There is no substitute for hard work.

To kick off 2013, I am not going to go too scientific or controversial. Today, I am going to highlight a topic which, I feel, has been overlooked in any training blog or journal article that I've read.  I am not sure why this is, as it is something I find myself telling people every day – it is an essential aspect of training. I’m talking about hard work, having a go, ’don’t be so soft’, ‘harden the f@ck up’, and ‘swallowing some cement pills’.

T-shirt slogans aside, I see a lot of people who say they work hard, by ‘work hard’ they are often referring to the fact that they arrive early and stay late. I’m not here to point out that if they were just more efficient and put in more hard yards earlier, these extra hours could be avoided. This article is for the people who constantly, CONSTANTLY avoid the discomfort zone. I’m talking ladies, kids, men, elderly and anyone with a heartbeat.  I fear that we are turning into a generation of SOFT C_CKS. Perhaps this is not their fault as we are constantly bombarded with messages of ‘easy fixes’ and ‘money-back-guarantees’.  

Let me tell you about the example that has my fingers hot on the keys.  Recently I saw Channel 7’s Sunrise an interview with an ‘expert’ on health, none other than ex-professional swimmer, Stephanie Rice.  She claimed that kids should eat up to 4 bananas a day to give them energy between meals. If you haven’t already figured it out, this is outrageous.  Granted, bananas are natural, but they are also full of natural sugar (I call them nature’s Mars Bar). So if children are having that many bananas and remain sedentary, the implications are sizable. During her prime, Steph Rice would swim up to 15km a week and could  get away with that kind of volume of sugar. Still not recommended in my book, but that’s another blog.  So how are we supposed to get the right messages across when major media keeps throwing this stuff at you. Same goes for supplements – I’m sorry, but no supplement is going to make you lose 2 dress sizes.  My philosophy has always been supplements are the icing on the cake; you must put the work in first before even look at supplementation.

Nothing in this life comes easy, for you to get gains you must first get uncomfortable. This means you have to train to the point where you get a sick feeling in your belly. Intensity has to be high in order to achieve transformation.  If you’re getting nowhere with your results then you are not aggressive enough in your approach. NIKE have the best motto: “Just do it”. No excuses, no whining just have a red hot go. It’s not rocket science; put the work in, gain the discipline and things will happen.

Now is a time to get honest with yourself.  Are you one of those guys (or girls) who goes to the gym, talks for 20mins, makes faces when you lift weights, leave after 30mins (only having really done 10mins of work) and pretended that you actually had a go?

Or my favourite, when the going gets tough do you make up an injury to avoid the yucky part of the session? Majority of people I see don’t know what a real injury is. If you are stiff and a bit sore this is normal when you work hard. Nobody has perfect symmetry in their body. We all have a strength deficit or a niggle here and there. My advice? Neck up and deal with it.  If you trigger point, work on your flexibility (not just stretching) functional range of motion exercises, massage, you might smooth some of these issues out.

If you have a sharp pain as a result of a ‘real’ injury, by all means stop, evaluate and assess according to how much pain you’re in and if it really is smart to go on. 

So where do we go from here?

Getting ‘uncomfortable’ is hard for anyone, including those who get there frequently. No one really wants to get there, no one really wants to feel sick, be unable to walk or whatever it is that hurts as a result of pushing yourself.   People who make themselves get there more often than not have slowly trained themselves to be familiar with the pain so that when it comes on, they don’t fear it. Instead, they try and beat it. 

How do I ‘get’ there?

Here are some ways that you can build up the intensity of your exercises:

1. In your current gym program there should be at least one part of the program that gives you anxiety, if there isn’t then your program is too easy. If there is one, do not avoid it, realise that this is probably the exercise that gives you the best adaptations. By doing this one thing weekly, you are slowly educating yourself to embrace this uncomfortable zone I am talking about. 
2. The ‘uncomfortable’ zone is relative to each fitness level; it would be false to think that because your trainer can do 50 hill sprints that you have to as well in order to reach the same level intensity. Getting up the hill just once may be your level of maximum intensity, but each week or each time you arrive you must better that level and push more and more. 
3. Once you have done that, you are teaching yourself to embrace the difficulty that exercise has to offer and the more you get there, the less fear of the unknown will be evident.
4. Never compare yourself to when you started as that always allows you to be comfortable in what you have achieved already. Instead, compare to your last session as that is a better reflection of your current fitness level, and if you are performing worse than the last time you performed the regime then you may not be having a hard enough go. You should time or record your sessions as that gives you targets to constantly beat and, without realising it, you are putting yourself in those zones just to beat previous times/scores. 

For me, this is why exercise is so integral, ask yourself: “what is your character like when you are in the trenches?”. This is where you learn about you and what you are like when SH*T GETS REAL. If you run away and choose to avoid the discomfort, I believe that transcends in to what you do in everyday life. If you stick at it and do not let discomfort beat you, then you will rise in real life as everything after that seems a bloody lot easier.

Intensity is so important, not only in training but attitude mostly, where are you on this spectrum? Can you be better? But don’t be scared as I say sometimes Neck up you parrot, and rip in....

To anybody who has kids who play sport, you need to read this. If you were a kid who played sport, you should read it too… If your kids don’t play sport they should. Get involved!

Background

It has been some time since I’ve posted and there are a couple of reasons for this.  As some of you know, I have been concluding my final exams and prac in order to obtain my master’s degree in sports science (strength & conditioning). The topic of this article is one that I have had on the back burner in my mind for a year or so now.  As I’ve reached the end of my studies I feel this is an issue that I can dedicate some decent time to, in order to ensure the information and presentation provides quality.

Key take out if you can’t be bothered reading to the end…

Strength and Conditioning for children is a topic that lies very close to my heart as it is something I intend on dedicating the rest of my professional career to. The intention of this article is to communicate that strength and power activities for children have an incredibly advantageous effect on their development, so long as the person implementing it has sufficient experience and knowledge on how to prescribe and periodise for maximum results with minimum risk.  

How do I know this?

As a professional athlete, I experienced four season-ending injuries, which, undoubtedly led to the demise of my professional football (soccer) career.  Knowing what I now know, I can confidently say that had I performed the correct strength and power training as kid; I may still be playing today.  That is a fairly bold statement, however drawing upon research from various well-respected people in this field; it becomes very hard to see it any other way.  I will reference the content I am talking about throughout the article, and I welcome my readers to push past this, and read the research I present, as they are quality, peer reviewed papers (if you read my last blog you will understand how important independently review articles are, especially in this area).

A (brief) history.

Coaches who encourage children to participate in various forms of resistance training have met controversy throughout the short history of investigation into the practice.  I would like to highlight the positives associated with this particular area of training. Research indicates that the positives far outweigh the negatives associated with strength training (for kids) and is going even further toward suggesting that it is essential in achieving high levels of motor development, skeletal strength, co-ordination, connective tissue strength, behavioural benefits and reduction in negative anthropometric values.

Resistance training for non-athletes is relatively new in regards to implementation and research. Furthermore, much conjecture shadows resistance training for unambiguous populations – like children. This type of training has been a taboo issue for children due to a variety of generalised and subjective opinions that associate resistance training with a variety of effects including the stunting of growth, fractures, growth abnormalities, higher risk of injuries and lack of adaptations due to a lack of hormone production. Many studies have been presented illustrating the benefits that resistance training has on athletic performance however, there is now research on that proves the transfer to non-athletic populations is proving beneficial.

Following this, specific populations such as children and the elderly are now the focus of a lot of research in order to explore the feasibility that this specific type of training has significant advantages for these alternative, non-athletic populations.

What about aerobic training?

Due to an absence of conjecture surrounding the benefits of aerobic training in children as compared with resistance and plyometric training, aerobic training is often prescribed to address the adverse body compositions of modern children (Baranowski, Mendlein et al. 2000). While aerobic training is affiliated with reduction in fat, more and more evidence is pointing towards the execution of resistance-based exercises in children could be the answer to address the social issue of ‘overweight kids’.

Addressing a social issue.

There is acceptance amongst research and national bodies (Pediatrics 2001); (Medicine. 2006.); (Faigenbaurn, Outerbridge et al. 1996); (Golan 1998) (Smith 1993) along with many review articles: (Avery D. Faigenbaum. Lyle J 2000) (Falk 2003) suggesting that resistance training has benefits for pre-adolescent children. In their articles, weight training indicated improvements in:

• Strength

• muscular endurance

• maintenance of lean fat-free mass

• improved capacity in sports performance (motor skills)

• increased bone density

• decreased injuries

• better attitude and possible increased connective tissue strength

Together, these attributes provide the child a substantial advantage in maintaining a healthy weight whilst providing a great rehabilitation platform for various conditions like cystic fibrosis and osteopenia (David G. Behm 2008).

To date, no research has identified significant increases in muscle mass as a response to resistance training in children (so kids looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of the question).

Implementation

In saying this, and before you go joining your kids up to the local gym, much emphasis must be put on proper technique and detailed periodisation (planning and progression). Confounding variables like duration and type of resistance protocols has to be assessed when it comes to children in order to achieve optimal outcomes (David G. Behm 2008). Resistance training modules must take in to account age, gender, health status, physical fitness and chid maturation for successful adaptations to occur. 

The importance of proper periodisation and technique correction whilst performing resistance training (in particular Olympic lifting and plyometric exercises) is well documented through the research. It illustrates that these activities, even though they are incredibly complex in nature, provide reduced injury incidence when compared to other popular children’s sports.  Under proper instruction, the risk of injury whilst performing an Olympic lift during training or competition is relatively low (Hamill 1994; Pierce K 1999; Byrd R 2003). For example, (Hamill 1994) evaluated injury rates in adolescents who participated in a variety of sports and concluded that weightlifting was up to six times less likely to injure a child in comparison to other sports, including soccer and rugby. In support of these findings, Byrd et al. and Pierce et al. evaluated the incidence of injury in young lifters and concluded that competitive weightlifting is safer than generally thought, provided that age appropriate training guidelines are followed and competent coaching is available (Chu. D 2006). 

The risk associated with plyometric (explosive training jumping, bounding etc) training also coincides with many myths, in which some observers still suggest high growth plate fractures are seen in children participating in plyometric activities comparative to other forms of training. However, recent research suggests this to be untrue and that children are actually found to have a lower risk of growth plate fractures due to increased strength in childhood as opposed to later in adolescence (Chu. D 2006). Often, children perform common playground activities every day, including jumping, hopping and throwing, which provide a base in plyometric activities, suggesting that plyometrics isn’t foreign to children just because they lack physical development. In summary, it is pivotal in their neural development and is safe if performed in conjunction with a well-rounded physical program (Maffulli 1992).

These explosive types of exercise are now fundamental in increasing fitness and sports performance in children (Chu. D 2006). If these types of training are incorporated in a well designed program, it will help reduce the risk of injury and also provide a foundation for significant gains in muscular power and strength in adulthood.

Conclusion

I know this is a lot of science jargon however what I am trying to communicate is that if your children intend on playing sport, or even if they intend of living a long, injury-free life, do not be hesitant to put your kids in a resistance program. The evidence strongly suggests that strength and power activities in children have an incredibly advantageous effect on their development. The take home message is: “Make sure the person implementing it has sufficient experience and knowledge on how to prescribe and periodise for maximum results with minimum risk.”

What's next?
Intent on delivering successful physical outcomes by providing a performance program that focuses on improving self-esteem, self-confidence, independence and motivation, in the coming months I intend on launching 'Strong Kids'.  I can't say too much more than that now, but watch this space...

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