.  The first wall had hanging chains that you had to grasp and move laterally.  I wasn't able to get any grip on the wall with my shoes and my grip strength was toast as well, so I had to swallow another 4 min. penalty.

Platinum Rig

The obstacle I feared most was the inverted monkey bar obstacle.  First you had to climb up tires (that were all attached an didn't move), then descend 10 monkey bars and then immediately ascend 10 more monkey bars.  I got about 1/2 way up on the ascend part and felt my grip going.  Fortunately, I was able to loo my leg around the bars to take some of the weight off my arms.  The final 5 bars seemed to take forever.



video compliments of Obstacle Racing Media

 

The course terrain was very difficult due to the constant steep up and downs and off-camber sections.  The course was dry yet there were still many creek bed runs (flooded with rocks and wet leaves).  Some of the steep up hills even had ropes  that were attached at the top that were needed to help get up.

One of the more relaxing obstacles was the 200 ft waterslide.  These are starting to become more popular in obstacle races as it is very spectator friendly and of course gets you completely soaked. But who doesn't like a fast waterslide?

Very impressed with the venue, and how well organized everything was.  This is only the atart of something very special.

Didn't stick around for the Team Race on Sunday, which consisted of team of 4; either all men, all women, or coed.  Two people from each team had to complete a full lap of the course, the the other two members headed out to complete their lap.  The fastest total combined time declared the winner.  Sounds like it would have been fun, but I'm not sure I would have been able to move the next day.

Warrior Dash World Championships

Back home and wanted to give an update from this past weekends Warrior Dash World Championship obstacle course race.  The event was held in northern California in the most discrete location, Esparto, CA.  I'm not sure how they chose this location for he event, but it is literally in the middle of nowhere.  Surrounded by farmland, it's about an hour northwest of Sacramento.

Warrior Dash events are traditionally not as difficult in terms of obstacles as many of the other races, Instead Warrior Dash events are more of a running races with a few non-challenging obstacles thrown in along the way.

For the World Championships they kept to their tradition and the course was identical to the one myself and many others competed in to earn our qualifying entry.  They used 12 of their most commonly used obstacles, and none of them were difficult.  However, what the race lacked in in terms of obstacles, the terrain made up for.

With the largest cash prize being offered for a 5k running event, $!00,000, their were many of the sports' top athletes on hand vying for a shot at the top prize, $30,000.  Because of the nature of the course, the clear favorites would include, Max King, Hobie Call, and Cody Moat.  All three are extremely talented trail runners and each have earned numerous victories across the world.  Other top guys included John Yastko, Hunter McIntyre, Ryan Atkins and Brakken Kraker.   For me, I was hoping for a Top 20 finish.

post-race game face...exhaustion

I drove down Thursday morning and stayed with my friends Jason and AJ Snovel who live in Sacramento.  On Friday we went to the venue to pick up my race packet and attend the course briefing and walk through.  This was our opportunity to see the course and the obstacle locations.  We were not allowed to touch any of the obstacles, but could ask questions about any of them.   Jason and I walked most of the course and I knew the hills were going to be tough.

We left and went back home, chilled out on the porch drinking coffee and then Jason's girlfriend, Mary, made us an amazing chicken quinoa, rice, taco/burrito dinner.  I hit the sack around 9:45pm because I was getting up early the next morning.

Alarm went off at 4:50am.  Took a warm shower to warm up, ate breakfast with coffee, then left the house around 6am.  Arrived at the parking lot at about 7am, which we then were shuttled to the start/finish area.  Everyone as dressed in warm clothes as the temps were in the low 50's.  As the sun began to rise so did the temps, and after warming up I knew I wouldn't need to wear much clothing other than my Anytime Fitness shorts during the race.

It's funny to watch everyone warm up a slightly different way.  Each has it's routine, and all serve the same purpose; to warm up the body temp, loosen up the hips, and create some elasticity in the muscles.

At 7:50am were were instructed to go to the "corral" to get the final briefing, listen to the National Anthem and prepare for the start.  They put us in a large open field and we were able to line up side by side so there would be no disadvantage to positioning.  It was pretty cool to see 150 guys lined up preparing to do battle.  At exactly 8am the gun went off and so were we.

We sprinted across the field for about 200 yards to an open gate that led us up the brutally steep first hill.  This quickly split the field and set the tone for what was to come.  I paced myself up the hill trying not to let the adrenaline get the best of me and burn up all my matches in the first mile.  The lead guys were flying up this hill making it look easy, although I'm sure it didn't feel any easier to them.

After a short traverse, we quickly descended a steep hill on loose gravel before reaching the first obstacle, "Storming Normandy"; crawling or rolling under netting for 10 yards.  We continued to descend and reached the "Road Rage" obstacle; climbing up and over several junk cars and then run through several tires.  This was kind of fun but I could already feel the legs beginning to get heavy.  More steep descending on a gravel road and then we reached the "wall", a straight up hill with tons of ruts.  I, nor anyone around me, was able to run this, and I would love to know if any of the top guys could run it.  It was probably 100 yards, but it was so steep it was like doing the Versa Climber machine.

Next up was the "Vicious Valleys" obstacle which consists of having to jump over 5 ft gap ditches.  Each one is filled with water and is made of soft mud on each end.  Normally I have no problem jumping over each of these, but this time, I couldn't quite make the final two.  My shoes were now covered with mud, and it sure felt like the heavy kind, if there is such a thing.  Each leg now felt like a 100 lbs and lifting my feet wasn't easy.

After a few more obstacles, I reached the half way point on the course and it was all downhill from here.  As with most Warrior Dash events, they position almost half of their obstacles near the finish, so even though I was close I knew I still had lots to cover.  Their infamous obstacle, "Goliath" was near the finish.  Its a giant obstacle to look at.  It consists of a cargo net climb, to a stair climb, to walking across a balance beam high above water (a loose rope on each side to hold onto), followed by a 20 ft. water slide into a pool of water.

playin' in the mud

is that a Lochness Monster

The final two obstacles included lots of mud, "Mud Mounds" and "Mud".  By the time I crossed the finish line I was all mud.  Check out the video...

Max King, also from Bend, posted the fastest time of just over 22 minutes to win not only the race but $30,000.  Also making the podium were Hobie Call (2nd place), and John Yastko (3rd place), Cody Moat (4th place) and Brakken Kraker (5th place).  I finished 34th overall.  There were a total of 143 racers that competed in the race.  Click here for complete results

It was great to be part of something special and now I am already looking forward to this weekend's race, the OCR World Championships in Oregonia, Ohio.  With 9 miles to cover and nearly 30 obstacles it will be a completely different race than the Warrior Dash event.  The obstacles in the OCR W.C race will require much more strength and if one cannot be completed a time penalty will be assessed.  This will most likely be the toughest event of the season for most of us.

Stay Tuned!