Why Workout Programs Fail (PRO STRENGTH COACHES REVEAL!)

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What’s up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX. COM. A little late on the video this week and I apologize, but you can see I’m not in my normal surroundings here. I am in a hotel out here in San Diego.

The MLB, Major League Baseball, Winter Meetings. ATHLEANX, we’ve got a great opportunity this year to present our RX Supplement line up to the Strength Coaches in Major League Baseball as they are now NSF certified for sport which is a major distinction. I think that it talks about the quality of what we do and how dedicated we are to the science behind what we do. And we’re out here just talking to the guys about it. But, in the meantime, every time I get a chance and get together with this guy right here.

This is Rick Slate. He is the Director of Strength and Conditioning for the Atlanta Braves. He was my mentor during my time with the New York Mets. For 3 seasons this guy and I were basically attached at the hip, and we just always love getting together and talking about strength and conditioning. I mean, it’s what we do.

It’s what we love. It’s what we breathe. So I figured I would be a little bit late on the video, but be able to make up for that by bringing this guy in for just a quick talk. We’ll go over a few topics. I think the one thing I wanted to hit on the most is the one thing that you and I have been talking about more than anything in these last 2 days and that is, there is no replacing Rest and Recovery when it comes to helping guys, especially natural, drug-free guys, get bigger, get stronger, perform better, right.

So, that being said, what is it that, and Rick, like I said, is still now working with every level of the Atlanta Braves, lots of athletes, guys that are performing at their top. What is it about Rest and Recovery? I tell these guys all the time, ‘You can either train hard or you can train long, but you can’t do both. ’ Some guys still debate that. What is it that you find?

Rick: I think the number 1 thing we’re starting to see now in this industry the last almost 3 years coming here in Winter Meetings, is the common theme. You know, we had outside professionals come in and speak to us, and the common theme has been about food, supplementation, and training, and managing that process of overtraining and managing the fatigue. Plan 162 intuitively, we’ve experienced as support staff, and you can understand how grinding it is, so to see what the players go through. And this is a very high volume sport. Thousands and thousands of point repetition and we have a ‘more is better’ mentality.

So, my job coming into the Braves is to create a vertical model not only in the training component, but the Rest and Recovery, food, supplementation component. And what I wanted to do is seek out the best supplements possible. Number 1 goal, NSF. If it’s not NSF certified, we can’t have it within our walls. And then come up with training protocols that are safe, sound, and productive that are Baseball-first approach to optimize the opportunities that our young athletes have, and get them the best possible supplements to promote the recovery process.

And joint mechanics is something that we’re starting to really get an understanding about the value of joint integrity, range of motion, quality workouts. It’s not about quantity on our side of it. Jeff: I mean, the whole thing about joint mechanics and movement, that was the, that was the essence of my presentation here today was about the fact that when you have pain, and pain will come from inflammation, and inflammation will come from overtraining, you will alter your mechanics of your movements. And I don’t care if it’s an athletic movement or if it’s a simple exercise in the weight room. You can to alter your biomechanics.

When you do that, you shift loads in 2 different ways. 1, you shift them away from the muscles that are supposed to be doing the exercise or the activity in the first place, or you become inefficient in that activity and you underdevelop the muscles that you’re trying to target in the first place. The second thing you do is you shift those loads to joints that are usually ill-equipped to handle them. so, perfect example, I always say like in a squat, if you have a bad knee,and you try to squat, you shift that load away from the quads because you just can’t handle it. You lack the strength in your quads, you shift it to your low back.

Your low back takes on too much force that it cannot handle, the low back breaks down, then guess what? We perpetuate that cycle over and over again. The ‘more is better’ you said, you mentioned that in your response. I have a lot of guys watching that, especially that haven’t trained for all that long, um, the ones that haven’t trained for all that long that think the way I did. I know I did as a younger guy, that more is better.

I mean, it was so ridiculous. Where I used to literally do sets throughout the day before I went out thinking that if I can pump up a couple sets, thinking ultimately that was going to be a good thing. I was just completely pounding myself to the ground, but some guys, I mean, that more is better mentality has to change. Rick: Yeah. And that’s what we’re trying to do here with the player.

Look, understand what we’re trying to do is create routines to help their careers and to lengthen their careers, and for them to receive all the benefits of that long career. Now, how do we do? Through food and supplementation, sleep management, hydration, getting proper supplementations at the proper time and understanding that joint integrity as you talked about, through weight training, when you make that compromise to move away from pain? That same thing happens when you start altering your delivery, or altering your swing. Jeff: oh yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. Rick: You’re going down a very vicious cycle. Jeff: You also learn bad movement patterns and habits too. Rick: No question.

No question. Jeff: So that there’s no turning back once you go down that path. Rick: Then you go into a hitting slump, or then all of a sudden, you’re not locating your fastball, or your changeout, or commanding your pitches as you should be because you’re moving away from joint pain. And in the big scheme of things, you start looking at the length of careers and the financial components of these careers, joint integrity is going to be a real important component of how we can lengthen and get a guy back to playing effectively when he’s 34, 35, 36, 37. Jeff: Well, I say too, you know, that it’s not just, you know people focus on, if you are focusing on recovering in the first place, that’s a great thing because we know how important it is.

But people ignore the joint component of that. I say, ‘Guys, look, the muscles that connect to the bones via the tendons, they cross the joint. ’ So the joint is just as important as muscle recovery. It’s all one complete picture as we always talk about here at ATHLEANX. You’ve got to look at the whole.

So, a good question would be because this is a common question, what is the value of supplementation? So, I’ll tell you my quick answer that I always tell these guys. Supplementation is just that, it’s supplementation. You better be supplementing efficient, high-intensity training with a good diet. You cannot, Guys.

Supplementation is supplementation. However, there are things that you will supplement with, especially some of the things that we’ve discussed here in the Winter meetings that are unattainable through your own nutrition at least in the dosages that has been proven to be effective for the purpose of training, but what is your stance? Rick: Look, the most important thing that I’ve learned, I want to train and be efficient for as long as I possibly can and from an athletic standpoint, it doesn’t matter which sport you play. Jeff: Even these guys that aren’t even playing sports