Spring /Summer 2014 The Performance Training and

Conditioning E-Magazine of Athletes

and Fitness Enthusiasts

The latest sports

performance book

reviews

Track your training

with the Atlas

Wearable

14” Med Ball training

Eat breakfast to perform

at your best

See the Training

Mask Here!

Elevation Training Mask is a patent pending "Resistance Training Device" that helps condi-tion the lungs by creating pulmonary re-sistance and strengthening the diaphragm.

Elevation Training Mask will help you regulate your breathing, increase lung stamina, oxygen efficiency and increase overall mental focus. Training Mask can help your over all performance in all sports and daily living.

in this issue:

Editorial: The evolution of sports

performance training

Training Tech: Atlas Wearable

fitness tracker hits the scene later

this year

Book reviews: get motivated with

Relentless, get fit with Cardio

Strength Training, and psyched up

with The Man Watching.

Eat breakfast to perform at your

best. When training, if you PUSH, you

better PULL and ROTATE!

Use sports psychology for the development of mental toughness

To squat better and heavier think

TORQUE!

Your pre-game or pre-workout meal

can be a big booster towards a

championship season

WSI Sports Wear puts tech in

the your apparel

Go with the 14” BIG BALLS for to add variety to your training

When “Wanting it” just isn’t enough

After years of workouts with athletes and main stream fitness clients

and helping them each reach their goals, I’ve come to learn a lot about

not only training exercises, techniques, etc. but about human nature.

We all have this inner compass inside of us that helps to keep us on our

path, gives us a sense of direction, and helps plot a way forward in our

life. At best, it serves as our life philosophy on how we see the world

and how we function in it.

The same should be said of how we train. Whether you are a competi-

tive athlete in a team sport, into Crossfit, a P90X disciple, a yoga en-

thusiasts or into any other type of training methodology, it’s good to

have a philosophy—-a training philosophy.

Why a training philosophy? It helps to serve as your training compass

as far as where you are in your own training and where you want to go.

This philosophy doesn’t have to be rigid and un-yielding; it can be

flexible based upon our constantly evolving training goals and where

we want to go in life in our fitness endeavors.

There are as many ways to train and condition as there are ways to cre-

ate a great meal. The key to success lies in having a training philoso-

phy that works with your needs to help you reach your goals.

What’s yours?

Daimond Dixon

Pro Power E-Mag

What’s your training Philosophy? From the Editor

The Mission

The Pro Power mission is to provide training

information to athletes and fitness enthusiasts

by sharing training and conditioning ideals

from various sources helping individuals to

reach their personal performance potential.

Publishing

Pro Power E-Magazine is published monthly

in an online viewing format along with an

accompanying online web site and blog.

Contact Information

Editor: Daimond Dixon

Web: ProPowerMag.com

Email: PerformanceSport21@gmail.com

Phone: (616) 633-1883

Tech that adds variety to sports performance and fitness training

Training Tech

Atlas Wearables is reinventing how fitness is measured.

The flagship product is a fitness tracker that identifies your exer-cises, counts your reps and sets, calculates the calories you burned and evaluates your form. Atlas measures your success; all you have to do is work out.

Name a sport and the athletes will tell you that strength training is critical to peak performance. Given it's nature, strength training is extremely quantifiable and yet athletes are still carrying paper tracking sheets around the gym.

Why? Because building a wearable sophisticated enough to track those movements is significantly harder than tracking walk-ing, running, cycling and swimming -- all of which already have their own dedicated fitness trackers. Gym goers want a solution and are turning out in droves to vote with their dollars for Atlas, currently available for pre-order on Indiegogo.

Atlas is the first fitness tracker to automatically identify and track exercises. Atlas replaces manual tracking of which exercises you did, how many reps, which weights, etc. and provides beautiful and seamless data to help you fine tune your workouts.

Find out why Gigaom, Forbes, TechCrunch, Fast Company and others consider Atlas the wearable for 2014

Book Reviews: Relentless, Cardio Strength and The Man Watching

From Amazon:

DIRECT, BLUNT, AND BRUTALLY HONEST, Grover breaks down what it

takes to be unstoppable: you keep going when everyone else is giving up, you

thrive under pressure, you never let your emotions make you weak. In “The Relent-

less 13,” he details the essential traits shared by the most intense competitors and

achievers in sports, business, and all walks of life. Relentless shows you how to

trust your instincts and get in the Zone; how to control and adapt to any situation;

how to find your opponent’s weakness and attack. Grover gives you the same ad-

vice he gives his world-class clients—“don’t think”—and shows you that anything

is possible. Packed with previously untold stories and unparalleled insight into the

psyches of the most successful and accomplished athletes of our

time, Relentless shows you how even the best get better . . . and how you can too.

From Amazon:

If you’re a guy with little time to work out and pounds of fat to burn, the thought of

having to spend hours in the gym lifting weights and doing cardio can be a daunt-

ing proposition. Now, Cardio Strength Training solves both problems with simple,

fast, and effective workouts that incorporate challenging, muscle-building combina-

tion moves and fat-frying cardio exercises to help you kill two birds with one

stone.

Built on the same principles Robert Dos Remedios uses to train Division I colle-

giate athletes, Cardio Strength Training provides safe and innovative workouts and

nutritional advice for anyone looking to drop pounds of flab and build a functional-

ly strong physique. Every workout is no longer than 15 minutes and is built on the

same training methods outlined in the highly successful book, Men’s Health Power

Training.

From Amazon:

As coach of the University of North Carolina women’s soccer team, Anson

Dorrance has won more than 90 percent of his games, groomed far more All-

Americans, and captured more NCAA championships than any other coach

in the sport ten times over. Author Tim Crothers spent four years interview-

ing Dorrance and Tar Heels players from every era, along with players and

coaches from rival college programs, to create the most comprehensive, inti-

mate, and unfiltered look ever inside the most prolific dynasty in college

athletics. Updated to include the story of the Tar Heels’s 2008 and 2009

NCAA championships, The Man Watching is the authorized biography of a

fascinating man and the more than 200 young women he inspired to believe

that anything is possible.

The books above are available in both print and

tablet versions. See these great books here

fast ideas to get you started on the right track in the morning:

1. Make a smoothie. Smoothies are really quick to make and taste deli-cious. If you have a queasy stomach in the morning and don't like to eat

solid food early, try mak-ing a fruit smoothie con-taining both carbs and protein. Liquid breakfasts are easier on the stom-ach than jumping right into solid food.

2. Prepare your break-fast the night before.If not having enough time in the morning is one of your biggest challenges to eating a good break-fast, try getting it ready the night before. You can

pre-make a smoothie and store it in the fridge over night or soak some muesli in water in the fridge and simply add some hot water to it in the morning and it's ready to eat.

3. Make extra and store it. Some breakfast items store well so when you make them, be sure to make enough to have some later. Home-

made granola stores great in a jar in the cupboard. If you're making some whole grain pancakes on the weekend, make a double batch and keep them in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days. Just pop them in the toaster when you'd like them dur-ing the week.

4. Take it to go. We're not talking about take out from

a drive through; it's all about take out from your own kitchen. Smooth-ies and other simple breakfasts like cups of fruit and yogurt are easy to take with you. You can prepare them the night before and just grab them and go, or make them in the morning and take them with you. If time is tight, don't be afraid of taking it with you-it's a far better solution

than skipping breakfast.

5. Commit to eating a healthy breakfast every morning for three weeks.More than anything, getting a good breakfast is all about creating the habit. It takes about 21 days to form a habit so commit to eating breakfast for just three weeks and it will become something that you do automatically and no longer have to try to fit in or plan for. You will just do it.

Give these five quick and simple breakfast tips a try. Eating a healthy breakfast in the morning will make a big difference in your energy throughout the day and will provide you fuel to perform at your best

Erin Harner, MS, CHC is a sports nutrition coach

and certified health coach. Through her business

Empowered Athlete Sports Nutrition LLC, Erin

empowers athletes throughout the United States and

abroad to perform their best in sports and life. She

supports athletes to reach optimal performance

through optimal health. Boost your energy today by

claiming your free gift at [http://www.empowered-

athlete.com/]

Skipping breakfast is a bad habit that can be detrimental to perfor-mance for athletes. The truth is that athletes skip breakfast for one of several reasons. Some have a queasy stomach in the morning and have trouble eating solid food early in the day. Some have simply formed the habit of not eating breakfast. Some are convinced that there are no breakfast foods that they like. Or the most common reason that athletes skip break-fast is that they just can't seem to find the time to fit it in.

If you're like many ath-letes, one of these rea-sons is keeping you from eating breakfast in the morning and its hurting your perfor-mance. You've probably heard that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" since you were a kid. Well, it's true. Eating breakfast within one hour of waking up in the morning is really important to get you fueled for the day ahead. Break-fast gets your metabolism going and energy to your body and your brain. If you skip breakfast, your body will go into starva-tion mode and start storing fat and crav-ing carbohy-drates.

A healthy breakfast should in-clude carbo-hydrate, fat, and protein. High glycemic index break-fasts like a bowl of sugared cereal, a toaster waffle, or toast will spike your blood sugar and leave you hungry a couple hours later. In-stead, add healthy protein and fat sources to your breakfast in addition to carbs like Greek yogurt, granola, and some fresh fruit.

Here are five quick and easy break-

Athletes: eat breakfast to perform at your best

Caption describing picture or graphic.

...and while we are on the

subject of multi-directional

strength, don’t forget to rotate

as well!

Rotational move-

ments strengthen

and reinforce our

body’s ability to

move from one

plane to another

with stability and

balance.

Another great core strength-

ener, rotational movements

can be done with a variety of

objects and training tools.

These tools range from medi-

cine balls, to plates, to dumb-

bells, to kettle bells.

Find a way to rotate in your

workouts to create more mul-

ti-directional power and bal-

ance to your program!

...and don’t forget to rotate!

If you PUSH, then PULL too…..

The body functions in a way that allows

for a 3-dimensional lifestyle. We go

forward, backwards, up, down, side to

side—-we move in all kinds of direc-

tions.

Athletes need to enhance this ability

more in order to achieve optimal perfor-

mance results. And this means getting

stronger and more powerful in all of

these different directions.

When training, remember that whenever

you push away from your body, whether

its horizontal (ie DB Bench press) or

Vertical (ie DB military press), also pull

towards your body horizontally (ie DB

bent rows) or vertically (ie DB high

pulls).

This helps to balance out your bodys

overall strength and power in different

directions!

Use sports psychology for the development of mental toughness

The role of sports psychology shows how crucial it is for coaches and athletes to prac-

tice psychological skills for peak performance. Top athletes around the world from

basketball, football, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis and golf will use sports psycholo-

gy to gain their mental edge.

Sports performance specialists play a key role in keeping up the emotional health of

athletes. Often, athletes -especially the most successful ones -find it difficult to keep

up their emotional health due to psychological stress. It's been observed that athlete's

psychological stresses commonly include: imbalance, ranging from tiredness, injury

due to gastrointestinal disorders, sleep disorders, and tenderness and muscle strain.

Unfortunately, most athletes remain reluctant to confide themselves in a Sports perfor-

mance specialist due to the alleged stigma. Nonetheless, many sports practitioners

recognize the importance of consulting sports performance specialists, a psychologist,

or a therapist for relief or to develop the requisite mental toughness.

Working with a sports psychologist is the only way to help athletes become aware of

the possibility of a causal psychological requisite for a complaint and investigate into

their emotional status as an integral part of their medical history.

A sports psychologist is, therefore, invaluable in conducting a non-judgmental ques-

tioning, so as to unveil inter-personal issues that may exist. Such examples are with

the athlete's trainer, team mate, family member, or stress with regard to a forthcoming

competition.

For concrete results, it is advised that psychological performance education should be

integrated in an athlete's holistic competition preparation practice, performed correla-

tively with other exercise tools.

This will involve a teamwork effort among the training team, the athlete, and the sports

psychologist.

Consult a sports psychologist, who is capable of teaching skills to help you to improve

your learning process and motor skills, deal with competitive stress, and adjust the

requisite level of awareness for peak performance.

Make sure that your sports performance specialist will design a training program that

will help you to stay focused despite the many disturbances in a competitive setting.

About Philly Hypnosis and The Smoking Solution - Todd Stofka is the Director of Philly Hypnosis. The Stofka Method

has helped hundreds of athletes create the behavioral changes and peak performance they want from professional and

Olympic athletes, PGA golf professionals, Division I athletes, high school athletes, weekend warriors and child-athletes

from many sports. Philly Hypnosis uses the best of Neural Linguistic Psychology and Performance Hypnosis to assist

you change your personal sports destiny. Call for your consultation 877-557-7409 or schedule online at Philly Hypnosis

Torque By Stephen Pruitt, MS

Is it leg day? If you don’t necessarily have a leg day you should at least be squatting

on a regular basis. Here’s the truth: A healthy dose of different squat forms in your

training regimen will make you bigger, faster, and stronger. It’s science…

Any form of physical stress on the body will cause the body to react in defense (i.e.

the release of hormones). Whether you’re banged up in a car accident or sprint a

5:50 mile the same hormones are released in a specific order. Epinephrine

(adrenaline) has many responsibilities in the body, but in stress situations it usually

releases first to activate the sympathetic nervous system and your fight-or-flight re-

sponse.

The pancreas then increases output of glucagon to synthesize glucose (sugar) thereby increasing content in the

blood, but it is usually countered a few minutes later with the output of insulin. Insulin comes along and forces

the liver, skeletal muscles, and fat tissue to soak up that blood sugar. Insulin also increases cellular replication

and protein synthesis. A few hours later your adrenal glands release cortisol to fight inflammation and again

increase blood sugar. Finally, a day later the pituitary gland recognizes the damage that the body has experi-

enced and it releases growth hormone and that is the good stuff that we want to get bigger, faster, stronger.

All of that was a long way of telling you that loaded

squats engage more skeletal muscle groups on a greater

demand than any other physical activity and therefore re-

sult in more hormone activity. Now that reason is in place

we should talk about how to squat with the most power,

stability and safety.

Your squat should consist of strong, complete flexion in the hip, knee, and ankle followed by even stronger

extension of the same. We’re going to create that strong, stable squat by starting organized. Mark Ripptoe is a

legend in weightlifting. He wrote the book Starting Strength among several other literary contributions. He

explains very well the difference in body geometry for the different squat forms (i.e. high-bar, low-bar, front,

overhead). We will discuss more on that in a later installment, but essentially you can’t expect to crush your

strongest squat ever if your body is not set up for it prior to beginning the lift.

(continued next page)

Coaching cues for low-bar back squat (getting organized):

Approach the bar with your game face on; many athletes talk themselves out of a lift before getting to

the bar… OWN IT!

Take position under the bar with the bar resting just below the apex of your traps (for high-bar back

squats)

Your grip on the bar should be as close to the shoulder as you can manage; this will allow you to pull

down on the bar during your squat, engaging critical upper body stabilization

“Turn on” your butt; you cannot squat without engaging the glutes, so if you tighten those huge power

house muscles prior to starting then you give yourself a head start

Position your feet to turn out approximately 5-12 degrees; this will allow your femur to pass through

your pelvis and will allow you to screw your feet into the ground creating torque in the knee and

hip offering the safest position for ligaments

Take a deep breath and hold it; this fills the thoracic cavity with air and tightens the abdominals and

thoracic stabilizers

GET ANGRY AND SQUAT HEAVY! Keep in mind that friends don’t let friends squat shallow. Your

hip crease should pass below the horizontal plane of your knee on EVERY squat. Full range of mo-

tion is essential to proper development of length-tension relationships with muscle groups. With

respect to the long and large muscle bellies of the quads and hams those length-tension relation-

ships are so crucial for athletic potential.

Kelly Starrett, physical therapist and founder of Mobility WOD, has a great explanation of the importance

of torque in the knee. Try this: On your right hand, wrap your middle finger over your fore finger as

tight as you can get them. Now wrap your other hand around those fingers tightly to make a fist. Exter-

nally rotate your hand and feel the torque placed on the fingers. Now rotate your hand internally and

feel the fingers release and almost completely separate if you can go far enough. This example is an

almost perfect model of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments in the knee (ACL/PCL). When

you externally rotate your hip in your squat (or any athletic movement for that matter) you provide that

essential torque on the ACL/PCL that stabilizes the knee. This same position torques the collateral liga-

ments as well. If your knees cave in or your hip internally rotates then you create slack in the ligaments

and open a huge window of awful opportunity for strain and tear.

Stay tuned for more information on mechanics and good positioning for athletic movements.

Stephen Pruitt owns Kudzu CrossFit in Madison, MS. He has a Master Degree in Exercise Science, Health and Wellness with emphasis in Sport Rehabilitation

and has recently been accepted to the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He is recognized by CrossFit as a

Level 1 trainer with certifications in Olympic Lifting, Mobility and Strongman Programming. He is recognized by the National Academy of Sports Medicine as a

Corrective Exercise Specialist.

Prior to owning a gym, he was a active-duty officer in the Air Force and consulted with several private clients on lifestyle changes to combat the fat. Having

been an obese youth himself, Stephen coaches and consults athletes and clients with a true passion that only comes from experiencing the bottom of the barrel.

Although, he now focuses his coaching on enhancing the performance of youth and adolescent athletes, his heart still draws him to the fight against obesity.

Stephen is married with two dogs; his wife is also a fitness and nutrition specialist as well as a published fitness model. He can be reached at

stephen@kudzucrossfit.com

Kudzu CrossFit

113 Dees Dr. Ste B

Madison, MS 39110

www.kudzucrossfit.com

The Pre-Game Meal: It Could Win Championships

It’s about 4 hours before the game and I had a light lunch and I’m nervous about eating before the game but know I need to fuel my

body in order to have energy. What should I eat?

Determining what to eat before the big game or event can be challenging for many high school athletes and you may not realize it will

play a critical role in your overall performance. Many high school football programs provide pre-game meals to their athletes but

those athletes who do not have the luxury of being provided with a meal are often left to fend for themselves. This poses a major chal-

lenge as the type of meal chosen is based on several factors such as time, location, and finances available. Those with limited time and

finances are more likely going to select fast food for their option which also limits the number of healthy options available. For opti-

mal game performance, the timing and meal composition are the two important factors.

Timing of the Pre-Game Meal

Your last solid meal should be consumed 3-4 hours prior to the start of the game. This allows time for digestion and absorption. About

30 minutes before the start of your game, you should hydrate well by consuming a low sugar sports drink with sufficient electrolytes

that does not cause a spike and crash in your blood sugar levels (i.e. Generation UCAN Pre-Workout).

Meal Composition of the Pre-Game Meal

The composition of your pre-game meal will play a major role in your level of energy and comfort. Below is a list of options to choose from depending on your food

preference. Every athlete is different in their caloric needs so experiment during fall practice with what works best for you.

Turkey Sandwich on 100% whole grain bread or 6” sub, fresh fruit (banana, orange, apple), handful of almonds, water to hydrate (16-20 oz).

Peanut Butter Sandwich on 100% whole grain bread, fresh fruit, skim or low fat milk with additional water to hydrate (16-20 oz).

5-6 oz grilled chicken breast, 1- 1 ½ cups of pasta with a light red sauce, 1 cup of peas or corn, water to hydrate ((16-20 oz).

Grilled Chicken Sandwich, fresh fruit, handful of nuts (almonds or cashews) green salad with light dressing, water to hydrate (16-20 oz).

Grilled Chicken or Turkey Wrap, fresh fruit, green salad with light dressing, 1 wheat roll with a little butter, water to hydrate (16-20 oz).

What to Avoid with your Pre-Game Meal

Your pre-game meal can also impair your performance if you don’t choose the correct balance of nutrients (carbohydrates, fat, and protein). Be sure to avoid the fol-

lowing.

High Fat Meals (Fast Food Burgers, Fried Food, French Fries) – these are foods that will sit in the stomach for hours making you feel sluggish and uncomfortable.

High Sugar Foods or Beverages – Sodas, Candy, Desserts, etc that will cause your blood sugar to drop and increasing fatigue.

High Fiber Foods or Meals – although very nutritious, foods like broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and beans may cause excess gas and stomach

discomfort.

Sports Drinks –Most sports drinks contain sucrose, maltodextrin, or dextrose which causes a spike and crash in your blood sugar requiring you to drink more.

They also shut off your body’s ability to burn fat. In addition, the level of electrolytes are insufficient to match the volume of sodium and potassium you lose in

your sweat.

Energy Drinks – these are worse than sports drink because they may contain dangerous stimulants combined with caffeine that may potentially cause side effects

during the game (i.e. rapid heartbeat, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood pressure, etc).

New Foods – never try a food you have not had before as you don’t know how your body will react to it. Also experiment during the off-season.

Spicy Foods – although you may tolerate spicy foods well when you’re not active, adding them prior to activity may not be a wise choice. You may increase your

risk of heart burn and stomach pain.

Raw Fish – there’s nothing wrong with a lean cut of sushi grade fish but in the event you don’t get the best quality, you may be paying for it during the game.

Tavis Piattoly, MS, RD, LDN is co-founder, My Sports Dietitian and a Sports Dietitian/Nutrition Consultant for the New Orleans Saints, New Orleans Pelicans,

Tulane University Athletics . His web site is www.mysportsdconnect.com and he can be emailed at tpiattoly@mysportsd.com .

Over 23 years ago, Joel Wiens, an athlete dissatisfied with uncomfortable sports equipment that seemed to dampen everyone’s performance, began to experiment with compression apparel in combination with equipment. The first successful item was the compression short that had a pouch for the athletic cup, providing a better fit with-out the discomfort of the strap.

With the purpose of making athletes more comfortable in performance, he asked some of his family to help him make the idea a reality, his Aunt Virginia, his brother Mark, his mother, and his grandmother all pitched in by sewing and developing his first products. His simple innovation ideas then grew to a successful JOC line of elite gear for many sports including baseball, hockey, football, and lacrosse.

WSI is 100% made in USA. Being located in the USA gives WSI Sports the edge over big companies that pro-duce products overseas, because they can get their products to the customer faster, and WSI guarantees that their materials are superior to products made in other countries, because other productions often substitute cheaper ma-terials.

Over the years, Joel and WSI Sports have developed many innovative products, including the WikMax® and HEATR® fabrics, and they expanded their products to even more sports, like cycling, hunting and skiing. They are even the official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Ski Jumping Team.

Today, WSI still prides itself on providing athletes with maximum comfort, maximum protection, and maxi-mum performance. Their passion for innovation has led to some cutting edge base layer technologies: WikMax®

One of Joel’s more recent inventions is the WikMax® lightweight fabric. It contains hyper wicking and fast drying technologies that outperform the competition every time. The WikMax® works to keep the athlete dry and comfortable throughout performance. The fabric uses a “T” technology to rapidly push all perspiration to the outside of the fabric, and then spreads it out to allow for rapid evaporation.

This allows the wearer to experience a dry feeling no matter how much sweat they work up. “We have found that players are wearing only one WikMax® shirt to get them through the entire game…This gar-ment has done everything you told me it would,” says Mike Aldrich, Head Equipment Manager of the San Jose Sharks.

The Pro WikMax® Performance Pants/Tights are a great option for keeping your legs dry and comfortable in any weather. Worn by NFL pros such as Larry Fitzgerald and Matt Cassel, these pants use the WikMax® technology along with a 4-way stretch compression to allow for a full range of motion.

Next, we have the WikMax® Long Sleeve Semi Mock Shirt. This shirt will keep you drier than any other competitor’s product. The WikMax® shirt has proven to be the fast drying and most versatile base layer item because it can func-tion in hot and cold conditions.

WikMax HEATR® is WSI’s most innovative line to date. HEATR® is a fiber that expands and generates heat as your skin contacts it. This can be a huge advantage for any athlete, because the ability to absorb, store, and release heat in a base layer can serve many different functions. The first is that it will get your muscles loose and warmed up much faster, this is great for preventing injury, increasing range of motion, and improved muscle performance.

Another advantage of this technology is that it helps get Oxygen to the blood faster, and increases blood flow in general. The increased blood flow and Oxygen in the blood allows for a faster recovery time within the muscles.

The third advantage is the heat. This can be beneficial in a few ways, if you are competing or working out in cold weather, the heat-absorbing fabric will be great for helping your core muscles stay warm and loose. If you are in moderate to hot temperatures, HEATR® products can be used to increase your core body temperature, thus getting your heart rate up and burning more calories throughout your workout.

Excel Training sell’s excel templates for personal trainers, strength coaches, weight

loss specialists, as well as functional movement specialists. Not just any excel tem-

plate, completely automated templates with dropdowns and user entered databases

helping you store and control your information. The vast majority of the work that we do is custom, made to order pro-

grams that are designed specifically for you. If you do not see something on this site that specifically meets what you

need, please let us know, as whatever it is, it can be made. Whether you have 5 clients or 500 athletes, we have tools

to make help you organize your training today!

Here is the HEATR® Pitching/QB Shirt. This is a great workout piece because it is body mapped with HEATR® over the core upper body muscles, and features ventilated WikMax® panels through the armpits and stomach to keep you dry.

Finally is the HEATR® Volt Pant. Like the Pitching/QB Shirt, this product is intuitively body mapped with HEATR® through the core muscles, and WikMax® through the rest of the pants.

For more information, please visit http://www.wsisports.com/, or visit WSI’s social media:

Facebook: facebook.com/WSISports

Twitter: twitter.com/WSISports1

Instagram: instagram.com/wsisports1

14” Med Balls They are BIG and they come in a variety of weights to ac-

commodate everyone; what I am talking about is the 14”

medicine balls that have stepped their game up into the

world of not only sports performance, but have become a

fan favorite of fitness enthusiasts everywhere.

The uniqueness of these medicine balls and what sets them

apart is their shear SIZE. The 14” diameter is a drastic dif-

ference from their smaller

counter part, which means users have to use a little more core

strength to use it effectively.

The big 14” balls are even better when they come “bounceless”

—meaning they don’t bounce. This is especially challenging

when it comes to rotational or forward wall slams, but this forc-

es the user to throw with more force and velocity.

Types of throws with these monster balls include rotational, vertical, forward, floor slams—-

the list goes on and on and is only limited by your imagination.

The balls can be used in your workouts when training for power, strength, core and explosive-

ness. See the video below of the 14” ball in action, and if your interested in grabbing your

own, click the Rogue fitness link at the bottom of the page and order yours today!

SLAMS ROTATIONAL THROWS

Wanting it is not enough

Each and every time you step on the court or walk in the weight room, you have a choice to make. You can choose to work hard or you can

choose to not work hard. Not working hard is actually a choice. You are 100% in control of your effort and your

attitude.

For this off-season to be as productive as possible, you need to choose to work hard consistently.

You must choose get better every day… even when no one else is around.

I want to jump higher. I want to gain 10 lbs. I want to be a better shooter. I want to play at the next level.

Merely wanting it is not enough. Everyone wants it. You must make the sacrifices necessary to make it happen.

You must train with purpose, train with effort, and train with consistency to make your goals a reality.

Let’s say your goal is to gain 10 lbs. this off-season. If I weighed you on April 1st and told you on September 1st I would weigh you again, and if

you were 10 lbs. heavier I would give you $1,000,000 in cash, would you accept my offer?

Of course you would!

Do you think you would achieve your goal? Absolutely! In fact, I guarantee you would. You would be so focused and determined you would prob-

ably gain twice that. You would be so passionate about achieving your goal that you would attract support from everyone around you.

How can I be so sure?

Because your commitment would be unstoppable! You would go beyond just wanting it and you would make it happen.

You need to find a way to tap into this type of conviction even when there isn’t a million dollar prize involved. You need to approach your training

with this type of mindset.

Unfortunately, there is a little voice that occasionally tries to derail you…

“I don’t want to work out today. I will get up extra shots tomorrow. I will lift weights tomorrow.”

If you let that little voice win, you won’t be successful. Trust me.

Staying committed is not easy. It’s OK if you need some help. In fact, I recommend you get some help. You need to find someone who pushes

you to be the best you can be. Someone that holds you accountable. Someone that motivates you, inspires you, and encourages you. Some-

one that tells you what you need to hear – not what you want to hear. Someone that gives you energy. Someone who supports and strengthens

your commitment.

Do you have a person like this in your life?

If so, make sure you tell them how much you appreciate you them.

If not, you need to find a person like that ASAP.

Train hard. Fuel smart. Get better.

Alan Stein http://www.StrongerTeam.com

Alan Stein is the owner of Stronger Team and the strength & conditioning coach for the nationally renowned, Nike elite DeMatha Cath-

olic High School basketball program. Alan brings a wealth of valuable experience to his training arsenal from over a decade of exten-

sive work with elite high school, college, and NBA players.