TRAMPOLINE COMPILATION 2

PREVENTING INJURIES IN SPORTS:

Hello Everyone,

Recently I have hurt my neck and got inspired to write up a little post on how to help prevent injuries and how to deal with them. This is a general idea of preventative action. Please know that not every injury can be prevented and or treated the same way.  With this being said however, there are ways to decrease the chance of injury and that is what this article is about.

I was trying a trick on the trampoline and over rotated a trick and landed on my head and rotated after taking full impact on my head to my stomach. As I landed on my head I heard a lot of muscle fibres snapping in my neck as it was forced to flex suddenly with 140lbs landing on it from 15 ft. I was able to get up after 2 minutes of resting wit nothing more than a sore neck because of one major reason. I had built up the muscles in my neck and back so well that the muscles were able to withstand the impact and prevent my neck from snapping like a twig. Any exercise physiologist, injury specialist, physiotherapist or any trainer that works with high level athletes knows the importance of muscle mass for injury prevention. The unfortunate part of it is that most trainers and athletes forget how crucial hypertrophy is on a regular basis to maintain a strong body that is ready for impact.

I notice that a lot of trainers will focus on hypertrophy during the pre competition season and as soon as the first competition comes along, hypertrophy takes a second to more specific types of training such as power, speed, technique etc.

In my opinion hypertrophy training should be at least 40-50% of a weekly conditioning program that is done alongside of sport specific drills or training. With my athletes in Competitive Trampoline I force them to do 30 minute of conditioning a day during their training sessions. I focus on simple compound movements and isometric holds.

The simplest way to remember the importance of hypertrophy training is by thinking about the reason why electronics are not open. Why are they all surrounded by a material? It is because this material takes the impact instead of the fragile circuits. Take this open circuit machine and wrap it in one layer of construction paper. Do you think that will take much load before the circuits get broken? Probably not. Now put a metal sheet around the circuits. Do you think that will protect the electronic or machine more? Probably yes.

Take the time to build up your athlete’s exterior shell. It will do wonders. For an example, where I train, there are a lot of injuries with ankles, knees, low back. I have never gotten injured more than a day in four years. I did gymnastics and continue to work out and condition regularly and I can see how helpful it is when I hear others complain about seemingly small injuries. Why wait till the athlete is injured to put them on a conditioning program to strengthen the already most likely permanently damaged tissue?

I know this seems very basic, but you would be surprised how many trainers completely forget about conditioning their athletes and properly building muscle mass to help prevent injury. I am not saying all injuries will be prevented but I can confidently say that the incidence of injury will decrease enormously.

Thank you

Greg 

BROWN FAT: A new form of fat loss?

Hello everyone I am making this article due to the fact I am researching it for a school project. I will copy and paste the links to the articles that relate to this blog post at the end of the post if you need verification or more explanation.

The basics:

There are two classified types of fat, white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT). WAT is associated with weight gain and energy storage. BAT is associated with thermoregulation meaning when the body is cold the BAT is activated and causes heat to be generated to warm up the body. Weight loss is achieved under this basic equation

Calories in < calories out

As long as the number of calories you take in regularly is less than the calories you burn off your body is losing weight. Researchers are in a constant battle trying to find a way to increase calorie expenditure with the least amount of exercise being performed. The new theory is that BAT can cause a lot of weight loss if it can be activated.

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

This process is very complicated but I will put it into easy to understand concepts. BAT  heats up the body by producing energy in the Electron Transport Chain. This process is one of the ways the body makes energy. (A link to more detail about the ETC is below). This process simply creates energy by transferring electrons across a proton gradient which creates energy for the body. The theorized reason why the BAT uses so much energy but does not produce very much effect is because the ETC allows hydrogen’s to leak back through the proton gradient in the wrong direction. This means the cells are working very hard but still not producing as much of an effect as if there was no leak. The easiest way to look at it is like this:

If you are stacking pennies one by one and your friend comes and takes one penny away every time you stake 3 pennies. You are always taking a step back and you are forced to stack 133 pennies to get 100 pennies stacked because your friend keeps making you have to redo previously done work.

So when the BAT is activated the body is working harder to produce same results so you burn off more calories.  If you want to lose weight studies show that you need to increase the amount of BAT you have and activate it more.

HOW DO I ACTIVATE MY BAT?

Some studies show that if a person is exposed to a cold climate then the BAT is activated at an increased rate compared to a warm environment. There have been studies done on mice that show they lost the equivalent of 9lbs a year due to simply activating the BAT. Some people say to put your feet in cold water before a workout and that will cause the body to activate the BAT. Research also shows that woman have more or are able to activate more BAT then men can. We do not really know why except for some enzyme activity is slightly different. These theories are mostly speculations.

CONCLUSION:

BAT weight Loss is not a proven treatment for obesity; it is simply an idea that is being researched.  If someone can understand how the ETC allows hydrogens to leak back through then it may be applied to WAT. If this can happen then a functional weight loss technique may be created because then people would increase their resting metabolic rate. If someone can figure out how to uncouple (allow hydrogens to leak through) the ETC then obesity may not even exist anymore.

This article is not meant to give insights and facts, it is meant as a thought provoking post. If you are curious about BAT and its weight loss functionality then check out these links below.

Thank youJ

http://www.jlr.org/content/34/7/1057.short - article ( free full txt)

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1890175,00.html – review article

http://www.jbc.org/content/278/35/33370.full article ( free full txt)

Olympic Weight Lifting For Improved Jump Height

On the Weekend of September 17th I took a NCCP course in Weight lifting. If you have read my blog you would know this already. Going to this certification  motivated me to start using weight lifting in my trampoline program. The results are very impressive even if I do say so myself.
In the last 2 weeks I have done weight lifting three times a week, along with deep full range of motion squats and have noticed a huge improvement.
I began a few weeks ago with a compulsory hight max of 19.8 on Ross string bed (a type of trampoline). Yesterday, September 27th I performed a compulsory at 20.53 seconds. The form was not world class to say the least but for height that is a huge improvement. Anyone who does trampoline will understand what I am talking about.  If that was not enough the start of my optional routine has increased in height in equal proportions. I use to compete a 18.5 second optional and train a 18.7 second on a  good day. I recorded my first three skills which are Trif P, Half Trif T, Trif T at 5.9 seconds. If I maintain my height then that routine will end up being just under a 20 seconds optional which is in line with what the Chinese are doing. I am not claiming to be as good or better then the chinese. I am simply trying to press the fact that Olympic weight lifting does help jump height just like so many journal articles state. If you don't believe me try it yourself and record your progress.
Thanks:)

Diabetes: what you need to know

THE BASICS

                Before I explain exactly what Diabetes is, there needs to be a general understanding of certain definitions that deal with the condition of diabetes. The body works simply by ingesting nutrients and either using them for energy right away or storing them for energy for later use. The three main nutrients of the body include carbohydrates (glucose), fats (lipids) and Protein. Glucose is the body’s main energy producing nutrient meaning whenever it can, the body will use glucose as a fuel source before lipids and proteins.  In the body there are many different hormones all with their own different functions.  The main hormone prevalent in Diabetes is Insulin. Insulin causes he body to store glucose in the body cells such as liver cells, fat cells and muscle cells by taking the glucose out of the blood.

WHAT IS DIABETES?

Diabetes is characterised by a body’s inability to produce insulin or for the cells to not be able to respond to the insulin so glucose is not taken out of the blood stream in a normal manner like in a person who does not have Diabetes.  If the glucose keeps building up in the blood then hyperglycemia can occur. Hyperglycemia simply means high blood glucose levels. If this occurs chronically like it may in individuals with diabetes that do not take medication then many complications may occur, some even being life threatening.

DIFFERENT FORMS OF DIABETES

Diabetes comes in two major forms. Type 1 Diabetes is perceived as being more genetic meaning people are thought to have a gene in their DNA that causes insulin to not be produced. It can manifest itself at any time but normally it is developed in children, teens and early adulthood. Type 2 Diabetes is developed over many years of a sedentary lifestyle and bad diet. Simply put, the body gets tiered of transporting glucose into the cells and stops doing it as effectively as it once did. This is usually because the individual has a bad diet with a lot of extra sugars so the body has to work a lot harder on a regular basis to balance out these sugar levels in the body, compared to an active adult who eats healthier. There is one last form of diabetes that is not as well known called Gestational Diabetes. Gestational Diabetes can occur during pregnancy. Even if the woman has no previous history of Diabetes, insulin can malfunction during this time. 

Below are a few complications:

-          Kidney damage

-          Cardiovascular damage

-          Lower extremity damage ( to feet and or legs)

-          Nerve damage

-          Retina damage

-          Erectile Dysfunction

-           Cardiac Arrhythmia

 HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM PRE DIABETIC?

                There are a bunch of symptoms that can indicate if an individual may be diabetic or dangerously close. If you feel any of the below symptoms regularly please call your doctor. Below is a list of common symptoms that occurs in diabetics and pre diabetics.

- excessive thirst

- cuts don't heal well

- excessive hunger

- unnatural weight loss

- fatigue

-frequent urination

- vaginal infections

-erectile dysfunction

-blurry vision

IS THERE A CURE?

                Unfortunately if you are diagnosed with diabetes you cannot reverse it. In type 1 Diabetes you cannot control it because it is mostly genetically predisposed rather than based on lifestyle such as Type 2 Diabetes. In Type 1, the only thing an individual can do is keep their blood glucose levels at or near normal by taking the required medication from their doctor and by checking their blood glucose levels a few times a day. If the individual is taking the required dose, being active and eating healthy then there should not be any complications. If there are any of the above listed complications or anything else that normally does not happen speak to your doctor right away.

                Type 2 Diabetes is preventable because it is brought on by an unhealthy lifestyle. As long as an individual is eating healthy and exercising regularly Type 2 Diabetes should not occur. Even thirty minutes of kicking the soccer ball around with your children will do wonders for your health. It will decrease chance of infection and sickness, decrease chance of cardiovascular diseases, increase quality of life, etc.

In the case of Gestational Diabetes proactive measures are thought to be the best way to prevent the onset of Diabetes in pregnant women. If the woman can maintain an active lifestyle and healthy food choices even during the pregnancy where cravings are natural then the individual will have the greatest chance of not becoming diabetic. If the mother gets G.D the baby is at an increased chance of developing diabetes.  

SUMMARY:

                Diabetes affects over 3 million Canadians and the number is steadily rising. Ifyou want to prevent diabetes, the best way is to live an active and healthy lifestyle. The body usually only develops complications when the individual is doing something the body is not suppose to be doing. If you are diagnosed with Diabetes, do not panic. Lots of Canadians live with diabetes and still become or remain successful. Make sure you take your medication and test your blood glucose levels often. You cannot reverse diabetes but you can prevent it from destroying your life by carefully monitoring it. 

Arm Movement in Trampoline

                Arm work during trampoline is a very controversial topic I find due to the fact that everyone has their own opinion of what is the “right” way. Many coaches say that you should land with your arms straight up over your head with elbows locked for the best pre-flight height and control. Some coaches stress the arm motion only after the trampolinist is in the air nearer to the top of the bounce. Some athletes do not use their arms at all; even though this is the minority it still is considered a technique. Beyond what I have just mentioned there are many differences of opinion on proper arm conduct during trampolining including what the athlete should be doing during the falling phase and the time spent in the bed both on the descending phase and the ascending phase before the feet leave the trampoline.

                My theory is a combination of what a few great coaches known around the world believe along with my own biomechanical expertise, which is not very great, if I do say so myself.  I do not claim to say that what I believe is the correct way or that everyone should aim for it, I am only giving my own opinion based on what I find works for myself.

                If you know me or have trained with me you would know I never use my arms to gain height in my pre bounces. I have been told over and over again to start using my arms but no one really told me why. They just expected me to do it because someone told me to. If you know me then you would understand that does not cut it for me. So I was watching some of the Chinese competitors on my laptop and was watching in slow mo their jumping technique and was trying to figure out how they jumped so high. I noticed they all did the same thing with their arms. When they landed in the bed the arms were down and as they lifted into the air the arms would shoot up by their ears extremely quickly (quicker than the other competitors). This got me thinking and the next day I went to training and spoke to Dave Ross, Team Canada’s head coach, and in my opinion one of the best technical coaches in trampolining.  He explained to me his idea of the arm movement during trampolining. He said that the arms basically give a lot of power to the jumper and without the use of arms you cannot get to your maximum height. It is the same reason why you jump on the ground with your arms; to gain more height by using the centrifugal force produced by the arms. If you stop the arms at the right spot the resultant force will cause the body to get an extra “bump” into the air. This seemed like a good reason to use my arms and it made sense. Maybe because it was said in a different way, or just at the right time and place for me to absorb it, but either way I got it and focused on it during my training that week.  I just worked on my pre bounces which I found got a lot better. I felt more stable in the air and I went higher quicker which is exactly what every trampolinist wants. I read a article that Jack Kelly wrote on arm use during pre bounces. Jack Kelly is another Olympic coach from Great Britain and produced a lot of great athletes, including world champions that jumped a body length higher than the competition.  He talked about trying to create long levers in the arms to increase the centrifugal  force produced that would transfer into vertical tangential force. I did not even notice that when I did my pre bounces that my arms were bent so to produce the most force I wanted to straighten my arms. I tried that and wow what a difference. At first I was off balance and unstable but after another few days I got the hang of it and not jumping with no arms seems very new to me.

Jack Kelly also mentioned that to get the best reaction out of the bed you need to put as much force as you can into the bed. This seems pretty obvious but ask yourself how often when you bounce on a trampoline, do you really focus on driving the bed down into the ground? I know I never really did. I am not sure of the height I thought I gained was purely mental or I actually changed something in my bounce but I did feel like I gained more height. Now I have pre bounces that my other coaches are commenting on saying how much it has improved. As for pre bounces I am now doing well.

                Now it gets tricky however. I was talking to Dave again and he was commenting on the arm work during the actually routine meaning after a skill getting ready to perform another one. Many athletes, including Rosi, Karen and Jason who are all Olympians do not do the right movement with their arms. Let me explain.

                When a trampolinist lands after any trick, every single one I have seen land with their arms perfectly straight up ready for the next skill which I thought, before talking to Dave, made sense. Now I see how it probably is not the best choice for arm action. Dave said that it is best to land with the arms at about horizontal from the body anteriorly give or take a few degrees. If you land like this then you can throw the arms up over your head to gain more height during the pre flight. Like how I explained earlier that the arms create a centrifugal force around the shoulder joint causes the body to increase height that could not be achieved without the arm action. Dave is saying that this arm action needs to occur at every bounce not just the pre bounces. I tried it. It is very tricky to land like that because it feels like you are unbalanced. But for back take offs it does wonders. I felt like it forced me to have to wait so it caused a straighter pre flight with more control instead of “chucking” the skill backwards.  If your coach has ever said to “wait” on the take off, or “don’t rush” then this is a good technique for you because it forces you to do that while giving you more force upwards due to the arm action.

               

After playing with this technique I decided to try and take it a bit further. What if instead of starting with the arms horizontal on the take off, you literally land like a pre bounce with them right by the sides. My theory is that if you start with your arms only moving 90 degrees of flexion how much force could you produce if you had 180 degrees of flexion. More momentum = more force output. So I started doing all my back tricks with my arms fully down by my sides and throw them up as fast as I can into my back skill. I found a difference with in the first day! I barley travelled at all, I maintained height easily and gained height faster than I had ever before. For singles it seems amazing but then I decided to try some doubles. This is where I have ran into trouble. I started with a half half tuck. The simplest back skill I know. I tried many times and could not get enough rotation. I tried about 20 and I just was not getting it. I can do it great from a pre bounce but not where there is a skill before it. I am currently working on it but I think it is a matter of slow arm movement. I think if my arms move faster it will work easier. That is all should power. I am going to work on it and I will write up an article in a month or so if I find a difference. Maybe the “pre bounce pre flight “(PBPF) as I call it only works on singles. More playing around needs to be done on this idea however and when I get more information I will write an article. Thanks. 

Open House At Halton Hills Gymnastics

The new season is starting and today was the annual open house for Halton Hills where new interested gymnasts, trampolinists and tumblers came to try out the facility. Felicia and myself coached some new young athletes and are very impressed with what we saw. All of them have the potential to succeed and are very enthusiastic. Programs officially start on September the 10th and will be continuing on through the year. We are hoping to see a lot of new faces this year as well as all of the old ones who are eager to come back for another excitement-filled year. 

Here is the link to Halton Hills Gymnastics Club, it has all their info. Please check out their website and we hope to see you there.
http://www.haltonhillsgymnastics.com/

Fooling around with the danish team in calgary at elite canada

AERIAL SKIING VIDEO

Muscle Fiber Types During Exercise

Hello Everyone, i was doing some fishing around trying to find a way to creae more power in my muscles when I found this little review article on the basics of fiber types. I have a lot of people ask me about the differences between fiber types and if you can make more fast twitch fibers with training or visa versa. NO YOU CAN NOT!! if you are curious about the fiber types during training please read this article and it will answer a lot of questions. Thank you.

http://www.coachr.org/fiber.htm

CALGARY RESULTS PART 1

Very good first day of competition. Mens senior synchro was up first this morning.  There were teams from Switzerland, South Africa, Denmark and all across Canada. 10 teams competed in total. Me and my partner, Philip Barbaro were ranked 2nd after the prelims compulsory and optional. Somewhat shaky routines but it was good enough to land us top 3 going into finals. The video will be posted  when I get home. Individual prelims tomorrow and finals for synchro. I will keep you all updated:)

IN CALGARY: AIRDRIE

Canda Cup  is here:) I have just arrived in Ardrie, just north of Alberta. Tomorrow is synchro and on friday is individual. Lots of international competitors have arrived and  the competition is heating up. Wish me luck and I will post up results.

PERSONAL TRAINING TRAMPOLINE CLASSES

I have been asked to do personal trampoline classes for a family up in the King area. I am starting August 2nd and will continue through into the fall. If you are interested in any personal training for trampoline for your children or know anyone who may be interested please email me.

Aerial Skiing Videos from Quebec

NCCP WEIGHT LIFTING CERTIFICATION

I have signed up for a technical weight lifting course in September that is the equivalent of a level 1 and 2 technical course. I cant wait :):)
NCCP is offering a super clinic where two or more courses are condensed into a weekend. If I were you i'd check it out. The link is below.

http://www.cvent.com/events/nccp-super-clinic/event-summary-bbc2bea687e941449243d93b3f349dc3.aspx

TRYING PROTEIN SUPPLEMENT AND PROPER DIET FINALY

Hello everyone,
I have finally decided to give protein supplementation a try. I will monitor my results closely to see if there are results that are worth paying for. I will be taking Whey Protein will be the supplement of choice for this experiment. I will inform all of you about the improvements in my training if their are any.

Fat Loading For fat loss

I ran across this article the other day and found it controversial but logical and very interesting. It is about how increasing the right amount of fats in ingested is better then a low carb diet or high protein diet. The  conclusion is that if you ingest certain healthy fats the body increases the amount of enzymes that are used to break down fat so your fat metabolism increases. The second part of the article also speaks about amino acid loading to increase satiety and build muscle. The only question I ask is, what happens long term, when you stop fat loading. The body will adapt back to the original state prior to the fat loading and you are back at square one. The only way it could work would be for it to be a long term lifestyle change.  I think that would get boring. Even with this potential downside it is a very interesting simple article from a NFL trainer which I think is worth reading.

part 1: http://www.elitefts.com/documents/dietary_fat_loading.htm

part 2: http://www.elitefts.com/documents/dietary_fat_loading2.htm

Fluid and Fuel Intake during exercise

Hello Everyone,
    I came across this review article the other day and found it very interesting. It makes a lot of good points about how dehydration affects athletes, when to consume foods on a training day and what types of foods to consume. I would suggest you take a moment and read it. The link is below:

http://www.uni.edu/dolgener/Advanced_Sport_Nutrition/fluid_intake.pdf

New Trampoline Training Regimen

                I have trained Trampoline at a competitive level for 4 years now and have basically done the same basic training program for as long as I can remember.  I am starting to get bored on the same structured training and need to change up my style.

                I like to be a very efficient athlete in terms of my training. If I can train for an hour and get the same results of training for 2 hours I will do it. I find that the people I train with are more laid back and take their time with their training but unfortunately I am too busy to take time that does not need to be taken. So I started racking my brain to think of how to increase performance and decrease time in the gym. I came up with this conclusion.

                I found that when I worked on extremely difficult tricks that no one even competes because they are so hard, that It made my skills that I put into a routine easier. For example I start with a triple front flip in the pike position with a half turn on the last flip. If I train that skill but with four flips it would obviously increase my rotation because my body knows I have to do it or I will land on my head. So naturally and subconsciously I am increasing my rotation on my triple flip half turn out making it easier to do a trick out of it because I have more time to see my landing. Most trampolinists will simple do 10 triple fronts with a half out instead of trying a quad flip. When I tried that repetitive style of training I got bored and found it did not really help as much. After 10 attempts I found that I did improve a bit and the skill was easier but after only 1 or 2 quad flips I felt even faster and steadier on the triples with 20% of the time used in my training.   If I take this principle and apply it to every skill then all my skills will seem very easy  with very little effort and time on my part. I can increase my twist and rotation of all my tricks in  15 minutes. If I just did the same skill but just tried to force myself to do it faster I found it did not work as well and it took a lot more time.

                A routine is obviously not just one trick at a time however. If I am going to take this principle and apply it to a full length routine then what I need to do it try the hardest difficulty I can do every day. Even if the routine is not completed, I still force my body to put a lot more force into the tricks and into the bounce height. I found that I jumped only as high as I felt I had to. If I was doing a simple routine in my eyes, I would naturally jump lower, but If I am doing my 18.2 degree of difficulty (D.D) then I notice I jump way higher because obviously I need to. If I am doing even one or two 17.5 D.D routine and over I still gain a lot of adaptation in terms of jump height , flip and twist power; more so then if I did 7 routines with a 15.8 D.D This saves me time and forces more adaptation then the training that most athletes do.

                This principle is not a new phenomenon; it has been talked about before by a few people including Tim Ferriss, the Author of the book “Four Hour Body” (1). This source is only a sample of the book, for more info visit Tim Ferris’s blog which is posted on the right side of my blog (2). It is called the 80/20 Principle (Pareto Principal). It simply states that 80 percent of desired outcome comes from 20% input.  These numbers are not exact but the idea is that the simple things that you do in life will get you the most results, instead of wasting time on the little things that do not get a lot of results.

                Everyone, not just athletes can use this principle. A business man such as Tim Ferris can use this principle to make their business more functional and easier to handle but still retain profits. When  you do anything in life stop and think, is there an easier way of doing this? Most likely there is but you just need to stop and block out what other people tell you and find what works for you. Sometimes a coach, boss, co worker etc. do not know all the answers or have the most efficient way of progressing.  I found the best way to get through life in any aspect was to figure out what works for you, not to blindly listen to others because it has worked for them. Everyone is different and everyone needs a different structure of progression no matter what it is in life.

1) http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Alternative-to-Dieting.pdf

2) http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/

Aerial Skiing Injuries

                Having trained with the Canadian National Aerial Skiing Team for the last few days I have asked a lot of questions and gotten to understand some of the finer points of the sport. My very first set of questions revolved around the incidences of injury. I was informed by Travis Gerrits (1) that the two major areas of injuries are in the lower back and in the knees.  The lower back issues arise from the constant landings up right in the water causing the force to shoot up the spine as the athlete lands in the water. If the athlete does not land perfectly vertical upon entering the water from a 20- 30 foot drop the impact can severely strain the core muscles causing them to stiffen and ultimately create low back pain. 

                I understand that the Ski Team’s personal Trainer enforces a strict periodization plan with monthly adjustments to help keep the team injury free.  It seems that core strength and control is very crucial in this sport. I believe that a gymnastics based conditioning program would greatly help reduce the incidence of lower back pain. Gymnastics is based on strength, stability and flexibility. In my opinion gymnasts are one of the strongest types of athletes because of their conditioning. If I were to train an Aerial Skier I would focus on a lot of isometric contractions. Nicholas Fontaine (2), one of the Aerial Ski coaches has explained to me that Aerial Skiing is all about staying straight into the jump, during the jump and on the landing. Based on his information I would work a lot of stability and core tightening drills. I would introduce balance drills where the athlete would be forced to maintain a tight core during an external push or a movement that would throw them off balance so that the athlete would learn to control the body and not relax the core muscles. Basic contractile strength is key as well as eccentric strength which is what causes control of a movement.  If an athlete is unable to eccentrically contract their core without completely relaxing then the tendency will be to relax the muscles when the body is in the air to be able to help control the twist. If the body can be held in a constant contracted state during the entire flip the spine will be held solidly into place which will reduce the incidence of bad landings that cause back problems. Even when the athletes have a bad landing the muscles will be strong enough to withstand the impact over and over again.  

                Another issue I was told about by John (another member of team Canada) was knee problems. John told me that he felt his knees hurt a lot because of the fact after every jump the athlete has to walk up the stairs to the top of the jump again. If the athlete is going a day of triple jumps then the athlete is walking up about 8 stories to the top of the jump.  The athlete’s on the team are told to perform a minimum of 15 jumps in the morning and also in the afternoon. 8 stories x 30 jumps a day = 240 stories a day. That is a lot of repetitive stress on the knee.  That cannot be helping injury prevention. With all those stairs climbed, the members of team still are forced to do cardio session for an hour  a few times a week to increase recovery rate and are forced to do  athletic conditioning about 3-4 times a week. That is a lot of stress on the knees.  John also felt that a lot of posterior, anterior and lateral shearing occurs at the knee joint upon entry into the water. Even a perfect landing would cause a lot of impact on the knee joint so imagine what is happening to the knees when entering the water short on the flip or over flipped. I would be willing to bet that is a large reason as well for the knee injuries due to the stress the ACL, PCL, MCL and LCL undertake upon landings.  Upon my experience with aerial skiing I found that my knees hurt getting out of the water. There are platforms under the water that the athlete is suppose to step on sideways and get out of the pool. There are three steps and I found that there was a large current from the water bubbles and it was actually tough to go up the steps with the water dragging my feet down. I felt as if a tough force was pulling my knee joint apart. If someone creates a more efficient way of getting out of the water such as a incline where it is not so hard on the knees then less joint separation would occur. Along with that maybe an escalator or an elevator would help reduce the amount of repetitive stress on the knees. If even the athletes were instructed to only use elevator or escalator once every two jumps that would still give the knees a slight rest but still force them to be strong enough to withstand the impact of the high water landings.

                A large part of injury prevention in any sport is flexibility. If the muscles are not able to move freely and easily then stiffness will occur and can cause damage to the muscles. If an athlete is not flexible enough the muscles  have no give to impacts which is a lot more costly to an athlete then if the muscles can move freely and be able to recoil a bit after an impact. However if the muscles are too flexible then the joints are not strong and a subluxation or complete dislocation can occur. There is a fine balance within sport but the general conclusion is that most athletes are not flexible enough and a lot of tight muscles are the cause of a lot of problems. For an aerial skier the glutes , hamstrings, Iliotibial Band and the quads are very important leg muscles that I have been told by John and Travis are a large cause of injuries in aerial skiing. A lot of the skiers find that those muscles are very tight and get sore easily. I hope for their sake their trainer is enforcing a strict flexibility regimen to keep their muscles working smoothly and easily.

                In any sport injury is a problem; it is just a matter of understanding the mechanics of the sport and applying basic anatomy to understand what areas of strength and flexibility are important.  I hope to be a personal trainer for a national team one day so i have taken it upon myself to look into different sports to get a better understanding of what injuries are prevalent in certain sports.

1) http://www.freestyleski.com/en/index.php/national-team/travis-gerrits/

2) http://www.freestyleski.com/page.php?la=en&pa=team&id=coaches

Supplementation in trampoline

                In trampoline I believe that supplementation may be beneficial to a trampolinist to help them achieve higher time of Flight and to maintain height during the routines. A lot of supplements such as protein and BCAA (branch chain amino acids) are ingested to improve strength and size of the muscles. Trampolinist’s does not want size however so the search is out to figure out what supplementation would help a trampolinist.

                Because I already mentioned them I will start with BCAA’s.  BCAA’s are special types of amino acids that have been shows to help athletic performance (2). This review article shows that BCAA’s may help a trampolinist recover from a workout better then not taking any supplementation.  Trampoline is a very precise sport meaning that if a trampolinist comes in to train with too little recovery from the previous training then that training day will most likely not go very well and even may  increase the rate of injury. Recovery is very important so a supplementation of   BCAA’s two or three times a day may be helpful.

                HMB (Beta-hydroxy-Beta-methylbutyrate) is a supplement that is relatively new and is also said to decrease the amount of muscle being broken down during a workout meaning it would help recovery and help to build more muscle because more workouts could be achieved by the athlete.

                There are a lot of different supplements and in general most of them all do the same thing. The majority of supplements for sports are based on preventing the muscle breakdown or by increasing the amount of protein so that more muscle can be built. There are a ton of other supplements that help in other areas such as increasing testosterone levels or helping to increase lean mass which is not very beneficial to a trampolinist.  Taking testosterone boosters are illegal in a lot of sports including trampoline and the athlete would have to take epitestosterone in the exact amounts to make sure he or she can still pass the doping test (4). This can be very tricky and is never 100% guaranteed to work and the potential consequences are very severe. I don’t believe it is worth messing around with. The supplements that cause an increase in lean body mass is not what a trampolinist is looking for because that is more weight the trampolinist has to move in the air which will make it much harder.

                A trampolinist is simply looking for about 16-20 maximum power bursts. (Ten jumps in a routines and 6-10 pre bounces to get to starting height. Any more bounces than around 8 will cause the trampolinist to be tired. The main energy system used in trampoline is glycolysis. This system provides energy for sports or activities that last about 30 – 50 seconds (5). There are a few vitamins that are shown to help glycolysis work more efficiently. Thiamin is a vitamin in the body that helps to break down glycogen so that it can go into glycolysis.  You can find Thiamin in whole grains, fish, poultry and other foods of the sort (5).  Niacin is also said to help the body use the energy in glucose. Niacin is instrumental in the formation of NAD and NADP which is used in glycolysis (6). Riboflavin is also used to help produce FADH but riboflavin is more focused on transporting electrons into the Electron Transport Chain. The Electron Transport Chain is primarily used in aerobic conditions which do not help a trampolinist. My belief is that riboflavin would not be beneficial. Pyridoxine is also used in glycolysis and functions to make glycogen into smaller chains more readily available for glycolysis(6).

                Creatine is a supplement that gets a lot of attention and for good reason. The body’s way of initiating any activity, be it low intensity or extremely high intensity involves the use of creatine. After the initial start the body switches to an energy system that fits the demand of the activity such as anaerobic or aerobic pathways. In the sport of trampoline the phosphocreatine system would be responsible for the trampolinist gaining initial height before the start of the routine and then the energy system being switched to glycolysis to maintain the height for another 20 seconds. Logically if someone has more creatine in their body the more energy can be produced in that first 10 seconds of a trampoline routine which is crucial to how high the athlete will start. There have been no studies that I have seen done on this theory but by using applied kinesiology it is understandable how a creatine supplementation would be beneficial to a trampolinist.

                There are thousands of different vitamins and supplementations that everyone advertises saying that it can promise an extra 20 lbs of lean body mass in 2 weeks but these are fake and are just over exaggerated to try and make money.  Again there is no right and wrong in the world of supplementation, it’s all about what you personally need. If you have vitamin deficiencies then a supplement of that deficiency will help your body. If you don’t have any deficiencies then you will pee out the extra vitamins. Protein has not been shows to have adverse effects when taken in large quantities so do not be scared to experiment a little bit. The above vitamins and supplements are available in any nutrition store such as GNC but please ask for assistance before buying any supplement and do your own research. Everything I have told you is a generic idea of what the supplement does, but does not go into great detail. Make sure if you have any medical conditions, to talk to a doctor or specialist before trying any type of supplementation no matter where you heard about it.

Thank you

1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20609257 

2) http://www.exrx.net/Nutrition/Supplements/BCAA.html 

3) http://www.trulyhuge.com/hmb_review.htm 

4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14630088

5) http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/601glycolysissum.html

6) http://www.ehow.com/about_5030650_effect-niacin-glucose-levels.html

Nitrogen Balance and Exercise

                There is a lot of debate about protein supplements and their effectiveness for athletes who are looking to gain muscle size, power and strength. Unfortunately a lot of the results that are advertised are exaggerated for profit purposes. In this article I hope to shed some light on the real truths behind protein supplementation.

                Protein being the basic building block of muscle is very important for all athletes who require strong muscles to achieve high levels of athletic performance. The daily required intake (DRI) of protein for an average person is about 0.8-1.0 g/kg of body weight. However for an athletes who is constantly doing a lot more physical activity on a regular basis, the body requires a lot more protein to keep building muscle. How much you ask? Well it really depends on the athlete. A very physically demanding sport such as foot ball or power lifting would obviously require more muscle and therefore more protein compared to ping pong or tennis. One article shows that women cyclists require 1.6 x the amount of the daily required intake of the general population (1). For a football player carbohydrates are more of the focus and they are required to have about 1.2-1.4g/kg of body weight a day (2). So you may be asking yourself, how much do I need? The answer is that there is no right or wrong amount. Everywhere I look I see articles saying protein supplementation does work and other articles saying it does not work. It comes down to your personal body type and preference. A trampolinist for example would most likely not find a large increase in performance with a high protein diet. Maybe a creatine supplement may help a trampolinist, but that is a topic for another day.  

The basic concept of a protein supplement is to keep the nitrogen balance from being in the negative state. During exercise nitrogen balance decreases and is considered to be negative meaning amino acids, which contain nitrogen are being used up to fuel the exercise. Protein ingestion during exercise is hypothetically supposed to help prevent nitrogen balance from decreasing as much as in a protein-free workout. This would allow the muscle to build back up after the work out quicker. Here is a simple analogy that may help to picture what is happening.

                Say you are walking up the stairs but for every three steps you climb you have to go down two steps. This would mean that you are constantly back tracking and only gaining one step of improvement at every cycle. Now imagine if   you only had to go back down one step for every three steps you go up. You would help increase the amount of steps you go up because you are not going back down as much as before.  That is what protein does before and during a workout.

After a workout protein is suppose to help increase the amount of muscle actually being built rather than decreasing the amount that is broken down. So it makes sense that both before and after workout protein ingestion would be beneficial (3).  This article shows that amino acid ingestion does increase performance however this article says it does not (4). The bottom line is this:

If you have money to spend then it is worth a try because there is not any scientific evidence that shows extra protein ingestion has a negative effect on the body. If you are not a millionaire then do not waste money on it because you can get a lot of protein from meats and brown rice and peas etc. Buying supplements will not make you have astronomical adaptations and cause you to increase your bench press from 150 lbs to 300 in a month. The actual gains of extra protein are not what people think.  Some fitness magazines will say that you can build one pound of muscle per week or 20 lbs of muscle in 2 months and this is simply wrong. The muscle gains of protein are much smaller. A beginner body builder would roughly expect to gain maybe around 20 lbs of muscle due to extra protein in a YEAR. As you know, adaptations do not just increase at the same rate, they plateau. A seasoned body builder would be expected to gain about 2-3 lbs of muscle in a year due to extra protein. That is not what the advertisers would ever tell you because obviously that does not sound as impressive (5). I have seen other articles that say the gain in muscle mass is actually even less then that but unfortunately i don’t have it so i won’t reference it.  I believe the above website will re-enforce the point I am trying to make even if the numbers are not 100% correct. With this said, extra protein cannot hurt you (6). There has not been any real scientific evidence that shows that too much protein will hurt you. Even consuming up to 4g/kg/ day has been shows to have no negative side effects.

So in conclusion, protein is not the be all and end all of training and strength gains can be attained the same way with a proper periodization plan and a well balanced diet and maybe a bit of extra protein per day. You cannot overdose on protein based on the scientific evidence that is available currently so give it a try and see if you think it helps you. I would start off by working out for a month and then recording the muscle gains and anthropometric measurements and then try protein for a month and compare the results. I hope that this has helped and shown some of the truths behind the protein supplementation myth.

1)      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20508536

2)      http://www.livestrong.com/article/479572-recommended-nutritional-intake-for-a-football-player/

3)      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed 

4)      http://www.swimforums.net/thread-235.html

5)      http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html

6)      http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/randy11.htm

TSN Amateur Sport Highlight Contest Submission

I have successfully submitted my video of the Hurricane  (Triple Backflip with five twists)  to  the advil TSN contest. Now I am waiting to see if i make it as a finalist and maybe even the grand prize of  $25,000. Wish me luck. The link is below and if you link it please click on the thumbs up.

Thank you

http://advil.tsn.ca/en/gallery.aspx

Trying Aerial Skiing For The First Time

I have gone to Quebec to try aerial skiing with the Canadian National Team. I am staying for 4 days and am going on the ramps into the water. This sport may be a potential transition sport after trampoline. I will be posting videos of my jump attempts.  Below is a link to their facebook with more info about the team.

http://www.facebook.com/CanadianAerials

Common Issues in the Workout Gym

Hello Everyone,

I have decided to put up a little article about some of the mistakes I see and hear about in a workout gym.  There are a lot of different myths about the quickest way to achieve results, what food to eat, when to work out, etc. In the follow article I will help clarify some of these issues I see every day.

1)      THE QUICKEST WAY TO RESULTS IS EFFORT AND TIME: I always hear these commercials and personal trainers who claim to have a fool-proof way to get abs in 10 days or lose 10 lbs of fat in a week with some ridiculous diet or to gain 10 lbs of muscle in a month with some supplement.  99.9% of these are wrong and are based on theoretical ideas and physiology, but is not practical. The only true way to gain muscle is to train hard all the time with a proper periodization plan. The only way to lose 10 lbs is by lessening the amount of calories in and increasing calorie expenditure. All the diets such as ketogenic Diets and Low fat diets and Atkins temporarily make you lose weight but its not permanent because they don’t hit the root of the problem. Weight loss does not have anything to do with exercise or nutrition. It is a psychological problem. Someone who is overweight needs to teach themselves to exercise more and eat less and put hard work into the weight loss program. No one that got into the Olympics (excluding those who took performance enhancing drugs) got there by taking the easy route. If you can force yourself to work out every other day and say no to the cheese burgers, eventually weight loss becomes a habit and you don’t need to try and loss weight your body naturally adjusts to your new lifestyle. This can’t happen with a quick diet because the body knows it’s not permanent. If you are looking for hypertrophy, weight loss or any other fitness based goal then DO NOT fall for the quick schemes. Put in hard work and the results will last you a life time.

2)      DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOUR PERSONAL TRAINER SAYS: Yes, your personal trainer is a professional is some regards but  being a personal trainer I know all too well just how easy it is to be one. To get a Canfit Pro certification is one of the easiest certifications to get. Anyone, after a few weeks of studying can pass the test. Along with that, remember, your trainer is being paid on commission and sometimes sells fitness equipments on the side etc. It is a job for them and they need to make money. Some trainers (not all) will lie and bend the truth to make the client have more trust in them or think that their personal trainer is better than everyone else. I have worked at commercial clubs (not saying what ones due to privacy issues) but I can say that 90% of them are not all they are cracked up to be.  A lot of them do not even have any real education, not even a diploma in fitness. A lot of the trainers were good a particular sport and decided that that’s all they knew how to do so they took their Canfit pro and wahhlaaa Super expert at everything fitness related is born.  I know I just bashed personal trainers but with all that said I have met some that are very good and very knowledgeable. The trainers I like tend to be the ones that own a smaller club with fewer members. I find that the bigger companies just hire anyone because they have so many people to take care of it does not matter what your qualifications are. The smaller clubs tend to be pickier due to the fact that there are less people so there is not as much of a demand for personal training so the manager can take more time in finding appropriate trainers.

3)      ALWAYS USE FULL RANGE OF MOTION (ROM): It makes me physically mad when I see people doing chin ups, squats, crunches etc and only move about 5cm. What good is that going to do you? Yes, that 5% of your muscle is strong but what about the other 95% of the muscle that is never stimulated like that 5%. ALWAYS USE FULL R.O.M. For example a chin up is from a hanging fully flexed should joint (meaning arms straight) to going up and putting the chin over the bar. If you jump up and go from a 90 degree bend in the arm to the chin  and back to 90 degree bend you are only doing half the exercise.  Same with squats; the end R.O.M is in a seated position with knees bent at 90 degrees. I always see some stupid bobble up and down which is just a huge waste of time. No matter what exercise, go as far as your body will allow you. If that means you have to reduce the weight then that’s normal and after a few weeks of training you will be able to do the heavier weight but with full R.O.M which is obviously what you want.

4)      ALWAYS CHANGE UP YOUR WORKOUT:  If you are one of those people who come in and do the exact same workout every time you go to the gym then you need to change up your program every 2-3 weeks. The body only gets stronger when it is forced to do something that it does not normally do. After a few weeks of the exact same thing the body shuts off and goes into sleep mode.  It is like anyone who falls asleep during a meeting because the boss has been talking about the same thing for the last hour and has not changed the subject. You get bored and stop caring. The body is the same way so keep your workouts interesting and different. I would not change the workout daily due to the fact that the body does need some repetition to get the results but after a few weeks the results will not continue and eventually you will plateau meaning you have no improvements in muscle size or strength. I also could not do the same workout every day because I would get so bored I wouldn’t even feel like putting in any effort. Always change up the program when you feel like it’s getting boring to keep your body guessing.

5)      GIVE YOUR SELF GOALs:  You do not want to do reps and sets for the sake of reps and sets. You need to have a purpose. This purpose CANNOT be to lose weight by next year or be able to do a one arm chin up in 3 months. These long term goals are good but you need to have smaller daily goals that you set for yourself. An example would be to do 12 reps of 150lbs squat instead of just doing 11 that you did the day before. Very simple almost easy goals are going to help you a lot more than one distant goal. If everyday your goal is small but achievable such as adding even only 2.5lbs to an exercise or add one rep or do an exercise in a different position, then you will see a lot more results. Do not just do the exercise till fatigue; write down exactly what you did and what you want to accomplish next time.

6)      TAKE DAYS OFF: The body does not adapt if it is under constant stress. If you work out 3 times a day for a month straight you will not get any results and you will actually detrain yourself.  The body only gets stronger when you rest. So take at least 2 days off a week making sure you even out your training days.  Don’t train five times a week all in a row with two days off. Train two days, take a day off, train three days and take a day off. Always spread out rests and workouts if you can.  

7)      DO NOT OVER ESTIMATE YOURSELF: If you are new to working out or are trying a brand new exercise always start small and build up. Don’t jump to the hardest weight because you will get hurt. If you have not already done a certain weight or number of reps then play it safe and set a smaller standard and blow past it. Don’t try to lift that 200lbs bar that you lifted 20 years ago when you were on the high school football team. Start with the bar itself, you may be surprised how much heavier it seems after20 years of baconators at Wendy’s. Simply put; better safe than sorry.

8)      YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE TOO FOCUSED ON DIET: If you are the average person just working out for fun, stress relief and to get into better shape than do not go crazy on calorie counting and reading food labels. IT DOES NOT MATTER! As long as you are eating a balanced diet from all the food groups and not eating junk food in between every meal then you are doing the best thing for yourself in terms of diet. It’s more common sense than anything. If you would classify it as junk food then don’t have as much. If it’s an apple, orange or some type of fruit or vegetable have as much as you want.  I always hear people say things like “ oh well this has anti oxidants so I should have more of that.” or “ I hear riboflavin is good for you so I’m going to buy food with extra riboflavin in it.”  The funny thing is if I ask the majority of people what riboflavin does in the body or what an antioxidant is they don’t know. Why are you so quick to put things in your body if you have no idea what it does? The simple fact is that all vitamins (except for D, which comes from the sun) can be ingested in adequate amounts with a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables, grains and dairy. If you are one of those people who are constantly taking pills and vitamins even though you do not have any medical deficiencies then you are peeing most of them out anyways. Eat a balanced diet and forget about the commercials that say you should buy certain food because it has some extract of a foreign  plant because it won’t help you much , if at all.  

 These are just a few of the bigger issues I see and hear about. There are probably hundreds more but that would take too long to go through all of them. If you see someone doing some of the above things do not  go and tell these people what they are doing is wrong. Simply put it in the back of your head so that when you workout you don’t make the same mistakes.  I hope this article has helped and if you have any questions feel free to email me with any questions or comments.  THANKS

Halton Hills Gymnastics Club New Programs in the Fall

I have been working at Halton Hills Gymnastics Club run by Bill Harrison for the last year. I have been running his Interclub Competitive Trampoline program. We had three children competing and 3 children that were too young and will compete next year. They did amazing for their first year and we hope to see good things from them in the years to come.

Because of the success this single program had the club and myself have decided to try and start other competitive programs. In the fall we plan to start a men's and women's Interclub Tumbling program as well as starting the FIRST EVER men's Interclub Artistic Gymnastics program. The women have gotten a lot of publicity and now its time for the men to step up and show what they can do. 

Along with these two new competitive programs I will be personally running an adult open gym program twice a week where men and women of all ages can try gymnastics at their own pace and learn as much or as little as they like. I will also be running an adult boot camp style fitness class within the gym. The advantage to this, compared to a regular step class is that a step class does not have gymnastics events and equipment to use. This allows for a very diverse and modified boot camp with something new every day. 

All these programs are still being fine-tuned and once more information comes out I will notify everyone. Hope to see you in the Fall :)

http://www.haltonhillsgymnastics.com/

TSN Amateur Sport Highlight Contest Submission

Hey everyone I have finally submitted my video for the TSN competition. It is a competition for non-professional athletes where you send in your best highlight of your sport. Based on the submissions I see, I have a very good chance of winning. Here is the link to the website:

http://advil.tsn.ca/en/gallery.aspx

Training For Canada Cup

I am training for Canada Cup at the end of July in Airdrie Alberta. I am planning on competing a 16.2 degree of difficulty. If I do well at Canada Cup I will qualify for more World Cups at the end of the summer and in the fall. I am working hard to go to worlds this year and I believe if I can make this routine I will have a good chance being ranked top 3 in Canada.

Greg Roe trampoline compilation video 1

Vuly Trampoline Contest Video - Triple Flip 5 Twists